Maharishi cremated at funeral

ALLAHABAD, India -- Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the iconic guru who sought to blend Eastern spirituality and Western science to harness the mind's power and heal the world, was cremated Monday in a tumultuous ceremony at one of Hinduism's holiest sites.

Befitting the man who spent more than five decades establishing a meditation empire in the West with dozens of celebrity followers, the funeral was a mix of ancient Vedic tradition, modern Indian chaos and a touch of Hollywood-style theatrics.

It was anything but contemplative and peaceful.

Thousands of flag-waving followers beating drums, clanging cymbals and chanting hymns carried the flower-covered body from the Maharishi's ashram to a hilltop overlooking the confluence of the sacred Ganges and Yamuna rivers.

Baton-wielding police couldn't stop a surge of followers who broke through their cordon while the body was being carried. They rushed the site in this northern Indian city where several hundred of the Maharishi's Western disciples and a group of Indian holy men were seated.

The Maharishi won international prominence for himself and his meditation techniques when the Beatles attended one of his lectures in Wales in 1967, and then visited his ashram in India in 1968. His beaming, bearded face became a symbol of 1960s hippie mysticism. Today, the Transcendental Meditation movement has more than 5 million practitioners.