Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Hindu spiritual leader that introduced the Beatles and along with them, the West, to transcendental meditation, passed away Tuesday at his home in the Dutch town of Vlodrop. He was believed to be 91.

“He died peacefully at about 7 p. m.” Bob Roth, a representative for the Transcendental Meditation movement that the Maharishi founded, said. He said the Maharishi appeared to have died due to “natural causes, his age.”

The maharishi moved to Vlodrop, in the Netherlands, in 1990, to a former Franciscan monastery. He became somewhat reclusive, communicating by video even to aids in the same building, British paper The Guardian reports.

The Maharishi’s biography is not known in detail. He was born Mahesh Srivastava in central India, reportedly on Jan. 12, 1917 although the year is not certain; and the Maharishi never discussed his early life, nor confirmed his birth date, saying that age did not matter.

He studied physics at Allahabad University and earned a degree in 1942. While in college, he reportedly began to study with well known Hindu holy man Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, training under Brahmananda until the guru died in 1953, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The Maharishi brought Transcendental Meditation, which he described as “the unified field of all the laws of nature,” to the United States in 1959 and became something of a household name after the Beatles famously attended one of his lectures in 1967. They visited his ashram in India in 1968 and George Harrison in particular was enthused by his spiritual teachings of love and inner peace.

The Maharishi went on to travel the world, lecturing and founding universities and schools that taught meditation; he also wrote best-selling books on the subject.

His message throughout the years remained constant: “Life is bliss. Man is born to enjoy. Within everyone is an unlimited reservoir of energy, intelligence, and happiness,” Reuters quotes the TM organization as stating.

Despite the millions of followers and the multi-billion-dollar success his activity had, the Maharishi was not exempt from controversy. Over the years, he was accused of fraud, particularly after apparently failing to teach his students “yogic flying.”

The Los Angeles Times quotes Roth as stating that the Maharishi will be succeeded by Maharaja Nader Raam, a Lebanese doctor who studied with him for 25 years. The paper adds that he Maharishi's body will be returned to India after a memorial ceremony in Vlodrop on Thursday.