Allahabad, Feb.12: The ashes of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Indian mystic and Beatles' guru, were immersed at the Sangam, the confluence of three holy rivers, the Ganga, the Yamuna and the Saraswati, here on Tuesday.

The Maharishi, who introduced transcendental meditation to the West, was cremated on Monday on the banks of the River Ganga.

Newly anointed leaders of the order, dressed in flowing cream robes and wearing gold crowns and medallions, watched solemnly as the ashes were immersed.

Girish Verma, a nephew of the Maharishi, said his ashes would also be immersed in the rivers Godavari, Kaveri, Narmada and at rivers in five other places.

" We have collected ashes in 20 pots that will be immersed with all rituals," Verma said.

"Maharishis' ashes will be immersed where his Guru's ashes had been immersed and the blessings will be spread to the whole world to show that the embodiment of greatness and unboundedness has left the earth, but his blessings will continue," said Tim Jones, a follower from the United States.

Maharishi's meditation techniques became famous after the Beatles visited his ashram in India and celebrities such as filmmaker David Lynch and Mike Love of the Beach Boys endorsed him. But critics dismissed him as a hippie mystic, recognisable in the familiar image of him laughing, sitting cross-legged, wearing a white silk wrap-around with a garland of flowers around his neck beneath a scraggly salt and pepper beard that whitened with age. (ANI)