22 December 2004 Press Conference Highlights

Opening Remarks

Maharishi: ‘Jai Guru Dev. All that has been said by Dr Hagelin is the truth of life, the true possibility. I do not have to add anything more. He has explicitly, in very simple words, brought the whole message, the message of all possibilities to every nation. We summarize it in one word: invincibility to every nation. National invincibility has its basis in the invincibility, freedom, and self-sufficiency of the life of the individual, and this is by exploring the eternal of everyone’s consciousness, Transcendental Consciousness. Through the Transcendental Meditation Technique we explore the Unified Field of all the Laws of Nature, and thereby open total Natural Law to support every thought, speech, and action of every individual.  

‘Like that, a few groups in the world—groups here, there, everywhere—will be maintaining the world on a lighted level. When the light is maintained, there is no chance for darkness. This is the time for lighting the light everywhere throughout the world. If there are any doubts about it, in principle or in practice, then we are here to answer the questions.

‘We are lovingly inviting every government to be really competent to prevent problems and suffering in their nation through proper education, proper health programmes, and through all the programmes that we offer through Vedic Universities now, everywhere.  

‘Follow the advice of Dr Hagelin. It is very reliable because it is scientific. It is practically available to everyone because it is simple, and because it is the interior of everyone’s life—one’s consciousness. The Unified Field has been proven through mathematical equations and sung throughout the ages in the holy textbooks of different religions. It is very surprising that the world has not yet taken to it completely, but a good foundation has been made. It is better for the people who are concerned with their following to look into this field of knowledge, the Unified Field, and its practicality to make every nation invincible. If there are doubts, we are ready to answer questions.’

Question: The Mechanics of Transformation

Dr Hagelin: ‘Maharishi, astrophysicists once thought that all matter and information were completely destroyed when they fell into what are known as “black holes”—point singularities of space-time caused by gravitational collapse. Now, however, string theorists have proven mathematically that this in-falling information is preserved in its completeness, and that what ultimately emerges from a black hole depends in detail on what went in. Black holes are being described today as a type of “information transformation point”.

‘This description of black holes seems to parallel exactly Maharishi’s description of the transformation of Vedic sounds in the “gaps”. While physics offers few details about the mechanics of transformation within the singularity, Vedic Science reveals precisely the mechanics of this transformation.

‘My questions is: What is the significance of the singularity and the mechanics of transformation within the singularity? And why is it important for individuals to gain personal familiarity with these mechanics of transformation in their own consciousness?’ 

Maharishi: ‘That field is a field of all possibilities. Your question is so intelligent. It has the answer contained within it. A black hole is all darkness; everything is submerged there. The value of consciousness opening to the field of all possibilities is that whatever is inherent in it opens to single awareness. When the awareness is open to that, then the awareness is open to a level which is both silent and dynamic at the same time.

‘A black hole is a field of potential dynamism. Just this word: potential dynamism. That means it is dynamic in its unmanifest state, and it is completely silent in its manifest state. So there is silence and there is dynamism. This field is the basis of creation, the silent basis of creation.  

‘Vedic Science sees it on two levels. One level is the dynamic nature of it, and the other level is the silent nature. The Vedic awareness of both of them at the same time is in the junction point. The value of opening our awareness to the junction point is that the mind remains silent and the mind remains potentially dynamic, potentially dynamic and obviously silent. So here is the silent state of the mind which is potentially dynamic. That means all thought, speech, action—anything about it—is completely natural on that level of human awareness which we call Transcendental Consciousness. The mind has transcended all the dynamism and has settled down in eternal silence which is potentially dynamic. This is a very beautiful state in which everything is a possibility.  

‘We can have a gross example of it. When a room is lighted, everything is clear. You put out the light, and then there is darkness. You put on the light, everything is clear. You put out the light, everything is unclear. So everything is clear or everything is unclear depending upon whether the lamp is lit or extinguished.

‘The whole creation is a reality of the unmanifest field. Opening to that level is opening to the mechanics of creation. “Mechanics of creation” means lively functioning of total Natural Law. And then we say, “Lively functioning of the will of God.” All possibilities are there, and that is why one wants to have it in one’s awareness. It is just a matter of knowledge; it is just a matter of knowledge that I am there.  
 
