Jul 5, 2021

An Indian guru and his disciples lived in a hotel complex near Lake Lucerne for eleven years. Then they left in a hurry

An Indian guru and his disciples lived in a hotel complex near Lake Lucerne for eleven years. Then they left in a hurry
An Indian guru and his disciples lived in a hotel complex near Lake Lucerne for eleven years. Then they left in a hurry
The yogis once proclaimed the age of enlightenment high above Lake Lucerne: the Sonnenberg hotel complex served as a home for an Indian meditation master and his entourage. Now the hotels are for sale.
Erich Aschwanden
Karin Hofer, pictures
NZZ
January 11, 2021

Felix Kägi hesitates to let the photographer and journalist into the former Hotel Kulm. “I haven't been in here for more than twenty years - and practically no other person either. Be careful not to break through a rotten ceiling! " Kägi is the chairman of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) movement in Switzerland and a dozen other countries and takes us on a journey into his past. To a world he will be saying goodbye to these days.


After taking the first steps through a hotel corridor littered with mattresses and rubble, Kägi puts aside his restraint. "This is room K 223. I lived here in 1983, when the Maharishi was leading his movement from Seelisberg," says the now 67-year-old, happy to see him again. The memory of the eventful years is back. Back when Maharishi Mahesh Yogi from Jabalpur in Central India, his assistant Raja Felix Kägi from Stäfa and thousands of other yogis from Canton Uri wanted to make the world a better place.


Indian mysticism and Swiss organizational talent


The beginnings go back to the 1960s. Maharishi, which means something like "great seer", is the darling of hippie mysticism at this point in time. His meditation technique, which is supposed to evoke mind-expanding states of mind, inspires pop and film stars. With his impressive white beard and long hair, he corresponds perfectly to the image that western hippies have of a wise seer.


In 1968 the Beatles visit the Guru in his Indian ashram. Actress Mia Farrow and Mike Love from the Beach Boys also want to learn more about his teachings in India. Maharishi knows how to market the interest very well and on his travels around the globe collects thousands of new followers, often called yogis in Switzerland. Maharishi has written several books on Vedic knowledge that are more than 2000 years old. The spiritual teacher is a seeker himself. He wants to build a world center from which he proclaims enlightenment and eternal peace. Which country would be better suited for this than Switzerland, where the Red Cross and the UN are already based?


The great seer travels to the Alpine country again and again. Here his path crosses with that of Felix Kägi. The young man, born in 1954, is like many of his contemporaries looking for an alternative lifestyle. The son of the village photographer von Stäfa stopped trying to live as a mountain farmer on an alp in Ticino after two years. Instead, he can be trained as a teacher of Transcendental Meditation (TM). “At Maharishi I found the way to expand my consciousness without taking drugs,” he recalls. Kägi becomes a personal confidante of the wise man from India.


Felix Kägi calls himself the chairman of the TM movement Switzerland Raja, which means something like "Prince".
Felix Kägi calls himself the chairman of the TM movement Switzerland Raja, which means something like "Prince".


The Hotel Kulm was left to decay after Maharishi Mahesh Yogi moved out.
The Hotel Kulm was left to decay after Maharishi Mahesh Yogi moved out.

The Guru's former home was abandoned in a hurry and is in danger of collapsing.

The leader of the TM movement appreciates the fact that Kägi combines Indian meditation technique and Swiss organizational talent. The several thousand yogis who attend his courses do not live from meditation alone, but have to be accommodated and fed. For this purpose, the movement rents up to thirty hotels in tourist regions. The hotel operators find the sophisticated clientele a bit strange, but they are happy to be able to rent out the vacant rooms in the off-season. Kägi is responsible for the procurement of fresh products and approaches the inner circle around the guru.


World center in the heart of Switzerland


It is love at first sight when Maharishi Mahesh Yogi first comes to Seelisberg in 1971. «The high mountains around Lake Lucerne reminded him of his time in the Himalayas. He found the peace and quiet in the health resort to be heavenly, ”says Kägi, looking back. So it comes together perfectly that the ideal premises for his World Center of Transcendental Meditation are for sale. For years the owners have been looking for a buyer for the vacant Sonnenberg hotel complex. The grand hotels, which opened in 1875, have seen better days. The great seer and his entourage move into the “Kulm”, while courses and training courses take place in the representative “Sonnenberg”.


