8 March 2006 Press Conference Highlights

Opening Remarks

Maharishi: ‘Jai Guru Dev. After 50 years the Movement has come to a level of releasing stress from the national level. When I started the Movement it was to release stress on the individual level, but now the statistics show, the record shows, that it is possible to eliminate national stress by having a few people practising Transcendental Meditation and its Advanced Techniques, including Yogic Flying.

‘With a group here, a group there, a few groups of people practising this technique together can create integrated national consciousness the same way as the individual’s consciousness is integrated through the daily practice of Transcendental Meditation, its Advanced Techniques, and Yogic Flying. When it was realised that a few people can create integrated national consciousness in a country, then our Movement was on a really fulfilling level.

‘Now, we are taking a country as a whole. We have last month, declared in our own family that we are adopting twenty-four countries. The purpose of our adopting these countries is to make them free from problems by raising consciousness in these countries to an integrated level by creating a few groups of Yogic Flyers, who will practise in groups. Automatically, the effect will be integrated national consciousness. With integrated national consciousness, negative trends will not arise and will not be permitted to enter into the country from outside.

‘It was a great relief that even a few people can do this. In every country, about 1/4 or 1/5 or 1/6 of the population is of student age. Our programme is that they are trained to be good citizens of the country in their student age. We introduce this thing in the high schools and colleges, and then that will be enough for all generations to have integrated national consciousness created by these group Yogic Flyers. Nothing much has to be done for every national consciousness to become and remain integrated.

‘ “Integrated national consciousness” means an abundance of positivity, coherence, cordiality, love, affection, and freedom in a well-coordinated state of national consciousness. With this, what will happen? National consciousness is always the motivator for every action of a government. Whatever the government does, it is motivated by national consciousness. A government cannot do anything other than what is dictated by national consciousness. So we say that national consciousness is the government of the national government.

‘When we want government to be free from problems, healthy, peaceful, and creative, then we have to turn to the quality of national consciousness. We have seen that students in their student age are good enough in any country to create integrated national consciousness.

‘Our effort now is to create these groups of Yogic Flyers—groups of Meditators—and that will be enough for the country to be free from problems, free from negativity, free from suffering, free from disease, and all those negativities that are there. We are now on a level of creating the effect rather than talking about it. We have to talk about it, but everywhere we are creating these groups in the schools and colleges, and we are opening our own schools and colleges.

‘In our schools and colleges we are giving Total Knowledge to our students. “Total Knowledge” means knowledge of the Unified Field, knowledge of what has been researched in all physical sciences. What has been researched in all physical sciences, in one word, is the Unified Field. We have the ringleader of the Unified Field in the world today, Dr John Hagelin, who, being a scientist, has realised that total science is in the Unified Field.

‘The Unified Field, being a field of total science, is not a new reality. It has been realised as a new reality, but it is ancient, it is old, it is as old as creation is. It is as old as the universe is, because the uni-verse is the unified and versified value in a unified state. It is the unified value of the versified values of all that there is. In scientific language, Dr Hagelin spells it out in such simple words. These simple words are the expressions of the transcendental reality, which is the subject matter of the total field of knowledge, the Veda.

‘The transcendental field, the field which transcends relativity, which transcends change, the field of the Unified Field of Natural Law, is the subject matter of the Veda. That is a different thing. Veda is the most ancient record of Total Knowledge, total science, total technology, and is the basis of the order in creation. There is order in the universe. The huge enormous galaxies are dynamically moving in empty space like that, but never colliding with each other. There is order. There is order in the different units of order in the whole universe.

‘In this scientific age, through the tradition of the Vedic Masters, we have the technique for the individual to experience that Unified Field, and we have the mathematical calculations to prove the validity of the Unified Field at the basis of all diversities. We have mathematical calculations to intellectually lay out the structure of the Unified Field, and we have the technology to take our conscious awareness, our mind, our intellect, our ego, to transcend the limitations of space and time and unfold that eternal reality of Total Knowledge, the Veda.

‘Here is a time for the world to become completely renewed for its potentiality. The potential of every nation is on the level of the Unified Field. The potential of every individual is on the level of the Unified Field. Here is a time when the knowledge is totally available, and here is a time for the wise people of this generation to establish it, in this generation, on a level of modern science. There is no harm in modern science, because students learn mathematics, students learn logic, students learn to see something objectively and locate the subjectivity underneath the objective observation. So, the whole thing is very, very complete, from whatever angle we see. This is the time for the wise people to establish this for their children, for their grandchildren, for all the future of mankind.

