15 March 2006 Press Conference Highlights


Question: The Most Important Point of Maharishi’s Teaching

Lily Koppel (New York Times): ‘Maharishi, thank you very much for having me here today. I know you have a very busy schedule. Maharishi is well known for pointing out to people the precious vitality of life. I have often heard him saying, “Just enjoy.” I am wondering how Maharishi enjoys himself, and I would also like to ask what has been the most important thing you have learned in your life?’ 

Maharishi: ‘Just how to enjoy. Just how to enjoy. And to enjoy is: Transcendental Meditation, which takes the mind to bliss. Transcendental Consciousness is bliss consciousness. This is the innermost value of everyone’s consciousness.

‘I know how to transcend and get to this field of bliss. This I have been teaching for fifty years in the world. Now is the time to create groups of people who will enjoy. Their joy will radiate from these groups and will eliminate all the things that are not joyful in life. That is all—simple.’  

Question: Expansion of the Message of Inner Peace

Ms Koppel: ‘Why are you now expanding your message of inner peace? Why isn’t inner peace enough?’ 

Maharishi: ‘Why? Because I do not like people to suffer when they can enjoy. They can meditate and enjoy. So I tell them, “If you want to enjoy, meditate.” That is all. It is not a matter of one man here or one man there; millions of people are everywhere.’

Question: Maharishi’s Message—A Reflection of Evolution

Ms Koppel: ‘Does your message, which has grown now from inner peace to group peace, reflect your evolution as a human being?’ 

Maharishi: ‘Exactly, exactly—the evolution of human life on earth. That which was underground, which was in the transcendental field, has started to come up, in whatever little measure, to be experienced in the outside. This group flying and group bubbling-in-bliss comes out from the individual mind as bubbling-in-bliss individually. When many people do it, it is like many candle lights in a dark room. One candle light lights the darkness. With two lights more, three, four, a hundred candle lights, all the darkness is completely eliminated.

‘That is the story with the growth of coherence in the collective consciousness of each country. Now we have reached a point through these groups of Yogic Flyers—practitioners of Transcendental Meditation and the Yogic Flying technique—whereby it is completely within our range to eliminate all the negativity in any country, in any number of countries.’

Question: The Reason for the Course Fee

Ms Koppel: ‘Would it not be simpler and spread your message further to give out TM—just the traditional diving-within technique—to as many people as you could in the inner cities, in Africa, and around the world, and in that way get awareness out to everyone for free?’ 

Maharishi: ‘My teachers were teaching almost for free, but they themselves remained poor. I saw that when those who are giving peace to the people out of their compassion for them, as you said for free, then the wealthy people would not go for anything free. If it is given to the poor people for free, they say, “Yes, yes, but I have to do this work, and I have to do this work.”

‘Free things are not valued. Apart from that, those teachers, who came out teaching for free, remained poor. When I found that my teachers, instead of teaching went to take some job here and there, because they wanted money—everyone wants money—then I thought, “Make a fee. Those who want to do this thing, they will buy it. They will buy the technique and use it. They will buy the Advanced Technique and will do it.”

‘It is not a matter of money. It is a matter of bliss, which is hidden, and the technique. Someone has to spend time on them. So the teacher who spends time on them, why should he remain poor, and have nothing to eat and all that?

‘So, that the whole thing costs nothing is a very wrong notion. Every government has billions of dollars as its yearly budget. For integrated national consciousness, they can meditate—a thousand, two thousand people. Why should a government think that some organization, who knows it, should teach them for nothing? Any government, who does anything, spends money.

‘The whole thing is a waste of time, talking about money. Now I am raising the voice of invincibility for the country.’

Question: Maharishi’s Definition of Spirituality

Dr Hagelin: ‘There is a question from CNN. CNN International is producing a one-hour documentary on the rise of spirituality in the world, which will be seen by millions of people all over the globe. The producers have interviewed filmmaker Dr David Lynch about his Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace and his efforts to support Maharishi’s programme to bring Transcendental Meditation to students in the US and in every other country. The CNN producers have a few questions for Maharishi which they would like to include in this film segment.

‘Firstly, Maharishi, many people have many different understandings of what the word “spirituality” means. How does Maharishi define spirituality, and why is it so important for humanity?’ 