Fifty years later we can sense the guru's happiness that he felt upon entering his balcony. The view of the emerald green Lake Uri is fantastic, right at our feet is the Rütliwiese and thus the cradle of the Swiss Confederation. The spiritual teacher calls Seelisberg “heaven on earth”. Felix Kägi meanwhile lives in room K 307 and can also enjoy the wonderful view of the lake. The life of the Guru's followers is not luxurious. Around twenty yogis each have to share a shared bathroom. "We lived for our mission and were absorbed in it," he explains almost fifty years later, without regretting his decision for a second.

 
The University of the TM movement is still housed in the Hotel Sonnenberg today.
The University of the TM movement is still housed in the Hotel Sonnenberg today.

The TM movement is flourishing in Seelisberg. Most of the time, more than 300 yogis live in the hotel complex. They are drawn to the master who proclaimed the «dawn of the age of enlightenment» on January 12, 1975 during a boat trip on Lake Lucerne. The guru claims that thanks to the so-called Maharishi Effect, illnesses, social problems and crime in the general population are automatically reduced. This effect is achieved when one percent of a country or city meditate according to its specifications.


Miracle cure against coronavirus stashed away


The exciting time and with it the upswing of Seelisberg ended abruptly after eleven years. In 1983 the Maharishi went on a world tour with longer stays in Africa, South America, the USA, the Philippines, Japan and above all India. Felix Kägi, who organizes the many trips, is always at his side. Seelisberg lost its importance for the TM movement, and in 1991 the guru moved the headquarters of his movement to Vlodrop in the Netherlands. Kägi no longer knows what prompted the guru to make this decision. In 2002 the Hotel Kulm was closed and all residents had to move. The inventory remains. The hotel is left to its own devices. «The Master did not want his former place of residence to become a place of pilgrimage. Therefore nothing was changed. We are not attached to buildings, ”is how Kägi explains the chaos.

While there is a lot of confusion in the corridors and common rooms, some rooms give the impression that the residents only left yesterday. For example, Kägi discovers a large supply of Echinaforce, the drug that was briefly considered a supposed miracle cure for the coronavirus, in a cupboard. The visitor involuntarily wonders whether the yogis saw the pandemic coming decades ago.

On his voyage of discovery, Kägi finds everything that determined his life back then: the large meditation room, the library of the spiritual teacher and the TV studio. "From here, Maharishi's appearances were broadcast to Nepal using state-of-the-art parabolic antennas," he recalls. In some rooms there are still posters with the Guru's portrait. A poster showing the yogis so-called flying should not be missing in the middle of the mess. However, critics speak of hopscotch; How strong the yogis actually took off cannot be seen in the picture. If the plaster did not trickle from the walls and the floor creaked suspiciously, one might think that the next group meditation under the guidance of the great seer would be imminent.

 
The Guru did not want his former home to be a place of pilgrimage.


The Guru did not want his former home to be a place of pilgrimage.

The yogis claim to be able to fly thanks to their meditation technique. The "evidence photos" are in the guru's former room.


The yogis claim to be able to fly thanks to their meditation technique. The "evidence photos" are in the guru's former room.


The seer's entourage had to share a shared bathroom in the former grand hotel.



The seer's entourage had to share a shared bathroom in the former grand hotel.
Now the «Kulm», which is no longer under monument protection, will soon be demolished. This decision is no longer in the hands of the yogis. The TM movement decided to sell the "Sonnenberg" area, which is over five hectares in size. The location high above Lake Lucerne is exclusive, and so is the price. The nine properties and the listed Hotel Sonnenberg are currently advertised by a real estate company for CHF 27.5 million.

Felix Kägi, who trained as a Raja (prince) of the movement from 2004 to 2005, is not attached to the hotel complex or to the town of Seelisberg. After the Guru left, he rarely came here. In the following years he got into politics and stood, among other things, unsuccessfully as a representative of the Natural Law party for the Zurich government council. He remained loyal to the TM movement throughout his life. Today he lives in Rain in the canton of Lucerne and sells Ayurvedic products.


The good spirits of Seelisberg


In contrast, Otto Odermatt cannot imagine leaving the Uri mountain village. The now 74-year-old came to Seelisberg in 1976 and stayed. He and his wife Maria are the good spirits of the «Sonnenberg». Odermatt was born in 1946 in the Nidwalden main town of Stans, near Seelisberg, and trained as a primary school teacher. But he found his true destiny as a teacher of Transcendental Meditation, which he made his profession. Today he is something like the movement's keeper of the Grail.