‘Dr Hagelin is a great champion, a great friend, a great father of all nations. Out of his parental role he says, “Now come on. All the efforts, that have been made and are being made now, have been on the level of well-meaning organisations here, there, and everywhere, in the field of politics, in the field of economics, in the field of management. They are all on the level of human concepts, but the reality of life is not on the basis of human concepts, because human concepts have human failings.”

‘Human concepts have human failings. People—100, 200, 1,000, or 10,000 people—today raise their hands, “Yes, I like this, I like this.” Tomorrow those 10,000 say, “I like that, I like that.” This human conclusion is very, very dangerous for any meaningful, stable sense of wholeness. It appears to be holistic, but democracy is a very bad system.

‘It is the effort of humankind to find solutions. Solutions do not lie in the field of space and time. Solutions lie in something that is transcendental to all space and all time. Only that can be regarded to be a reliable authority on which stability and on which a really good fortune of mankind can be based.

‘With the experiences of the people in this transcendental field and all this huge amount of scientific research, the countries are going to be more and more self-sufficient as more and more flying groups are placed here, there, everywhere.

‘We are now demonstrating the effectiveness of it, but the total effectiveness demands a little time. For what? For the people to begin to live in the Vastu buildings. The layout of the buildings in which people live and work should be in conformity with Vedic Design. Vedic Design is a different field altogether. This is one field.

‘Another field is the level of human consciousness: how much of the wholeness is lively in the consciousness of a person, whether he is awake 100 percent, or he is drowsy 10 percent, or drowsy 40 percent. We have sleep state, dream state, waking state—how much a man is awake, how much a man is sleeping. A man who is not fully awake cannot be authentic. He is a searcher in the field. He is not a master of his destiny. He is a slave of situations and circumstances.

‘This deficiency we eliminate by introducing the field of knowledge of Total Natural Law, the Unified Field. Dr Hagelin is one scientist in the world who has come out with not only the full equations that are understandable by intellect, verifiable by the intellect, but also the technology for the application of it in order to produce the effect. This is a great scientist today who is with us, and we are honouring him for his value, and the world will always honour him for his value. This is our message to the world press today.

‘Dr Hagelin, it is the same thing. We are not saying anything new. You are not saying anything new. You have been talking about it for so long. I have been talking about it for so long. But what is new is: now, see where the arrow hits. The arrow is about to hit the target. Our arrow of the world Movement was to create a Spiritual Regeneration Movement [this is the name of the first global organisation which Maharishi founded in 1957].

‘Spiritual regeneration, spirituality, is nothing new. It is always there, but because its home is in the transcendental area, it was obscure to the ordinary vision. This technology of the Unified Field, which is the technology of Transcendental Meditation, unfolds human awareness to human intelligence, to human ego, and when it unfolds to human ego, it is cosmic ego, it is Totality. Then man’s awareness is capable of knowing everything, capable of doing everything. This is our great pride in the world. This is our great achievement in the world.

‘Now we are declaring to the world that not only this generation, but all future generations, are going to be free from all those small values, negative values, and all those criminal values—all those fights, wars, and all that. People will not sin.

‘If killing a person is a sin, killing many people, which is called a war, is a big sin. All the sinners in the world are going to go to hell. Whatever the hell is, they are all going to go. We are sorry for them. We are shouting to them, “Don’t do this. Don’t do this. Don’t do this.” But whatever the level of consciousness of a country that is the level of consciousness.

‘We are going to change the level of consciousness to a high level of integrity—very quietly, very quietly, very quietly. That is our offer to the world. That is our strength; that is our nature. We rejoice in playing our parental role for the whole population of the world.

‘Keep on reassuring the world, Dr Hagelin. The world has come so far, and now in these countries, with a few groups here and there in each country, we have done it for the whole people. It is very good. The role that you are playing, Dr Hagelin, is a parental role for all mankind. You have taken recourse to a knowledge which is authentic in itself, which is completely on its own, uninfluenced by anything else.