‘For example, we have a treasury in our house, but if we do not know it, then it does not exist for us. If we know it—just the knowledge about it—we are wealthy; not knowing it, we are poor. So poverty is foreign to one’s life. That is why, always, whatever a man is, whether a little boy or an older, elderly person, he is always and always wanting to know. Desire for knowledge is a natural thing because in the field of knowledge there are all possibilities. In the absence of knowledge, the whole thing is dim and dull and sleepy and nothing is there.

‘One wants to be everything. The innate desire of every child or every young or old man is that he wants to know everything. He wants to be everything. He wants to do everything. He has a desire, and he wants to fulfil the desire. He is roaming about. Now, where to roam to fulfil the desire? Get within, get to the transcendental field, to the Unified Field of all the Laws of Nature.  

‘Once you have the knowledge of the Unified Field of all the Laws of Nature, you have the sympathy, support, help, and duty of all the Laws of Nature. You are the master of all the Laws of Nature if you know the transcendental field. If you know that which you have beautifully described in your question, you have answered your question! Just that field, the vacuum, is nothingness.

‘The example is the nothingness within the seed. There is nothing, hollowness, nothingness. In the Rk Veda, it is called “Dirghatamas”. That means long drawn silence. When you meditate, what do you do? The mental activity becomes less and less and less and less and less and less. What are you doing? You are experiencing gross, then less and less and less, and then you are ultimately experiencing nothing. You are blank where all worldly activity is concerned; you are nothing. But the knowledge of that nothingness is the potential of everything.  

‘The whole creation, the whole story of creation, is the story of the unmanifest. The whole manifest diversity dissolves into that unified wholeness. Everything dissolves. This is a black hole. All concrete things, all physical things, and all the objects of all the senses become completely frozen there. Nothing is there. But that nothingness, when opened to human awareness is then lively nothingness. It is the lively total field of Natural Law. And because it is so enormously beyond words, one takes rest by saying, “The will of God, my Lord”. These are the words which try to describe the indescribable—indescribable because the mind identifying with it gets into that field which is transcendental, unified, nothing. Rk Veda, the authority of total Natural Law, describes that the one who has his awareness open to this level, total Natural Law serves him.

‘This is education. Education is opening our awareness to the seed value of the whole creation. Creation emerges from there. This is why it is necessary to open our awareness to that field, and with knowledge it belongs to us. Without knowledge, we are devoid of it. So it is the knowledge of that one single level of nothingness that is the goal of all channels of knowing. Every channel of knowing is significant, true, substantial, and right if it taps that value of infinite creative intelligence.  

‘With the grace of Guru Dev—the grace of our teacher, our master—and the Vedic Tradition of Masters throughout the ages, we have that eternal stream of knowingness, the eternal stream of knowledge, Vedic Knowledge. “Vedic Knowledge” means total knowingness. It is so simple. Those who have learned to meditate feel so blessed. Very automatically, very simply, and naturally the mind trickles down to the transcendent, and within that transcendental field is the field of all possibilities.

‘All possibilities is the field of all fields of creative intelligence, called Devata in the Vedic language. In the transcendental field there is the Constitution of the Universe where all the Devatas, all the fields of creative intelligence—Vishnu, Shiva, all Vedic Devatas—reside. That is why one wants to enter into the field of all possibilities in the market of the Devatas.  

‘It is very fortunate for the whole world that in this scientific age, the research in physiology has revealed the existence of all the Devatas—physical values of the Devatas and the consciousness value of the Devatas—within the human physiology. This is what gives us the authority to speak in the common language of today. Otherwise, it could only be heard in the Vedic language through the tradition of the Vedic Pandits of India. But now we can talk about it in English to the extent possible.

‘This is why, about 5 years ago, His Majesty Raja Ram was crowned as the First Ruler of the Global Country of World Peace. He has seen the continuity of the abstract field of consciousness in the precipitated field of the physiology. All these different aspects of the physiology—the body—are all the expressions of consciousness. Consciousness is the real substance.