As the highest ranking yogic aviator, he heads the Maharishi European Research University housed in the hotel. Where "the long presence of Maharishi allows a natural vibration of silence and purity to be felt, which guides every visitor in the direction of deeper transcendence". At least that's what it says on the TM movement's website. “You can't really talk about transcendental meditation, you have to experience meditation,” says Odermatt and invites the guest to one of the courses for people who are not (yet) part of the movement.


Maharishi had a wonderful view of the central Swiss mountains from his room.
Maharishi had a wonderful view of the central Swiss mountains from his room.

 
The Hotel Sonnenberg, which opened in 1875, has to be extensively renovated by its new owner.

The Hotel Sonnenberg, which opened in 1875, has to be extensively renovated by its new owner.

 
The ravages of time gnaw mercilessly at the Hotel Kulm.


The ravages of time gnaw mercilessly at the Hotel Kulm.

"Transcendental meditation has nothing to do with religion," he lectures. "It is a mental technique that brings about the impartiality of the spirit." Odermatt has already introduced Christian missionaries, Muslim clergymen and Hindu swamis to the technique of meditation. What annoys him most is that the movement is called a sect and is reduced to yogic flying. "The journalist Hugo Stamm really made a living from being able to put us in this corner." However, the yogis should not be surprised that they are perceived as cranky. With its ideas for improving the world, the TM movement repeatedly offered open areas for attack.

For example, in 2006, when Hugo Stamm appeared in the “Tages-Anzeiger” with the headline “Sect wants to roll down Swiss cities”. At that time the yogis warned about buildings that were supposed to bring bad luck. In order to create world peace, all large cities would have to be razed to the ground and rebuilt according to Vedic knowledge, was the demand of the movement. Model cities were to emerge in Geneva and Lausanne, and later the movement also wanted to destroy Zurich, Basel, Bern, Lucerne and St. Gallen. «His Highness Raja Dr. Felix Kägi even claims that this would make Switzerland invincible », Stamm quoted the then and now TM boss with relish.

High-flying ideas with potential for excitement haven't come from the TM movement for a long time. The people from the inner circle like Odermatt and Kägi have gotten older. This also applies to many followers who live in the TM centers around the world. According to Kägi, around 10 million people have learned and practice Transcendental Meditation without being a member of the organization. In Switzerland, 600 to 700 people would learn TM every year.

In Seelisberg, however, the movement has taken on a patina, as has the impressive hall in the Hotel Sonnenberg, where Maharishi once held his conferences on the creation of world peace. It has been a long time since no one has walked across the thick red carpets or taken a seat on the more than a hundred imposing armchairs.


 
In the great hall of the Hotel Sonneberg, Guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi taught disciples from all over the world.


In the great hall of the Hotel Sonneberg, Guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi taught disciples from all over the world.

The large hall in the Hotel Sonnenberg is rarely used and has accumulated a lot of dust and patina.

However, it should not be that easy to find a buyer for the aging hotel complex with around 200 rooms. As early as 2006, the yogis announced their departure from the Uri mountain village. But so far all sales negotiations have failed. Even today, the TM movement wouldn't sell to everyone. “It has to be someone who has a vision for this place as we had it,” emphasizes Raja Felix Kägi. He can imagine that the hotel complex will be restored to its original purpose. The creation of a health and wellness facility would also be conceivable. The foundation stone for this has already been laid, as the first Ayurvedic clinic in Switzerland has existed in the former Hotel Pilgerheim since 1987.

In 2021 it should work with the sale of the area. According to Kägi, several potential investors have expressed their interest. Although a sale seems to be within reach, the deadline for the offer to buy has been extended to January 22nd. It is definitely a place steeped in history, for which the investor has to shell out around 100 million francs in addition to the purchase price for the purpose of renovation. Finally, such illustrious guests as Richard Wagner, Heinrich Heine and Leo Tolstoy stayed at the Sonnenberg. And which hotel can boast of having hosted a guru who brought enlightenment to the world from here?


Sales video of the company Engels & Völkers
 




https://www.nzz.ch/schweiz/ausgeflogen-die-yogis-nehmen-abschied-vom-weltzentrum-der-transzendentalen-meditation-ld.1592407




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