‘Only, when the tree is planted—when the plant is younger—it has to be protected. When it grows, the same which was tender some time becomes a big huge tree and elephants are tied to it. The tree of coherence, of real freedom, of invincibility, is a tender plant today. Very soon within a few days, within a few months—I will not say within a few years, just within a few months—it is going to be so enormously matured that all these things, which seem to be overpowering in the problem-ridden world of today, are going to be shattered, and complete, eternal freedom is going to dawn.

‘Tell the people what you have been saying for the last few weeks—report. The world press has started to report properly. It is very good.’

Question: The Basis on Which Countries Have Been Adopted

Dr Hagelin: ‘Thank you very much Maharishi for that beautiful introduction. As usual, many questions have come in from the global press. In our presence today is the well-known reporter, Mr David Jones, who was honoured in the UK for his journalism last year. He has come to the Capital of the Global Country of World Peace to ask questions of Maharishi and to bring news back to the UK. So, at this point I would invite Mr David Jones to ask Maharishi his question and see if Maharishi would like to respond.’ 

David Jones: ‘Maharishi, thank you very much indeed for receiving me, for granting this interview today. I am very honoured. I understand you have not granted an interview to a UK journalist for quite some time. I really am honoured, so thank you. There are many questions that I have. I do know how much time you have, but I have a whole lot of questions.

‘I think you may have answered the first question I was going to ask in your introduction. I was going to start by asking why after forty to fifty years of focusing on the individual, you are now turning your attention to governments, but I think that question has been pretty well addressed in your introduction. Arising from that, could you explain on what basis you have chosen the twenty-four countries that you are focusing on. On what basis have these particular countries been chosen? Would you address that for me, please?’ 

Maharishi: ‘Their contrast with England, in terms of being more innocent and positive countries, as against the very damaging and dangerous country of England. England is a destroyer of the world very openly. These countries are more simple and are not destroyers of the world, so they have been adopted for their simplicity. I withdrew my activity from England because, when the scientific research indicates that Transcendental Meditation makes the people healthy, wealthy, and wise, I do not want to make that country, which is a destroyer of the world, healthy, wealthy, and wise. Otherwise, I would be the promoter of a bigger destruction to the world.

‘That is the reason that some time back I decided to just close the doors. I do not want to give better health and better prosperity and wisdom to a country whose whole policy—beginning to end—is to destroy. If it has not reached the destruction level, then at least divide and rule. Divide and rule is the British policy. It is very criminal. You divide innocent people.

‘The entire British disposition is to destroy the unity of every nation, and if possible destroy the country and sell arms. At least destroy the country. That is why I did not like to think of that country. I did not like to give life to that country. Otherwise, I would be supporting the country to destroy more quickly. That is the reason. My principles are very simple and very clear.’  

Question: The Difference Between the United Kingdom and the United States

Mr Jones: ‘Thank you for that answer. May I follow-up by asking you how the United Kingdom differs in your view from the United States, which many see as an equally warmongering, arms-promulgating nation as the United Kingdom. Why do you separate the two?’ 

Maharishi: ‘The population of the US is bigger. With a bigger population, I could have a hope from one corner or the other corner. England is a smaller country, so I cannot divide the smaller country into little, little corners and have my approach. It is the bigger population in the US, which leaves some hope in me about the US. Dr Hagelin tells me, so much of the US press is raising a voice this way. [Reference to the extensive media coverage of Maharishi’s programmes in USA in recent months]. There is a bigger population, and I have a hope to revive it. That is why I did not reject it; otherwise, from this level, it needed rejection. But I have some hope for the country. That is the reason.’

Question: Maharishi’s Approach to England

Mr Jones: ‘Some people might suggest that it would be better to try to effect change from within. And taking your own thesis, if I may call it that, which is that it needs a very few people to effect a very big change, I am sure that you would find that within the United Kingdom there are more than sufficient people who are opposed to the policies of the government of the day who would be willing to support you and your aims, if only you would return to the United Kingdom and give them that chance to do so. But, of course, without your presence there, and without your support, they feel cut off, and they feel—for want of a better expression—that you have abandoned them there, and that they are no longer part of your Movement. Could you respond to that?’ 

Maharishi: ‘I have abandoned them to wake up to my knowledge. No country in the world, no government, has adopted my procedure to become free and to become integrated. This is because it is the national consciousness that is the motivating power of a government. That is why I have left every government; I am not proposing to any government. I am going to establish Yogic Flyers with groups of some people—all that I can afford. I will see whatever response is there.

