31 August 2005 Press Conference Highlights

Opening Remarks

Maharishi: ‘Jai Guru Dev. Those who want to hear me should hear and hear and hear Dr Hagelin’s lecture from today. They should hear it today, tomorrow, the next day, the next year, and for thousands of years. Hear it, and if they want to hear from me, I have only one word to say, “The taste of the pudding is in the eating.” Have my programme to raise the power of the mind. Have my programme of Advanced Techniques and the TM-Sidhi Programme, and practice Yogic Flying to demonstrate to yourself your control over the biggest power and intelligence of the governing ability of the universe. The universe is governed by total Natural Law, which is in self-referral Transcendental Consciousness. “Do it,” I have been saying. Dr Hagelin summarizes the whole thing in a nutshell in such simple expressions of total scientific wisdom.
 
‘I have begun to feel discouraged in the sense that, I have been speaking and speaking and training teachers to speak a thousand times from a thousand mouths the message of consciousness—to speak out the Light of God—but I have found that still not all the world has started to enjoy. It is very necessary. I will not stop speaking, but to how many can I speak? Therefore, I am creating an effect in every country—in a hundred and eight countries. I have the programme to create an indomitable strength of harmony and peace, which will eliminate the rise of negativity and forever maintain world consciousness in the high dignity of the intense power of positivity and invincibility for every nation.
 
‘If there are any questions, people should hear this one lecture given by Dr Hagelin today. From every angle it is so instructive that you can open your gate to heaven while still remaining on earth [laughter]. Open the gates of heaven with a press-button operation; open the gates of heaven while remaining on earth. These are the days of instant communication around the world. The computer system has offered it. Take this beautiful, beautiful message of perfection, of total enlightenment, and rise to enjoy that state of consciousness. 

‘How do you enter into this field of Total Knowledge? You enter into the “hole” of the unmanifest like that hole of a banyan seed. What is inside the banyan seed? Hollowness. But in that hollowness, what you find is existence in the unmanifest state—the existence of the whole banyan tree in that hollowness.
 
‘This is the science of life. This is a technique for entering into all possibilities in daily life. It is such a beautiful knowledge. Have it. It is now banging on your door week after week. A great man of fatherly compassion for the whole population of the world is ringing the bell of Heaven on Earth.
 
‘Enjoy! The people who can hear it, understand it. If you do not understand it, immediately change your house. The next day, your mind will begin to function properly, and you will hear the most precious, practical message to rise to a level of all possibilities. You will achieve the fulfilment of your desires, whatever you desire. This is the technology of consciousness.
 
‘Therefore, go by the greatest scientist of the world. Go by Dr Hagelin. He has assumed the responsibility of President of the Government of Peace. He is on a level of authority from which he is inviting the people to come and enjoy his parental role.
 
‘Everyone has total Natural Law in himself. Everyone has the Light of God within himself. Dr Hagelin is there to ring the bell of invincibility for the Light of God within everyone. Follow him. Those who have followed me for fifty years and those who have not followed me that many years, who were born much after I started the Movement, are invited to follow the rising star of this time, of this century.
 
‘Dr Hagelin, if they have any questions, it will be a joy to answer them. Otherwise, invite your great visionaries in your court of the Peace Government to give their message to the world. Keep on giving the message to the world, and those who will wake up will wake up.’

Question: The Cause of Natural Disasters

Dr Hagelin: ‘Thank you very much, Maharishi, for that beautiful introduction. Maharishi’s message to the world is being heard today by many, many millions of people—more than ever before. So there’s great hope that the transformation of society is going to accelerate now as people are exposed to the showers of Total Knowledge week after week by Maharishi. 

‘There are a few questions for Maharishi that I think would be very interesting to pose. The first question on the minds of the press today is in relation to the recent hurricane that battered the United States. One of the most devastating hurricanes in the history of the US hit the Gulf Coast this week, causing an estimated twenty-five billion dollars in damages and leaving eighty percent of the city of New Orleans completely under water. Maharishi, I have one basic question: What is Mother Nature trying to tell us? What lesson should simple, common people learn from such a terrible natural disaster?’ 

Maharishi: ‘Everyone should learn—be he simple or complicated—everyone should learn that “as you sow, so shall you reap.” It is the collective consciousness which determines the action of the government. If a country’s collective consciousness, which determines the action of the government, is creating fear and problems in the world, then, “As you sow, so shall you reap.”
 
‘These are the words from the celebrated religion of the people of America, the words from the Bible, the words of Christianity, the religion of the President of America. They do not have to learn this from anywhere outside. Their religious teachers have been telling them. Every day or every week, in the churches, the religious priests have been reminding the people, “As you sow, so shall you reap.”

‘If you are a tyrant to the world, Natural Law will be the same to you—that is all. There is not much room for argument. It does not take much intelligence to think about it. As you sow, so shall you reap.’

Question: Maharishi's Peace Creating Technologies

Dr Hagelin: ‘Thank you very much, Maharishi. That is a very clear answer. 