Maharishi: ‘Spirituality differentiates from physical, concrete materialism. Spirituality is the holistic field of Natural Law—the Light of God within everyone. That is what I am telling the people: the Light of God is within you. Spirituality is within you. You are not a superficial something. You are, deep within, everything.’

Question: TM and the Development of Spirituality

Dr Hagelin: ‘And another question, Maharishi, is: How does TM develop spirituality in an individual?’ 

Maharishi: ‘Spirituality is an eternal reality which is not influenced by anyone. That is why it is transcendental in nature. Transcendental Meditation is to fathom this transcendental reality and experience pure spirituality, wholeness, the total light of God, and the Unified Field, as Dr Hagelin, the greatest quantum mechanical scientist, expresses it—the Unified Field. That is spirituality.’

Question: The Cause of National Awakening

Dr Hagelin: ‘Maharishi, why are so many young people today learning Transcendental Meditation? There is an awakening on the campuses now, and throughout the world, and certainly in the United States. What is special about the time now that is causing the beginning of this national awakening?’ 

Maharishi: ‘It is nothing new now. It is a matter of when the message reaches the children. The message reached the children when I was moving from country to country to country. It is not a new thing now; it is a fifty-year-old thing.

‘Tell all your messengers—the great CNN, or whatever—the story is old. Fifty years ago, many of the reporters who are now seeing this may not have even been born.

‘My message, my effectiveness, is not on the basis of what they write in the papers. No one need write anything, and the world will be found to be a changed world. . . . Some sensible people have been writing something about it, but what they write is not the basis on which the world is going to be changed.

‘Writers’ opinions have a very insignificant place in the life of the readers. Therefore, all this worldwide publicity and all that is fine. The effectiveness of the message is in creating the effect of positivity and integrated national consciousness, whether the press writes or does not write.

‘My message is the message of silence, silence, silence, silence. These people want to sell their papers and their radio and all this. They want to earn money. They can earn money the way they like to earn, even on my platform. I have no objection. But I do not waste my time on them, because my existence is not based on publicity. My message is not based on publicity. My message is based on creating the effect.’

Question: The Mechanics of the Influence of the Vedic Word

Dr Hagelin: ‘Let me continue, Maharishi, with a few questions, if we can. Thank you. Last week, Maharishi said that a single Vedic word, pronounced from one place on earth by a Vedic Pandit from the level of his own self-referral Transcendental Consciousness, will spread an influence of coherence instantly, without friction, everywhere on earth—actually, everywhere in the universe. My question is: What are the mechanics by which the positive influence of a single word, bound by space and time, can spread instantly and everywhere throughout the unbounded universe?’ 

Maharishi: ‘That word has a surface value of it, which comes on the language of speech—the language—but deep within it is transcendental. “Transcendental” means omnipresent, beyond boundaries of space and time.

‘The character of the Vedic word is transcendental. Veda is not on the surface. Anything that is on the surface is subject to change and change and change. Veda is the reality of the Unified Field, and the Unified Field has its own value. It cannot be influenced by anything relative. It is its own value. “Its own value” means omnipresent, omniscient, almighty Total Natural Law. From there, because Total Natural Law is omnipresent, the influence is omnipresent. An impulse here is an impulse everywhere. That is the value of the Vedic chanting.

‘I admire the intelligence of those who were in UNESCO at the time they realized that Vedic recitation is a common heritage of mankind. I love those words—very intelligent words—from UNESCO. Vedic recitation is a common heritage of mankind. Wherever man is, here, there, everywhere, that is his heritage. It is the heritage of all mankind. It is all transcendental, just like the Unified Field. The Unified Field is on its own level. The Unified Field is always on its own level. It is on the level of the transcendental reality, beyond space and time. That is consciously reached by the human mind.’

Question: The Role of Belief in Maharishi’s Teachings

Dr Hagelin: ‘Thank you, Maharishi. This is a practical question. What is the role of belief in Maharishi’s teachings? Is belief required in order to practise Transcendental Meditation? Without belief, can the life of the individual and the world still be transformed? Is belief important?’ 