‘It is like a barren field. Wherever I feel there is some fertility, I sow the seed, sow the seed, sow the seed, raise the crop, like that, in these countries in the world. About six months is the time needed for the demonstration of the mind to be functioning on the transcendental level of consciousness. It is just the experience that makes the mind function on the transcendental field, and from there the group creates an effect of coherence emerging and spreading throughout national consciousness.

‘These countries will help silently to promote a sense of positivity, a sense of integration, and a sense of harmony all over. English national consciousness will not be an exception to this, but it has to be from outside. Then today’s fighting England will become a supportive England. It will begin to be functioning according to the influence of Total Natural Law, the Unified Field.

‘If there are scientists in England, then it is good that they soon hear Dr Hagelin and follow him. Following him, they will be following the absolute authentic procedures for creating integrated national consciousness. Then the integrated national consciousness of England will amend all the ways of the government, as will happen in every country. It will happen to China, India, Russia, and all the countries, small or big. It is the world consciousness that has to be purified, and this is how it will be purified—a few groups here, a few groups there.’

Question: Objections to England

Mr Jones: ‘Yes, thank you. Could you explain exactly what it that you object to about England’s policies, world policies? Is it specifically arms dealing, or is it the war with the Iraq, or what?’ 

Maharishi: ‘I do not have to tell you about the whole destructive policy of the British government and the whole policy of divide and rule in all the innocent countries. Each country is fighting with each other. This party, this party, this party, and all that is in the name of freedom. England is giving “freedom” to all those countries, destroying the integrity of every nation, creating different, different parties, different, different parties. This destructive nature of the British government can only be improved by improving the whole world consciousness. There is no way out.’

Question: Changing Leadership Is Not the Solution

Mr Jones: ‘Would a change of government encourage you to return to England, supposing that Mr Blair was no longer the Prime Minister and he was voted out?’ 

Maharishi: ‘No, it is not Blair or Lair or whoever. It is not the individual; absolutely, it is not the individual. It is the national consciousness. It is not the individual. The individual has no meaning. The individual is only a football of national consciousness. I do not give any importance to any individual. The individual may be this or that, but it is the collective consciousness of the nation, which is the basis of the world consciousness of all countries. That has to be improved, and I am trying to improve it by taking a few countries. Then there will be rising coherence in those countries, and from there, in the neighbouring countries, in the neighbouring continent, and in the whole world.

‘My Movement has gone from the individual to groups, from groups to nations. It has gone to the nations, and it has gone from individual concepts of administration to cosmic concepts of administration, to the collective concepts of administration. That is clearly marked in the unified wholeness of administration of the universe. The theme is very clear.’

Question: Maharishi’s Attitude Towards England

Mr Jones: ‘It seems somewhat of a shame, Maharishi, that you feel this way towards England, because England feels so warm towards you. You, of course, spent a lot of time there. I wonder how you feel towards the country generally. You enjoyed your time there in the Sixties and onwards. I wonder how you feel towards England, whether you have any warmth towards the country, if you do have warmth towards individual countries?’ 

Maharishi: ‘I remember when I went from America to England and I gave the first conference in the Albert Hall. I remember that. Then I was full of hope. I was full of hope, when I rang the bell of Transcendental Consciousness in that great Albert Hall the first time and sequentially in so many meetings. For so many years I was there, so many years. I trained so many people, and so many Teachers of Transcendental Meditation, but at the end I thought to give a lesson to the naughty child. It is like the parents who feed the children and give them all good things and nice things. But if the child is naughty constantly, they give him a few lessons of a different kind with the same affection of parental protection for the child. That is my attitude towards England now.’

Mr Jones: ‘From that, may we infer that one day you might be back? You may return and cuddle the naughty child again, give the naughty child a second chance perhaps, and adopt a different set, a different type of discipline, and go back?’ 

Maharishi: ‘My response will be on the basis of the response of the child. If the child comes back saying, “Oh, I did wrong”, I will say, “Fine, do not worry about it. Forget about the past, go ahead.” Always, that is the parental role of the parents. The apparent anger with the child has underneath it a great affection for the child. That is the nature of behaviour.’

Question: The Experience of Totality

Dr Hagelin: ‘I have a question from an education writer in Massachusetts, who has heard Maharishi speak many times. This is an advanced question on the experience of Totality. Maharishi said that only the experience of Totality will bring complete fulfilment to the life of a human being, but are there degrees of the experience of Totality. I ask because Maharishi also speaks about higher states of consciousness: Cosmic Consciousness, God Consciousness, Unity Consciousness. At what point in the development of these higher states of consciousness is Totality realised and complete fulfilment gained?’ 

