West meets East on guru Mahesh Yogi's funeral pyre

By Krittivas Mukherjee

ALLAHABAD, India (Reuters) - As dawn broke over the Ganges, India's holiest river, priests made offerings, locals brushed their teeth and men lathered themselves with soap -- while Westerners snapped photographs.

For many foreign visitors who flew into India for the funeral in Allahabad of Beatles' guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who took transcendental meditation to the West, it was a chance to come face to face with Indian spiritualism.

The funeral took place near Allahabad, which is home to the "sangam", the confluence of three holy rivers, two of them real, the Ganges and the Yamuna, and one that exists only in myth, the Saraswati.

Among the thousands of Maharishi's devotees attending his cremation was Hollywood filmmaker David Lynch, who has credited meditation with helping him come up with ideas for his movies.

Visibly moved and his voice quivering, Lynch said many from the West were meeting the East over the cremation of his guru.

"In life, he revolutionised the lives of millions of people," Lynch told Reuters. "In his passing away he is bringing the West and East together as well.

"In 20, 50, 500 years there will be millions of people who will know and understand what the Maharishi has done."

On the ritual bathing platforms, the visitors gawked at the site where Hindus believe they can wash away their sins.