‘The next question has to do with Maharishi’s programme to create world peace: I read that in 1978 Maharishi conducted a two month World Peace Project to calm the violence in many troubled hotspots in the world. Maharishi sent groups of coherence-creating experts to the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Latin America to bring peace to these turbulent regions. Now, twenty-seven years later, Maharishi seems to be conducting a new World Peace Project to calm the global hotspots, but this time, rather than sending groups all over the world, Maharishi is using just one large group of experts in India. What new coherence-creating technologies is Maharishi using today that he did not use before, so that all the world’s hotspots can be calmed from just one spot on earth, India?’ 

Maharishi: ‘India has two possibilities. One approach is through the field of language—the Vedic Literature. The recitation of the Vedic Literature produces harmony in the atmosphere. Another field of action is the practice of Transcendental Meditation, which is a quiet operation. This is not out loud; it is a quiet operation. The thought quietens down to the field of self-referral consciousness, which is the total field of Natural Law which governs the universe with perfect order.
 
‘There are two approaches: Vedic recitation, which is a special thing from the Vedic Pandits in India, and Yogic Flying, which is quietening the mind and is for everyone in the world. The Yogic approach is for anyone, the Vedic approach comes from one’s parental heritage. India has the possibility of using both approaches; elsewhere in the world, they have the possibility of using the Yogic Flying approach.
 
‘We are trying both things, if we are able to gather the people in our lifetime; otherwise, this knowledge will be used by the next generation and the next generation and the next generation. If the world is going to enjoy peace at any time and world peace would be the reality, it could only be by total world consciousness rising to coherence and harmony. Whether it is done in this generation or it is done in the next generation—it does not matter when—it will be through these programmes, which are inherent in the consciousness of everyone. Consciousness is inherent within everyone’s body.
 
‘When the people get Vedic Education, they know that they are cosmic in nature. They can bring their cosmic potential from within themselves. Invincibility is not to be found outside. The Light of God is not to be found outside. It is inside first, and then it is outside. Invincibility for the nation and world peace are going to be a reality with peace within every individual.  

‘We are reminding everyone through the world press that it is possible for every government to actualize their parental role for their people and make the people live life high above the reach of problems and negativity. The whole thing is our programme of education for Total Knowledge and health without poison.
 
‘Modern education is deplorable. Dr Hagelin has brought out that EEG research has found that boys are not training their brain physiology to produce a harmonious effect through their thought, speech, and action.

‘Health is precarious everywhere in the world. Modern medicine is being deplored. Because industries are there, which must be maintained for their profit, they do not mind giving poison to the people. They think it is scientific enough to say, “If you take this medicine, your throat will be wrong another day, or your liver will be bad the next day.” This is science. If you have written the side-effects, you think you are rid of the sin that will be produced by giving poison to the people.

‘This is only for maintaining these drug-producing factories. Life has no meaning. What is meaningful is the dollar—“I should remain a billionaire. It doesn’t matter that the business through which I earn dollars is killing the people, but I want to maintain my billionaireship.” It is a very bad sense of life. This whole thing is gripped by ignorance.

‘Our programme is to improve education, improve health, improve agriculture, and improve the system of administration. If someone has green glasses, how you can make him see red?

‘We are going ahead; we are going ahead; we are going ahead. Someday we will see the lid of ignorance will become transparent, and people will begin to live in what we call lucky, fortune-creating homes with healthy food and Total Knowledge, full in the Light of God. The time is going to come, whether it is in the morning today or in the evening today, but it is going to be today—no more mañana, no more tomorrow.

‘Our programmes are going ahead, and the fortune of the world is going to rise to be better. Very soon the world press will find all good news to print.’

Question: Vedic Cognition

Dr Hagelin: Thank you very much, Maharishi, for that comprehensive answer.

‘The next question is about the deep knowledge that came out in Maharishi’s answer to a question last week. Maharishi spoke recently of the Rishis of ancient India, who cognized the totality of the Veda and the eight divisions of Natural Law within that Totality. Maharishi said these are responsible for the differentiation within the unified state. Maharishi also said if you look at unity, and your mind is very balanced and clear, unity will be seen as unbounded, infinite. In that unbounded infinity, what will be seen simultaneously are the points of unbounded infinity.

‘There is a follow-up question on Maharishi’s profound discourse. If the same Unified Field exists at the basis of all of creation, does that mean that every Rishi who cognizes the Veda will see the same thing? And if he sees something different, what accounts for a differentiated vision of reality in the state of unity?’ 

Maharishi: ‘It is a very intelligent question. Yes, every Rishi sees the same thing. The same thing means same Veda. “Veda” means Total Knowledge. He sees the same thing: Veda, Total Knowledge, which means Constitution of the Universe. He sees the same thing. Every Rishi, who sees the Constitution of the Universe, sees the Constitution of the Universe in one unified syllable, “A”. This is the first syllable of the Veda. He sees “A”. You want me to tell you the inner mechanics? All right, listen and try to follow.

