06 October 2004 Press Conference Highlights

Opening Remarks

Maharishi: ‘Jai Guru Dev. Here is a call for every government to successfully display its parental role for its people. This is the time that every government can rise to invincibility and thereby, through their peaceful administration, utilize total Natural Law, the will of God. They can fulfil the aspirations of the millions of people in their nations.  
‘It is enough on our part that we have had the fortune to be blessed by the most enlightened tradition of Vedic Masters, which has shown us that within the self-referral consciousness of everyone is the seat of Total Knowledge and its infinite organizing power. Through Vedic Education, Vedic Health Care, Vedic Agriculture, and Vedic Administration, it is completely possible for every government to educate its people to prevent problems in their lives.  

‘It is a great joy to inform the world press and invite the writers of the world to think with us once a week, clarify any doubts, and publicize to their dear readers that here is a programme for every individual, society, and nation to raise national security and safety to a level of invincibility. This is the time that any government, by raising their national consciousness to invincibility and by preventing problems, sickness, and suffering, can have the support of Natural Law in order to continue as a government.  

‘Here is a new chance for every government to continue forever by fulfilling the needs of the people in their country. We are prepared to train educators and administrators. The effect will be a problem-free country and disease-free nation. Whether you believe it or not, this is going to be, just as the sun shines when it rises, and the darkness of the night disappears.  

‘Governments must rise to invincibility in their own right or be ready to be turned away by their people every four years. There is no other way. Either the people are going to change their governments through the election process every three, four, or five years, or the government begins to have that most effective and parental role for their people where no one is dissatisfied. 

‘The principles have been intelligently and diligently described in such a simple manner. The scientific principles have been laid out to the public in depth by Dr John Hagelin.  If there are any questions, we are ready to answer them. . . .

‘There is only one scientist—one person—in the world who can establish the rule of peace, prosperity, satisfaction, and health, and that is the President of the Peace Government in the USA, Dr Hagelin. He is available today. . . . Only Dr Hagelin, a quantum physicist, is competent to talk in terms of the language of the market. . . .'
 

Question: National Safety

Dr Hagelin: ‘What advice would Maharishi offer to a leader to make a nation truly safe from terrorist attacks?’ 

Maharishi: ‘It is not the president who can save the country. The formula has been developed: 8,000 Yogic Flyers who enliven the force of gravity in their own self-referral consciousness, the Unified Field. Only the influence of harmony will save the country. . . . 

‘The science of administration demands prevention-oriented, problem-free administration. Any man in America, or any part of the world, can tell the story of his president. No president as such has been trained in the efficiency of administration. They are getting hold of so much money and spending so much money. It is thought that money can administer, but it is childish to think like that. It is not money; it is the mind that controls the events and creates strength in the nation. It is through education. . . .

‘Natural Law is conducting the affairs within the individual, outside the individual, and in the whole galactic universe. The awareness of cosmic intelligence and cosmic creativity should be the goal of education. Then the creative intelligence of total Natural Law will be displayed through every thought, action, and behaviour. This will be the skill of spontaneous administration. 

‘Dr Hagelin can train all the presidents and prime ministers of the world, and all those who want to be victorious all the time. What they need is the science of invincibility, which is essentially the science of the Unified Field of self-referral consciousness—the Self of everyone. . . . 

‘As you sow, so shall you reap. Rise to your sense of responsibility. 

‘It is completely within the reach and possibility of every government—every president, prime minister, health minister, education minister, agriculture minister, engineering minister, everyone—to wake up to that reality which we understand in the name of the light of God, or, speaking of science, total Natural Law, the field of consciousness, the Unified Field.  

‘All things are there in a market. Someone who has a basket full of mangoes says, “My mangoes are very good.” Someone who is selling the thorns says, “These thorns are very beautiful thorns.” Whatever one has, one sells. We have peace, and we are selling peace. Those who have destruction are selling destruction. Those who want peace, they will get it. The market is full of all possible things; you get what you want. There is no hiding one’s face from reality. As you sow, so shall you reap.’

Question: Neutralizing Negativity

Dr Hagelin: ‘The next question is on a similar theme about the US Peace Government. One top political journalist and commentator in America recently described the US Peace Government as a crucial “counterbalancing force in American politics.” He said he believed that the US Peace Government represents the true spiritual underpinnings of the nation. How will the US Peace Government neutralize any destructive and fear-producing influences?’

Maharishi: ‘In the same way as the lighted lamp does away with the darkness. When peace radiates, then waves of non-peace—waves of destruction—just disappear. 

‘Our message is as important for the individual as it is for the collection of individuals. The individual should not sacrifice himself for the nation. He should rise to invincibility and rise to be in the light of God so that the light of God shines through him, radiates through him, and purifies his atmosphere. In the same way, 8,000 Yogic Flyers flying together, practising control over the tremendous force of gravity, radiate that powerful intelligence which influences the whole world consciousness in the right, progressive, and evolutionary direction. It is Natural Law; it is not a man-made thing. 