Maharishi: ‘It is very simple to understand. The experience of Transcendental Consciousness requires total brain functioning. All parts of the brain become awake, and then the total brain functioning brings the experience of Transcendental Consciousness. By repeating this experience—that means by making the total brain function—the physiology of the brain through constant practise of total functioning becomes habituated to every thought being promoted from the total field of knowledge.

‘When every thought is promoted from the total field of knowledge, then that thought is promoted from the cosmic intelligence. That we call, from the Will of God. The omnipresent, omniscient, Almighty Will of God promotes a thought, and that thought pervades creation from point to infinity. That, we would say, is the supreme capability, the supreme ability of the individual who is born with human brain physiology.

‘With all the senses of action, senses of perception—eyes, ears, nose, taste and touch, all these five senses of perception—the full brain is not utilised. The full brain is utilised only in experiencing Transcendental Consciousness, which is beyond the limitations of space and time, which is beyond the limitations of each of these five senses. That experience of total brain functioning has to be repeated in order that the brain functioning becomes habituated to have comprehensive functioning. With this comprehensive functioning of the brain the cosmic potential of the individual human life will become a practicality.

‘That is why it is said that man was made in the image of God. This is a religious expression: “Man is made in the image of God.” Man’s full creative potential is when his total brain comes to function. When his total brain functions, then the total Creative Intelligence is in action.

‘He is the same individual whose eyes could see only so much, whose ears could hear only so much—limited perceptions on the level of sensory perception. Transcendental perception uses the source of all these five levels of perception, the source of eyes, ears, touch and taste, and all—the source of it. The experience of the one transcendental field of self-referral intelligence is the top-class human experience which is pure. We can say it is non-human, in one sense. Pure, non-human means pure Divine. Pure Light of God is within the capability of human brain functioning.

‘When we say “human brain functioning”, the heart also goes with it. Brain and heart go together; that is human potential. That is the individual human potential, which is the cosmic, divine reality. For the total brain to function always, the total brain functioning should be given practice, practice, practice, practice. So we practise a few times, morning and evening, then we are habituating our brain physiology to function in a holistic manner. This holistic functioning is divine functioning.

‘One can explain this in the explanations that one learned from Dr Hagelin, the mathematical terms in which the unfoldment of the total human potential is understood in terms of modern sciences—physics, chemistry, biology, physiology, and all those. These are all understandings of different levels of wholeness. In the same way, there are experiences of different levels of wholeness through long practice, through pratice, practice, practice.

‘There is a saying in English, “Practice makes a man perfect.” This is it. Practising total functioning of the brain means experiencing the transcendental field of self-referral intelligence for a short time, and for a short time, and for a short time. The brain physiology becomes habituated to function in that manner all the time. That is Unity Consciousness. That is the Unified Field of Natural Law.

‘The Unified Field of Natural Law is conceptually indicated by mathematical equations, but practically it is open to itself on its own transcendental value through experience. The beauty of Dr Hagelin is that what he has understood theoretically on the intellectual level, he has experienced on the practical level, and therefore his brain has started to function totally, totally, totally. The scientist is absolutely convinced, and now he is going to change the world.’

Question: Benefits of TM

Mr Jones: ‘Maharishi, I am not a Meditator. I do not practise TM, but if I did, would I personally experience short or long term benefits from taking up Transcendental Meditation? Would you recommend it to me? What would be a lasting benefit, and would it start straight away it?’ 

Maharishi: ‘You will immediately become a better human being, a better writer, a better reporter, a better leader of your world press. Immediately you will begin to feel that you are better and better in every field of your exposure.’

Mr Jones: ‘Could you explain perhaps these benefits that I would gain as a writer and as a reporter?’ 

Maharishi: ‘When you taste it, you will know that English phrase, your phrase, “The taste of pudding is in eating”—the taste of transcendental consciousness is in experiencing it. You can keep on talking about it for hundreds of years, but until you have taken a dive into it, you would not know what it is. It is in the taste of the pudding that the pudding lies; otherwise, the pudding does not have any meaning. There is so much scientific research. You have seen all those six, seven volumes of scientific research.

