Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Indian founder of Transcendental Meditation whose teachings captured world attention after he became spiritual guru to the Beatles, has died in the Netherlands. He is thought to have been 91.

The Maharishi died at home in his sleep at about 7 p.m. yesterday local time. John Hagelin, a U.S.-based spokesman, said the cause of death was ``natural causes.'' The guru lived in a hermitage in Vlodrop, the Netherlands, since the 1990s and made it his international headquarters.

The Maharishi was one of the first to bring Eastern religious teachings to Western popular culture. The ``giggling guru'' -- so named for his tendency to laugh in television interviews -- appeared on the cover of Time magazine in October 1975, when almost 1 million people around the world practiced TM twice daily, including an estimated 600,000 in the U.S.

``He brought meditation to the West, out of mysticism, into where it is mainstream and widely researched,'' Hagelin said. ``He created a momentum dedicated toward peace that was so irreversible that he retired three weeks ago because he felt his work was done.''

Though the Maharishi's popularity waned in the 1980s, his brand of meditation continued to attract devoted celebrity practitioners, including actor Clint Eastwood, filmmaker David Lynch, radio host Howard Stern, Beach Boys singer Mike Love, songwriter Donovan, magician Doug Henning, singer Sheryl Crow and British musician Sting.

Rishikesh Trip

It was the Beatles who lifted the Maharishi to prominence when guitarist George Harrison persuaded the band to visit the meditation master in Rishikesh, India, in 1968.

Based on unfounded rumors that the Maharishi had made advances on women in the entourage, John Lennon broke with the guru. He then wrote the song ``Sexy Sadie,'' with the lyrics ``Sexy Sadie, what have you done? You made a fool of everyone,'' allegedly directed at the Maharishi.

``The celebrity tag he gained by association with the Beatles will always serve to attract attention to the Maharishi and his teachings,'' Paul Mason, a Maharishi biographer, said in an e-mailed interview in 2007. ``He certainly succeeded at turning the world's attention to things Indian.''

Beatles Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and Harrison continued their association with the guru, said Bob Roth, TM director of communications in the U.S.

McCartney Visit

``Paul recently visited the Maharishi in Holland, and George left a large sum of money in his will for scholarships for the Maharishi's university,'' Roth said in an e-mailed statement in November 2007. ``Only John Lennon had a misunderstanding, which was later corrected and he continued to meditate.'' Lennon was assassinated in 1980, and Harrison died in 2001.

Mahesh Prasad Varma is thought to have been born on Jan. 12, 1917, in a village in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, the third of four children. He earned a degree in physics and mathematics from Allahabad University.

In 1939, he became a disciple of Swami Brahmananda Sarawati, who was based in the Indian Himalayas, and decided to be a monk.

`The first sight of his personality was enough to make me surrender at his feet,'' the Maharishi wrote in his 1986 book ``Thirty Years Around the World: The Dawn of the Age of Enlightenment.''

The swami, also known as Guru Dev, revived a lost meditation technique that originated in the Vedas, the oldest Hindu writings. According to one legend recounted in Time magazine, Guru Dev gave the Maharishi the mission of finding a technique that would enable the masses to meditate.

Change of Name

After the death of his mentor in 1953, the Maharishi spent more than 18 months alone in a Himalayan cave. In 1955, he traveled to the southern Indian state of Kerala, where he was asked to deliver a series of public talks on spirituality and a new form of meditation. He changed his name to Maharishi, meaning Great Seer in Sanskrit.

Two years later, in a public address, he announced his Spiritual Regeneration Movement, a meditation technique, in the southern Indian city of Chennai. The Maharishi then started the first of several world tours, traveling to Southeast Asia and to the U.S. in 1958.

``I had one thing in mind -- that I know something which is useful to every man,'' he wrote in his book. ``Therefore, no matter where I am, people will find in me the commodity that they want.''

Twice a Day

His Spiritual Regeneration Movement was renamed as Transcendental Meditation in 1959 in the U.S. The program is a seven-step course involving public lectures, private instruction and group seminars. Meditation requires practitioners to sit still for 20 minutes each morning and evening and silently repeat their secretly assigned Sanskrit word known as a mantra.

An author of more than 15 books, the Maharishi held a series of meetings in the U.S., Europe, Africa and India on his meditation techniques to attract followers. By the mid 1970s, he operated 370 TM centers in the U.S. with some 6,000 teachers.

With the promise of offering ``perfect, invincible management,'' he opened the Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, in 1995. The school was previously known as Maharishi International University. The Maharishi moved the school there from Santa Barbara, California, in 1974.

He also headed a Global Consulting Group to advise companies on improving corporate health and boosting profit.

`Float in Happiness'

``My University of Management will create managers who will float in happiness, success and fulfillment,'' he wrote in a 347-page handbook released at the opening his university. Transcendental Meditation, he claimed, could combat inflation and unemployment. The first management program began in India and offered bachelor degrees and doctorates.

In 2007, the Maharishi's Global Financial Capital of New York opened a headquarters close to the New York Stock Exchange to create funding support for the group's programs, including building 3,000 global ``peace palaces'' to teach TM and the art of ``yogic flying.''

``It appears the Maharishi (the self-styled guru) convinced himself (and many others too) that through transcendental method of meditation it is possible to gain instant enlightenment and that enlightened world was only just around the corner,'' biographer Mason said.

Although the technique seems to work effectively as a ``non-medicinal tranquilizer,'' enlightenment is dependent on more than just Transcendental Meditation, Mason said.

TM Funding

``This lack of apparent success has not deterred the Maharishi from coming up with an endless flow of other ideas to fix the world, all of which come with a high price-tag,'' he said. ``Over the years he has appeared to grow ever more cranky, perhaps even more senile.''

Organizations such as the David Lynch Foundation, which raised $5 million, help fund the programs of the Maharishi, spokesman Ken Chawkin said in an e-mailed statement. A course in Transcendental Meditation costs 2,000 euros ($2,928).

``His legacy will continue to have a positive influence for generations to come as he continues to transform life as it is known today with its wars, conflicts, stress and strife to a Vedic civilization of perpetual peace,'' Chawkin said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jay Shankar in Bangalore, India, at Jshankar1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 5, 2008 22:27 EST