‘Consciousness is that unmanifest field which, by its own nature, is this, that, and everything. It is Atma—”Atmai Vedam Sarvam Brahm, Ayam Atma Brahm.” All these are beautiful exaltations that That alone is everything. Therefore, to know everything and to be able to do everything, this Vedic Knowledge is necessary, and this Vedic experience is necessary. Quietly, by no other way than by eternally remaining self-referral, it is the creator of the infinite diversity of the ever-expanding universe. The hugeness is where? Inside.  

‘When children fly a kite, the kite rises high when they pull the string to themselves. They pull it, and the pull within makes the kite rise high in the sky. Just like that, pulling the mind to itself is the system of controlling the whole field of Natural Law and all possibilities of energy, intelligence, and creativity. All those words are significant, all together in one self-referral dive of the mind—Transcendental Consciousness during Transcendental Meditation.

‘The question was asked by the knower of reality. I was very glad to hear a question from someone who has put the answer in his own question. Just the substance of knowing is all; knowing is all that is important. In this age of knowing, children have to know. Now they have to know everything, but the teachers and parents themselves do not know where to take the child in order that he feels he knows everything.  

‘This is why it is very necessary and timely to satisfy this global thirst for knowledge in every rising generation. Total Knowledge is necessary. We are establishing all these universities of Total Knowledge in the fields of education, health, economy—all these modern disciplines. The exploration of the Self fulfils the requirement of any goal of life. This is missing these days. Not that a man becoming an engineer is enlightened, not that a man becoming a doctor is enlightened, it is not only by becoming this and this and this. No. Every man should have the ability to be anything.

‘This Vedic Knowledge is to take the awareness to the transcendental field, and there, you cook what you want. You have only to order what you want, and you are served with the cooked dish. You do not have to do anything, and you certainly do not have to do anything hard, no. Soft, soft as you can think, and presently you can move mountains and create worlds. This is the knowledge that is our pride, and we want all children of the present and future to do this and enjoy it.  

‘We are offering it to the governments. The only thing is that the government people have to be in that atmosphere which could enable them to understand what we say. When we say “invincibility”, any intelligent president says, “Oh, that is a gossip. Where is the invincibility?” Let him know that invincibility is within himself. . . . There is going to be a better world now.’  

Question: Religions and Creating Heaven on Earth

Dr Hagelin: ‘Here is a question from a writer for the Gulf Times of Abu Dhabi. He asks, “Respected sir, please explain how the Global Country of World Peace is going to approach the problem of poverty—including the problem of polluted drinking water—that is faced by third world countries. And how many years will it take before this problem will be solved?” ’

Maharishi: ‘As long as it takes the Muslim world to follow Mohammed, and as long as it takes the Christian world to follow Christ, and as long as it takes the Buddhist world to follow Buddha, and as long as it takes the Vedic world to follow the Veda, as long as it takes these religion’s religious people to follow their ideals—all that Mohammed said, and all that Christ meant, even though the Bible was written much later by his followers, and Buddha—so long it will take for the world to be Heaven on Earth.

‘As long as it takes a scientist to follow science, which is a systematic investigation into the reality because reality is everywhere omnipresent, it should not take long. But if it takes long, they are misguided people who are roaming in darkness and they have lost their path; they are not scientists.  

‘If a Muslim is suffering, he is not Muslim. If a Christian is suffering, he is not the follower of Christ. If any religious man is suffering due to little water, or little air, or polluted this, or polluted that, he is not following his religion. Because following his religion means he is breathing that reality which is bliss, he is drinking that reality which is nectar—all those nice things. The religious platform has gone into the hands of misguided people.  

‘There are religions and religious preachers in the world who say life is suffering, and if you do not suffer you are not a right man, you have to suffer. The whole thing is a muddle of reality. Reality is so simple! It is so simple, and that is the only thing which is simple. Anything else is complicated. Science is so simple because of its completeness. Religion is so simple because of its total infinite creative potential. It is so simple.

‘If a religious man is suffering, it means he has gone away from religion. They are fighting among themselves that I am Muslim, I am Christian, I am this, I am that. The whole thing is non-religious.

‘What the religious preachers lack is simplicity of praying. Meditation is just a prayer, but a silent prayer. Silent prayer, one would see, how difficult can it be? It is the simplest thing not to do anything! It is much simpler than the simplest to dive within oneself. Transcendental Meditation is simpler than the simplest thing, and it is the essence of every religion.  

