The Hague, Feb 6: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a guru to the Beatles who introduced the West to transcendental meditation, has died at his home in the Dutch town of Vlodrop, a spokesman said. He was thought to be 91-years-old.

''He died peacefully at about 7 pm,'' said Bob Roth, a spokesman for the Transcendental Meditation movement that the Maharishi founded. Roth said his death appeared to be due to ''natural causes, his age.''

Once dismissed as hippie mysticism, the Hindu practice of mind control that Maharishi taught - called transcendental meditation - gradually gained medical respectability.

He began teaching TM in 1955 and brought the technique to the United States in 1959.

But the movement really took off after the Beatles visited his ashram in India in 1968, although he had a famous falling out with the rock stars when he discovered them using drugs at his Himalayan retreat.

With the help of celebrity endorsements, Maharishi parlayed his interpretations of ancient scripture into a multimillion-dollar global empire.

After 50 years of teaching, Maharishi turned to larger themes, with grand designs to harness the power of group meditation to create world peace and to mobilize his devotees to banish poverty from the earth.

Just last month, the Maharishi retreated into silence at his home in the grounds of a former Franciscan monastery close to the German border, saying he wanted to dedicate his remaining days to studying the ancient Indian texts that underpin his movement.

''He had been saying he had done what he set out to do,'' Roth said late yesterday. Funeral arrangements were not immediately announced.