‘This is something which is eternally being sought for and eternally being sung in the holy scriptures of every religion, in the textbooks of all physical sciences, and in the textbook of the science of consciousness, Vedic Science, the science of life. It is something real, only it has been forgotten.  

‘It is just like a man who has inherited a lot of wealth, but his father has not told him that in this room he has a lot of wealth. Not knowing, he behaves in the market as a poor man. The moment he is told that this treasury belongs to him, and he sees the treasury is his—just by this knowledge—he is a different man in the market. 

‘That is the importance of knowledge. We are laying importance on Total Knowledge. “Total Knowledge” means total Natural Law. It is just a matter of knowledge. Knowledge of whom? Knowledge of the “I” of everyone, and knowledge of “You” of everyone—not the knowledge of anything else. It is so close, so intimate, and so personal that it is one’s own knowledge.  

‘That should be the subject of education. We can open schools and colleges to teach this, but it depends on the people. Just as I said, a man may have a bucketful of mangoes and say, “My mangoes are so sweet.” But only those who take his mango and eat it understand what he was saying about it.  

‘We have been saying repeatedly for the last fifty years the same thing that the wise have been saying throughout the world: “Know thyself.” 

‘The message of invincibility is very real. Those governments who want to enjoy are welcome to enjoy.’

Question: Prevention Oriented Health Care

Dr Hagelin: ‘The next question concerns the application of Maharishi’s Vedic Knowledge to the field of health. One of our news conference participants commented that health care costs rose by 17 per cent in the United States last year alone—more than six times the rate of rise in the overall cost of living. Increasingly, Americans cannot afford health care, nor can companies pay for health care for their employees. Has the Global Country of World Peace ever considered offering a form of lower-cost Vedic Health Insurance to individuals and to companies so that people can maintain their health and save money in the process?’

Maharishi: ‘It is sickness that costs money. It is not health that costs money. To be healthy one has to be regular in the awareness of the immortality of one’s own consciousness within oneself.  

‘It does not need much money. Money is needed when people fall sick. And more money is needed when the medicines are not able to cure

the sickness. More and more money is needed, and any amount of money can be spent, but if prevention is not instituted, there is no hope for the people to be healthy. 

‘Prevention-oriented health care will cost just as much as food costs. Food costs very little. Thinking that a lot of money is needed to be healthy is a bad sense of health. That is health in the hands of the unhealthy—the blind leading the blind.

‘All these pharmaceuticals have labels that say, “If you take this, this will happen to your headache, this will happen to your stomach and so on.” By putting the negative effects of the medicine on the label, it does not become scientific. . . . It is lacking in wisdom.

‘It is due to a lack of ability to harness the potential of life. The potential of life is cosmic. "Cosmic" means continuity of life. There is no sickness in the field of cosmic values.  

‘The whole thing has gone wrong—not just one, two, three or four things have gone wrong. Only the Peace Government—a group of 8,000 people, or two, or three groups of 8,000 people practising Yogic Flying—will change the quality of national consciousness. The trends in the national consciousness will become more harmonious, positive, healthful, and friendly.  

‘We can only inform the people. It is up to them whether they want to remain ignorant or live their life in enlightenment. Enlightenment is a good thing to have, and that will be made available by our Vedic Schools, Vedic Colleges, and Vedic Science.  

‘There are physical sciences—physics, chemistry, etc.; and there is a science of self-referral consciousness. That is the bundle of Total Knowledge—it is a very good thing. The hope is in the response of the people. We will have the response when we open the schools and colleges.  

‘People should have small schools for primary, secondary, and high school near their own homes. We will supply trained teachers and the whole atmosphere will be more coherent in the country. This will maintain the Peace Government. Then the administration will be without any violence, without any mistake.’

Question: Increasing the Pace of Growth to Enlightenment

Dr Hagelin: ‘There is a simple question that has come from students of the Maharishi School, which is probably on the minds of students all over the world, including those who are studying at Maharishi’s Consciousness-Based institutions, colleges, schools, and elementary schools. The question is about the fastest pace to enlightenment. Maharishi has said that student life is the time for gaining total enlightenment. Is there anything a student can do in addition to the practice of Transcendental Meditation and Yogic Flying that could possibly serve to accelerate the rate of their gaining enlightenment?’

Maharishi: ‘Good organic food. Pure things. Don’t go for impure drinks. The food should be proper. Education must have Total Knowledge, the experience of consciousness, and Yogic Flying. That is completely good enough to have the totality, which is the infinite creativity of Natural Law, awake in our intelligence. There is nothing more. It is completely good enough.’