‘When we see religious people crying for this or crying for that, and one is being looted by the other, and the other is being dynamited by another, the whole thing is completely non-religious. “Religion” means “My Lord, omnipresent, omnipotent, within me, outside me, everything.” This is living religion. . . .

‘We have the knowledge of lighting the light and keeping everyone in the light. But if people want to suffer, nobody can make them enjoy, because they are dragging their life into suffering. No one can make you enjoy. Just follow the scientist, Dr Hagelin, a quantum physicist and expert in the field of nothingness. “Quantum scientist” means knower of nothing. That nothing is the potential of everything. It is a beautiful thing.’

Question: Location of the Divine

Dr Hagelin: ‘Maharishi recently said that the divine nature of man is available to the human mind only on its own transcendental level. But if the mind has to go in to experience unity and divinity, what good does that do the outer world of change and decay? And why does the divine remain hidden on one level and not fully apparent on all levels?’

Maharishi: ‘Take the example of a tree. We can look at the tree at the emptiness of a seed, or we can look at a little more gross level on the level of the sap. The sap is there, and the concrete expressions of the sap are there—completely sap. Even then, the sap has its reality in the still more refined, finer values of the sap in the emptiness, nothingness. Nothingness is expressed in all the concrete, physical values of the tree.

‘What we find is that the answer from the Vedic field of knowledge is so complete. The answer is, in one word, Smriti. “Smriti” means memory. The tree is there in the unmanifest seed, but it is not the tree; it is the memory of the tree. Look at the excellence of the expression: the Veda expresses the whole tree in the nothingness of the seed. Like this the whole physiology has been found in the Unified Field; it is fluctuations of the Unified Field. There is nothing, but that nothingness is fluctuating within itself.  

‘So the whole universe is not anything out of nothing. The whole tree is nothing other than nothingness in the unmanifest. That has been and will always remain within mathematical accuracy. It will always remain, in the Vedic word, sequential. There is a sequential evolution of nothingness into everything concrete. It is a sequential arrangement. There is a systematic progression, but in the end, the systematic progression is contained in the self-referral nature of the Unified Field itself. So the whole thing remains an abstract concept. An abstract concept is unmanifest, so we say an ocean of unmanifest, ocean of infinity, ocean of all possibilities, complete totality of Natural Law.

‘That is why it is very easy for the mind to settle down and get onto that level consciously and know that it is emptiness, but know its emptiness is the potential of everything. That is why throughout time the slogan has been, “Know thyself”. Then, in this knowledge of thyself, you will have the knowledge of everything that you do. Not only knowledge, but the power to do everything. “The power to do everything” means the power to create creation. By what? Just by being the basis of all creation.

‘ “Being the basis of all creation” is beyond the creation; it is the source of creation. That is why it is called transcendental, the transcendental Unified Field of all the Laws of Nature. Once the awareness is on that level, then the awareness is awake in all possibilities. Then, “I am an educated man. I have the ability to do anything that I want. And then what I have to do is just want. I do not have even to want. Whatever is necessary floats around me. All Natural Law serves me.” It is very beautiful knowledge. Unnecessarily people are suffering.’

Question: How to Recognize the Enlightened

Dr Hagelin: ‘Throughout the ages, during the time of Buddha, Christ, and Mohammed, and certainly in today’s world, there are always people who claim to be enlightened and claim to speak the truth. How does an unenlightened person, like myself, know when another person is, in fact, enlightened and is therefore speaking a truth worth following?’

Maharishi: ‘The answer is: the taste of pudding is in eating. Somebody eating a pudding says, “How nice and so beautiful.” How do I know if what he is saying is right? I have to eat the pudding, and then I can know whether he was saying right or wrong. There is no way for anyone, without experiencing the reality, to judge the emotions of another man and whether he is saying right or wrong. There is no way.

