Leaders of pandit program say they’ve made improvements following ruckus with sheriff

Leaders of a program that pays Indian men to come to southeast Iowa to meditate say they have improved pay and now offer educational programs.

There are about 150 pandits - pronounced pundits - living and meditating at the compound in Maharishi Vedic City, near Fairfield. This is down from 300 last March and more than 1,000 in 2007.

The men are paid to meditate and recite Sanskrit sounds for several hours a day, helping reach a ripple effect of peace sought by the followers of Transcendental Meditation.

The pandits made news March 11 when they mobbed Jefferson County Sheriff Greggory Morton's truck, threw rocks, and tried to shake the truck back and forth with Morton inside. The pandits were trying to stop the removal of a popular pandit leader from the program for disciplinary reasons. The men started marching up a public road, but were eventually convinced to go back to the 80-acre compound.

One of the frustrations voiced by pandits at the time was pay. At that time, the men were paid $200 a month, with $150 of that going to the pandits' families in India.

Leaders of the program have since increased the amount of money sent home to about $300 to keep up with inflation in India, according to an email from Ken Chawkin, a group spokesman. The pandits are still paid $50 a month. Living expenses are covered and the pandits may earn bonuses for longevity or good behavior, leaders have said.

Previously, pandits had been discouraged from leaving the fenced compound. Administrative Director John Revolinski told The Gazette in March the men frequently begged to be allowed to visit the nearby Maharishi University of Management.

The MUM has now made its Maharishi Vedic Science certificate program open to pandits, Chawkin said.

'The program involves a course of study in which the pandit's traditional Vedic training is re-examined in the modern context of Maharishi's Vedic science and technology of consciousness,” Chawkin said. 'The education programs offered to the Vedic pandits help them advance their careers when they return to India.”

The pandits come to Iowa on R-1 visas for two years, but the contract may be extended to more than four years if proper documents are filed, the group said.

The Fairfield Ledger reported in February several pandits scheduled to return to India left the Chicago airport before their flights departed. Chawkin said there have been no 'unauthorized departures of the program in nearly six months.”

The pandit campus, which Oprah Winfrey visited and televised in 2012, has buildings for meditation, a mess hall, recreation center, and row after row of manufactured housing. Pandits now live in single rooms, which have new carpet, paint and curtains, Chawkin said.