‘In the process of seeing, the Rishi sees “A”. “A” is the totality of Natural Law, the totality of the Constitution of the Universe. That means it is one value which is a composite of all the innumerable values of the laws that govern the universe. Now what happens? Now coming back to the ordinary mechanics of seeing, how does the process of seeing make the seer see the object? What happens is—now watch the process of seeing—the seer, through his eyes, reaches the sight[the object]. The seer of “A”, seer of total Natural Law, starts from where he exists—the seer. He travels to the sight. And what happens is that the sight rides on that charioteer of the seer and travels back to the place of seer.
 
‘This is the process of seeing which makes the sight occupy the seat of the seer. The process of seeing first takes the seer to the sight, and then makes the sight ride on the seer, and the seer comes back to his seat, so the sight becomes the seer. In this sight becoming seer, there is a turning point. So the process of seeing brings the sight to be the seer. When the sight—that means “A”—becomes the seer—then the seer knows himself thoroughly well, in and out. Then the “A” sees himself thoroughly in and out. Whatever is inside “A”, “A” knows it thoroughly, because “A” is the seer and “A” is the sight.

‘This is the vision of the seer of the Veda. The Veda is the seer, and the Veda is the sight. So the total Veda, in one wholeness within itself, sees all the details of which it is made. This is how the cognition of the Veda, in the first holistic syllable “A”, contains all the details of the Veda. This is how the Veda is seen by the Veda himself.
 
‘Veda is the seer. The process of seeing is also the Veda, Veda himself is the seer, Veda himself is the object of sight. That is why the total Veda exposes itself to itself. That is why the cognition of the seer is the cognition of the total sight. The total sight in Totality is “A”, and this “A” becomes the seer himself. This “A” becomes the seer. When “A” becomes the seer, then the seer knows all about himself within his Self.
 
‘The Veda sees itself. Seer, process of seeing, and the object of seeing, are all one. They are not two things; they are not three things. This one thing is the reality of all times, in a unified state containing all the diversified values within it.
 
‘In this Vedic cognition, the cognizer is the Rishi, and the content of cognition is all that the cognizer himself is. “A” cognizes itself like a moon now cognizes itself. The moon knows itself thoroughly, in and out, all-knowing. Therefore, no one has seen the Veda except Veda himself.

‘In this cognition of Madhuchhandas, first he saw “A”. Then in “A”, what did he see? He saw flow, “A”—the flow of wholeness. In the flow of wholeness, he saw some active principle. The seer is silent, and in himself he saw the active principle. This is called Gyana Shakti and Kriya Shakti—the power of silence and the power of dynamism. As long as the power of silence has not started to see himself—as long as the power of silence has not become the seer—so long he is not the seer, so long he is not seeing Totality. But when the sight becomes the seer, then the sight itself becomes the seer, then the seer knows himself thoroughly.

‘This is how infinity knows itself thoroughly. And infinity, knowing itself thoroughly, infinity knows its infinite value and its point value. Then the infinite knows the collapse of his infinite value to its point value. This is how the collapse of infinite to its point is the seer of itself, and that is the Veda.
 
‘This is the first expression of the vision of the sight of Madhuchhandas. Rishi Madhuchhandas saw. What did he see? “A”. When he saw “A”, immediately he became “A”. So instead of remaining only the sight[the object] of seeing, he became the seer also himself.  
‘The whole Darshan, the whole cognition of the Veda, is by Veda itself. That we understand by analyzing what the process of seeing means. The process of seeing takes the seer to the sight and brings the sight to its own value. Then the sight becomes the seer, and when the sight becomes the seer, then the sight knows himself thoroughly—absolutely thoroughly. Thoroughly means Totality in unity and Totality in diversity. The expression is “infinity and its point”. This infinity and its point, the collapse of infinity to its point, is the sequential flow of the Veda “Agnimile Purohitam”—the flow of the Veda. The flow of the Veda itself is the seer. This is because the flow of the Veda is the flow of consciousness. It is not the flow of inertia.
 
‘When Madhuchhandas, the first seer, saw “A”, he did not see “A” in terms of inertia. He saw “A” as the totality of consciousness. “A” is the sound of infinity of consciousness, the sound of totality of consciousness. He, as a seer, was also consciousness. So when he saw “A”, he did not see “A” as an object. He saw “A” as a subject, in itself. It is the subjectivity in the field of consciousness that was seen by the subjectivity in the Madhuchhandas. So the subject here and the subject here, both the subjects, became one, and then whatever they saw, they saw the fields of consciousness. Consciousness is that element which is eternal, immortal, because it is subjectivity. So the cognition of the Veda is on the level of Veda itself. It is on the level of subjectivity. It is not on the level of objectivity. It is on its own level.
 
‘It is so beautiful. It is such a joy to even say it, with the incapability of saying it [laughter]. This effort of ours to say it in the gross expressions, where the speech is flowing, does not have anything to do with the reality of the flow of consciousness, but to be able to express it is an effort [laughter]—a joy—to enjoy the transcendental joy. This has been the joy of the teachers throughout the ages. This tradition of teacher and taught, teacher and taught, continued because it is joyful—it is blissful. It is joyful; it is blissful. It is absolutely bliss out of the world.
 
‘It is very beautiful. The world press is fortunate to bring out these values. It gives us the joy of building the impossible [laughter]. It is beautiful.’