‘The taste of pudding is in eating, and then you get to know it. That is all. Without knowing it, you cannot, because it is a thing which is devoid of any duality. There is no experiencer, experienced, and process of experiencing in that field. It is it, that is all. It is it. Without being it, one could keep on gesturing about it. It is not through lecturing and not through hearing; it is not through anything other than Being, because on its own level it is that—not on any other level. That is why it is transcendental. That is the significance of Transcendental Meditation—a process that allows the conscious mind to trickle down in sequence and come to that field where the individuality is no more in space and time boundaries. It is unbounded. Being it, then one knows, “Yes, what I was hearing was a right thing.” Without experience, there is no way to know.

‘That is why those who start meditation, in the first five, ten minutes, open the eyes and say, “Thank you very much”. Those who have taken a dive do not know how far they have gone, but they have gone enough to say, “Thank you”. In one, first dive, whether it was a dive to the bottom of the lake or just the surface of the lake, but they have dived into it. Then they have had some kind of taste of it. So simple.  

‘A man who has lived a life of suffering has never been given any experience of transcending or any peek into that reality—never in life. He has become old, 70 years, and all his children and grandchildren say, “You are the wisest among us because you are the oldest.” But the oldest knows he does not know. All these people, presidents and prime ministers, are aged people, and they talk better than others, they can have some lecturing capacity, but that is not administratorship.

‘Administratorship is in the technique of arriving at that door from where Natural Law obeys your command. It is open to everyone. Do it. Do not waste your life in either this little thing or that little thing. No, no.

‘It is not the name of religion that will help you. It is the experience of religious practice, which is the exploration of the light of God, that will help you. Your name can be Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, or anything, but it is not the name of the religion that will help you. It is the experience of religious life, which is the light of God, that will help you. Start Transcendental Meditation, and know it. Do not waste your life in the name of religion or in the name of God or in the name of science or in the name of arts or this or that. It is a waste of precious life. Now our offer is invincibility.’

Question: Safeguarding Ancient Cultures

Dr Hagelin: ‘Can Transcendental Meditation help revive and safeguard the ancient culture of Native Americans and all indigenous peoples throughout the world? And if so, how?’

Maharishi: ‘Group meditation to clarify the collective consciousness. When the collective consciousness is neater and cleaner, then wrong things that are floating around will disappear as ignorance disappears with the onset of light. There is no other way.

‘When you say ancient heritage, the “ancient” means eternal. You go to the ancient, and you find the same thing. The same thing is what? Unity, unity, anywhere unity. So all the cultures and all the Laws of Nature belong to the ancient. The word “ancient” in the Vedic Literature is a great word, a word of total heritage. “Total heritage” means heritage of the knowledge of the totality of Natural Law.

‘Totality of Natural Law is in self-referral consciousness. Unified modern science has discovered it in terms of the Unified Field. The word is a new word, “Unified Field”, but it has the same material which is ancient, which is “Puran”, which is eternal, undying, unbounded, infinite, eternal. The whole literature of the Puran belongs to the most ancient. “Most ancient” is that which is always everywhere. It is the unmanifest field.  

‘What is the unmanifest field? It is like the sap in a tree. The unmanifest is the light of God or the Law of Nature, the law of God, the desire of God which has created creation. It is something which is undying, unlimited, infinite, omnipresent, at all times. That is why it is Transcendental Consciousness. The whole world of phenomenon and this physical world is based on that level, as the tree is based on the sap level.

‘The gardener waters the root to enliven the sap, to enjoy the fruit. It is a basic level, the Unified Field, which is ancient and is always ancient. One thousand years later, today’s transcendental field will be ancient thought. So ancient is ancient, and it is the present and the future as well. Ancient is not different in the future and present and in the past. It is one wholeness, unity of all diversity, unity which is the potential of all diversity. And one can dive in and go from diversity to that unity, Transcendental Consciousness, and all possibilities are there. Tell the people, “Don’t waste your time.”  

‘Dr Hagelin, when you spoke in Washington at the different universities there, the response of the youngsters was so great. I have heard the stories about it. It is very necessary to save the present generation from being lost as the past generations have been. Your effort in the US to round up the youngsters is very much appreciated by the present generation and will be a guiding light for all future generations. I am hearing great applause. When the students respond to you, the teachers also say, “Oh yes, it is good for you to meditate.”

‘The voice of the Peace Government is a very healthy tone. It rings the bell of eureka. Governments have to be in peace. They have to know how to administer without negativity, without suffering, without failures, and without problems.’