‘For your own sake, my dear friend, British journalist, for your own sake, use your life for something substantial—to BE. Do not think writing is only your thing—that you have written an article, and it has gone in a hundred newspapers, and so you are great. Do not think of your greatness on the superficial values of public evaluation. Be substantially—BE—be your own reality. You are losing a great chance by thinking of how Transcendental Meditation will influence your profession. This is too superficial. You are giving a too superficial value to your life. Life is much greater. Life is that which Dr Hagelin calls the Unified Field.

‘Man is the master of his destiny. Do not be a football of situations and circumstances. Anything worldly like that is too superficial to base life on.’

Question: Place of Fame in Modern Society

Mr Jones: ‘Maharishi, in your view does celebrity have any place in modern society? Do celebrity and fame have any importance?’ 

Maharishi: ‘It has a place as a waste of life, in my evaluation.’

Mr Jones: ‘Sir, you yourself are famous.’ 

Maharishi: ‘But that fame has nothing to do with me. Those who feel good, they say, “Yes, I am good, I am good”; but I do not become good by them telling me to be good. All that—fame and all these things—it is too superficial. Life is so grand and so good and so enormously powerful—more than this little fame. If you write a very good article about me, and I say, “Oh yes, I have become great, and all that”, it is too superficial for me to think like that. Fame does not matter. Life has more substance. Fame is aerial. It is spacey, aerial; the waves go in the air. So these things are too superficial for me.’

Question: The Value of the Scientific Age

Dr Hagelin: ‘There are two questions that I would like to squeeze in from the press, before we have to close. One has to do with the nature of this scientific age which Maharishi feels is a very strategic age, a strategic time, to transform the world. Maharishi often talks about creating a bright new destiny in the scientific age and that no one need suffer any more in this scientific age. My question is about the significance of the scientific age. Why is the scientific age more advantageous than perhaps some previous age? Has not the scientific age also brought mankind to the brink of disaster? What makes the scientific age so ideal in Maharishi’s mind?’ 

Maharishi: ‘Science provides a systematic, sequential approach to reality. Supposing reality is heaven, for other people science could also provide a systematic reality of hell. They could systematically go in the other direction and go to hell.

‘Here, religion is a saviour of science, and science is a promoter of religion. Science is a promoter of reliable religion. It leads mankind to peace, prosperity, happiness, the Will of God, the protector of everything—all that is told about God. So, the whole thing—religion, religious texts, scientific texts—all sequentially lead the individual to his cosmic potential, which is pure divinity, the Light of God. Science is a reliable approach to the Light of God.’

Question: The Difference Between Transcending and Cognition

Dr Hagelin: ‘Thank you, Maharishi. Here is another short but deep question: What is the difference in the mechanics of a person who transcends and experiences pure Being—pure, unmanifest Veda at the source of thought—and the process that a Rishi undergoes when he cognises the Veda, when he sees and hears the hymns of the Veda. So the question is: What is the difference between transcending to experience pure Being, and cognising the Veda within that reality of Being?’ 

Maharishi: ‘When we say Veda, in that three values are involved: the Rishi, which means the seer; the process of seeing; and the object of sight. So the seer, seeing, and the sight—all the three mean the Veda. Rishi, Devata, Chhand—all the three mean the Veda, Total Knowledge. Cognition of the Veda means when you hear the Veda, when you see the Veda, then what you see is: who is the seer, what is the seeing process, and what is the sight, which is the goal of seeing.

‘The seer, seeing, and the sight—Rishi, Devata, Chhand—are the cognitions of the three aspects of the Veda. When we say all the three, then we say all the three together—Samhita. “Samhita” means the Unified Field, the Unified Field of all the three—Rishi, Devata, Chhand. Three in togetherness—that is the Veda. That is the soul of everyone. That is the Atma of everyone. That is the Totality. That is Unity Consciousness. That is Brahm. “Aham Brahm”—I am Totality, I am Brahm. That is the reality of man in the Light of God. That is why man has that authenticity. Man is the master of his own destiny, because at the top level he is on the level of the Almighty, total liveliness of Natural Law, cosmic law, divine law, pure divinity, God, the Unified Field.’

Question: Religious Differences and the Unified Field

Mr Jones: ‘Maharishi, thank you for that. When you look at the world now and you see the stark division that exists between the Islamic world and the Christian world, do you look at one side and say, “Well, I have more sympathy with that side or the other side”? Also, how do you see that this great conflict might be resolved through Transcendental Meditation?’ 