Maharishi: ‘No, belief is not important. It does not depend on belief; belief is too superficial. This is real. If one believes, one enjoys; if one does not believe, one waits and postpones the time of his joy. Faith or no faith, when the man goes through the process of learning Transcendental Meditation, he has to fall down into the transcendental, whether he believes or does not believe. It’s something very real—very real to life.’

Question: Unity Consciousness in Sleeping and Dreaming

Dr Hagelin: ‘Maharishi, this is a deep question of knowledge. Maharishi talks about how consciousness is fully awake in the state of Unity Consciousness. The question is about the experience of the other two states of consciousness, sleeping and dreaming, in Unity Consciousness. What is it like to go to sleep in the state of Unity? Can one be fully awake and still sleep? When people talk of “going to sleep,” where do they go? Where does one go when one goes to sleep in Unity Consciousness?’ 

Maharishi: ‘The understanding is right, that Unity Consciousness is fully awake consciousness. Sleeping, dreaming, waking—these are relative values; they change: from change to change. When Unity Consciousness dawns, Unity is Unity, whether it is in the environment of sleep or in the environment of dreaming or in the environment of waking. This is quite a right understanding, that even in deep sleep, Unity Consciousness will be fully awake—fully awake consciousness. That is why it is called holistic consciousness—fully awake. Then one knows that sleeping and dreaming and waking are relative states of consciousness; they are changing consciousness. It is not the reality of life. The reality of life is in Unity Consciousness, like the Unified Field.

‘As they describe in all the different branches of physical sciences, the Unified Field is the Unified Field. Before that, it is all changing values, changing values, changing values, changing values. The Unified Field is like the ocean: from here to there. On the surface it is waves, waves—small waves, big waves, small waves, big waves—but all on the surface. At the depth it is ocean and ocean and ocean. Always, the ocean is transcendental to the waves. Whether they are big waves or small waves, ocean as ocean—unbounded—is always transcendental to the waves. Like that, is the value of Transcendental Consciousness. It is its own value. It is not contrived; it can not be contrived.’

Question: Meeting Point of Dreaming and Waking

Dr Hagelin: ‘Another question is: When one experiences Transcendental Consciousness—or, in this field of Transcendental Consciousness—do dream reality and waking reality meet in some way?’

Maharishi: ‘They do not, but if we want them to meet, then their meeting point will be the transcendental point. It transcends sleep; it transcends dreaming. The meeting point is a pure point, which is devoid of these values on both sides.

‘There is a huge range of knowledge about it, which is called Nyaya. Nyaya is a big range of knowledge, a very important aspect of the Vedic Literature, which deals with this junction point. The junction point is called “lamp at the door”. The lamp lights outside and it lights inside, but it is neither outside nor inside. It is completely on its own: that is Transcendental Consciousness, on its own. That is Unity Consciousness; and its total value is in the fourth state of consciousness, Transcendental Consciousness.’

Question: The Mechanics of Global Transformation

Dr Hagelin: ‘Maharishi’s vision for the world is a huge vision. It is global transformation, reconstruction of the world, elimination of poverty, and reconstructing all the colleges and schools to have a profound basis in Total Knowledge. Maharishi has been extraordinarily successful for over fifty years in creating a worldwide awakening, a worldwide Movement, in thousands of schools and colleges.

‘What are the mechanics for turning your huge vision for the world into reality? How does one accomplish this?’ 

Maharishi: ‘I will give you one or two steps to come to this understanding. There was a time when I was thinking, “Government can do this; government can do that; government can do everything.” Later on in my life, I realized government can do only what it is doing now, because the government is governed by the collective consciousness of the nation.

‘When I realized that the government is governed by the collective consciousness of the nation, then I closed my doors to contact with governments. I stepped onto improving the quality of collective consciousness, because I wanted government to do all good to the people. I knew talking to governments is a waste of my time, because they cannot do anything. They cannot do anything unless the national consciousness makes them do it. So I came down to changing the national consciousness.

‘From my Movement in the world, I knew that group practice of Transcendental Meditation and Yogic Flying—the group practice—creates coherence in the atmosphere. So I have taken to that procedure. I am creating groups of Yogic Flyers, groups of Meditators, here, there, everywhere, in every country, and thereby changing the quality of national consciousness—making the government do what will not be done by the government by my saying or by anybody saying. When the national consciousness changes to positivity, to integration, then the government will do all that is positive and integrating. These are the two, three steps in my life which led me to adopt the countries. . . .