Maharishi: ‘Transcendental Meditation is one thing on the level of experience. On the level of theory, they will all come to the Unified Field. The Unified Field is a field which unifies all differences. Christianity has a God, and Islam has a God, and Buddhism has a God, and this one has a God, and this one has a God. The Unified Field has all the Gods on one level, the unified level. So it is the scientific age that is going to eliminate the thorny edge of differences of all religions. Not only all religions, but all systems of politics, all systems of economy, all systems of differences everywhere.

‘This is going to be the scientific approach to life, now that the Unified Field has been discovered by Dr Hagelin and his colleagues in the world. When the top level has been known, young students’ time should not be wasted in test-tube laboratories. In those days when science was developing, then the test-tube laboratories for students were all right. Now, the students should be given the direct experience of the Unified Field and the direct understanding of all the mathematical calculations emerging from zero, from the zero-point motion, where all the Unified Field is a reality—from zero. What is not being taught in the schools is zero.

‘Mathematics starts not from one, two, three, four, five, but from zero. When we write a Vedic one, first we write the zero and lengthen the line to be one. So, when we see a Vedic one it has a zero in it and one in it. When we write any other one, say supposing an English one, a straight one, there is no zero. What is missing is the source of one. The source of one is missing in other units of language, in other languages, but in the Vedic language, zero is there and one is there. In other languages, a simple one is there. When one is there, one hangs without a source, and anything without a source will never satisfy the completeness of knowledge. It is a very simple argument, which I am giving just to say that even mathematics, which decides so many different values, is without its real permanent basis. Now you see where mathematics is?

‘So we go to Vedic Mathematics, we go to Vedic Language, we go to Vedic Expression, we go to Vedic Silence. Then, we have trained our brain physiology to function completely, and we are really fully developed individuals, fully developed human beings. We are expressions of the divine. We are the masters of our own destiny; otherwise, we are slaves of situations and circumstances.

‘These are simple plain words. It may appear to be hard, but they are very soft.’

Question: The Future of the TM Movement

Mr Jones: ‘Could I ask you one more question, please?’ 

Maharishi: ‘Yes, yes, it is all right.’

Mr Jones: ‘I do not know precisely what age you are, but clearly you will not live forever, like any of us. What will happen to the TM Movement when you pass on? Do you have successors in mind? Do you need a successor to be a figurehead of the Movement or how will it work?’ 

Maharishi: ‘It does not work on the individual level; it works on a cosmic level, which is expressed in the individual. A body is to pass on, but Transcendental Meditation is not my creation. Transcendental Meditation has been throughout the ages since time immemorial. The unmanifest, self-referral, Unified Field is Transcendental Meditation. People forget about it; someone comes to say it is there with you. He passes away. This passing away is not of any importance. We do not give importance to the individual. We give importance to the transcendental reality, which transcends the individual and establishes the universal, eternal oneness of Being.

‘A man speaks on it in these years, and another man speaks on this in that year. So it is not the individual; it is the same reality that is eternal. It is being spoken by those who like to enjoy speaking about it. I am not thinking of my life or death or this. I am thinking that Transcendental Meditation has now very properly come to bless nations as a whole, to bless the unified value of all nations at a time when all the people of the world—all your intelligent people I mean—are hankering to find a solution. This gives a solution to them.

‘When all these organisations, like the United Nations and all the governments of each country who like to do maximum for their people, find their fulfilment in this programme, the whole world will rise to a Divine level rather than being exposed to the human level. The human level is a very unsatisfactory level.’

Question: Source of Maharishi’s Energy

Mr Jones: ‘Thank you very much. One more question: Where do you get your tremendous energy? I understand that you only sleep about two hours a day.’ 

Maharishi: ‘Nobody knows what even those two hours are like. Nobody knows if I am sleeping even those two hours. People make their stories, but these are not significant in my case, because I am not living in terms of how much I sleep, and how much I eat, and how much I wake up and all. This is not my life. My life is that level where unmanifest prevails through all differences in manifestations.

‘It is like the life of everyone: how much one sleeps, and how much one wakes, and how much one eats, and what one eats, whether one eats sweet more, or pungent more, or salt more—what does it mean? It is a waste of life, waste of time.’

Mr Jones: ‘Thank you very much.’