‘You will see. Within about six months, every national government will rise to integration. I have termed that phrase “invincibility for the nation”, because the word “sovereignty” is a useless, wasteful word today. We have seen that the human effort in the United Nations has become a laughing-stock, because it is humanly conceived. With my programme of creating integrated national consciousness in a few countries, the whole world consciousness will change in its character, and then the human endeavour will be blessed by the divine reality. All these well-meaning organizations of the United States and the United Nations, and all this irrational doing of these wars and all that, will simply stop. It is just a matter of a few days or a few weeks or a few months until I have created Yogic Flyers everywhere.

‘That is why I have adopted countries—note the word “adopted.” I have adopted twenty-four countries in the world. Within the next few days, I am sorting out how to establish these groups of Yogic Flyers, people doing Transcendental Meditation. The programme of Yogic Flying is the advanced technique of Transcendental Meditation. It will purify the national consciousness of every country. Then when you write, you will know how the sun is rising, and how the whole night, dark night, is becoming bright sunlight. These are the two, three steps which have led me to really adopt my world.’

Question: The Potential in America’s Consciousness

Ms Koppel: ‘I had another question. I was wondering how does Maharishi see America’s consciousness, or perhaps the potential for America’s consciousness. I know you said that a government’s consciousness is made, or is influenced, by the national consciousness. Maharishi must see some potential in America. I am wondering what his thoughts are on the consciousness of that country, and perhaps its relationship to its government as well.’ 

Maharishi: ‘My strength in America is Dr Hagelin. He is going to rule America from the level of the Constitution of the Universe, from the level of that knowledge which is the knowledge of Total Natural Law. . . .

‘The capital of the United States, Washington, DC, is situated on the wrong side of the river. This is another field of knowledge, Sthapatya Veda, which is one aspect of Vedic Literature, one aspect of Natural Law. It tells us that any house or any city which has a water body or a river or an ocean to the south of it will never live in peace.

‘Therefore, as long as America has its capital with the river to the south, we cannot expect anything good to come out of it. But when world consciousness changes, then the capital of United States will change. Take it from me, and watch for the day when the capital of the United States changes from Washington, DC to some other place which is far away from this bad influence of the water body on the south. This is one aspect of the Vedic Literature, Sthapatya Veda.

‘Yogic Flying is one knowledge that I am promoting. This proper layout of the housing, proper architecture of the housing, is another knowledge that I am promoting. Both are aspects of Natural Law; one can not be overshadowed by the other.

‘Washington will always remain a thorny bush. The same thing in England: the water body is on the south. Every country’s capital is wrongly built. You can have the chart of our champion of Vedic Architecture. It tells you what the consequences are of the houses which have their entrance in the east, in the north, in the west, in the south. Researchers have found out that a particular disease comes from so many people living in their houses that have southern entrances or western entrances. These are the values of Natural Law. If people follow them, they will enjoy. That is why my programme in the world is to reconstruct the world. People must come out of their misfortune-creating homes, and they must begin to live in fortune-creating homes.

‘As long as Washington, DC, is situated in a place like it is situated now, with the wrong influence, the negative influence of the river, nothing good can come out of the government. What good can come out of it? More destruction, more poison, more creating Hiroshimas—that will always come out.

‘Americans must decide whether they want to pave their way to hell or to heaven. I have shown them the way to heaven. Whether it is America or England or Germany or any country, I am for all countries to enjoy, but as long as they want to suffer, no one can help them.’

Ms Koppel: ‘Maharishi, thank you very much for all of your time.’ 

Question: Mechanics of Fulfilling Big Desires

Dr Hagelin: ‘It seems that so many people in life have very small aspirations, and they struggle to fulfil those small aspirations. If they are lucky, they succeed in their small aspirations, like having a home and becoming a middle-class citizen of the country. Yet a saint, a man of knowledge like Maharishi, has huge aspirations and the ability to fulfil huge aspirations. Could Maharishi shed some light on the mechanics of fulfillment of desire, which allows highly developed people to aspire for so much and to achieve so much in comparison to people who struggle to achieve such small things in life?’ 

Maharishi: ‘If a man wants to sell oranges in the market, he says, “Take my oranges; they are very sweet.” He goes from lane to lane, from street to street, shouting about it. There is a man who opens his diamond shop, “Come to me.” All the wealthy people in the market go to him. So it is a matter of choice whether you want to be a hawker on the street or a master of a big shop, and everyone then comes to you.

‘This is that knowledge. The Unified Field is not a foreign thing now. The Unified Field is a voice of America, but it is not the voice of a political America. It is the voice of an intelligent America. . . .

‘My coherence creating groups are going to put out all the mischief-mongership in the world. The world is going to come out to be a neat and clean world. All these mischief-mongering countries will fade away.

‘Reality is reality. Light is light. When the light comes, darkness has no chance to continue. We will see what happens to the British political policy and the American political policy in these six months, one year. That will be the end of their existence. Note down the date I have said it.

‘I am creating integrated consciousness in a few countries. I have taken twelve countries to do it. Let the world press watch what happens tomorrow.’

Question: What Individuals Can Do to Create World Peace

Dr Hagelin: ‘Thank you very much, Maharishi. We have just two more questions: one from the New York Times and one from a religious writer. The first is Ms Koppel’s final question from the New York Times.’ 

Ms Koppel: ‘Maharishi, what can each individual do to help realize world peace? Each individual, wherever they are, whatever level of knowledge they are at—what can each person do?’ 

Maharishi: ‘Each person is a unit of the world population. The individual who wants world peace should gain peace himself, and then he has done it for world peace. As long as the unit is bright and brilliant and enlightened, the whole will be bright and enlightened. One has to be peaceful, if he wants his environment to be peaceful.’

Question: Fulfilment of the Aspirations for a Golden Age

Dr Hagelin: ‘Thank you very much, Maharishi. A last question: Virtually every great spiritual tradition and religion speaks of a golden age, a time of perfect peace and abundance and happiness for all. Such a golden age sounds a lot like how Maharishi describes what he calls the coming of “the dawn of a fortunate new destiny for mankind”—a time of no war, no violence, no problems, and no suffering for anyone on earth. Does Maharishi see his work today as fulfilling the aspirations and prophecies of spiritual and religious leaders throughout time concerning a golden age to come?’ 

Maharishi: ‘Of course. I am picking up nation by nation. I have picked up twelve; I have picked up twenty-four. Each nation is rising to have coherent national consciousness. This will not take more than six months, eight months. During this year, the world press will have very little negativity to report, because it will die its own death. When the light comes, darkness cannot remain. When coherence rises in national consciousness, conflicting thoughts and problems and difficulties and sickness and all that is anti-life will simply disappear. Life will glow on its own level—bliss consciousness.’

Closing Remarks

Maharishi: ‘One more sentence I want to tell the world press today is: Watch when Dr Hagelin will rule America. It will not be very long, because coherence is rising in world consciousness. That rise of coherence in world consciousness will put out all the destructive tendencies in the field of administration. What will blossom is that the holistic value of Natural Law will rule the world. Dr Hagelin is the custodian of that holistic value of Natural Law.

‘Dr Hagelin, from today you do not have to do anything except what you are doing now. Create coherence everywhere, and world consciousness will be coherent. Dr Hagelin and all his colleague scientists in all parts of the world will be the rulers of the governments of every country. However many months it takes—three months, four months, five months maximum—in this much time, the scientists will rule the world.

‘That is my last sentence. Now, invite the Prime Minister of the Global Country of World Peace to lay out his version of the transition from this level of the governmental administration in the world to that level of administration of the governments of the world.

‘What will help is this system of democratic voting. Every so often, that itself will eat up the thorny edges of ignorance that have been ruling the world and that have been mismanaging the orderly functioning of the Constitution of the Universe. It is not a matter of whether tiny intellects understand or do not understand. They will understand for themselves or not understand for themselves. The reality that is dawning is the state of enlightenment all over. That will be guided by the scientists of today, because today’s scientists have gotten into the groove of the eternal science of the unmanifest field of reality–it never changes.

‘It is beautiful. Go ahead. All these words are to amuse ourselves, but the reality is now dawning.’