29 September 2004 Press Conference Highlights

Opening Remarks

Maharishi: ‘Jai Guru Dev. If only the world could listen to Dr Hagelin and his parental advice to the people, then the world would be different. We can only repeat, day after day and week after week, that we have the lighted lamp, and we invite everyone to take the lamp from us to their home and be in light. 

‘Every government today can raise its people from dissatisfaction and problems to peace and happiness by simply following the eternal reality of Natural Law. The infinite diversity of the whole universe is beautifully served in favour of everyone and everything. We are offering the key that is within the Self of everyone.

‘It has been explained thousands and thousands of times by now—the same story of the lighted lamp to remove the darkness. Even today we are in the same profession. We are offering everyone a peaceful life in enlightenment, free from suffering. And we are talking to them of their own cultural dignity in the language of modern science, if they are prone to modern language, or in their own religious terminology, if they are prone to religious language.  

‘What else can be done? I would like to ask this question of the world press today: what more can I do? We want to create a permanent platform of peace and happiness through education, health services, agriculture, administration, engineering, and every field of knowledge.

‘We want life on earth to be soaked with the totality of possibility. That is on the level of the Unified Field of Natural Law, which we have access to by the kind grace of our tradition of Vedic Masters, who show us that the goal of all pursuits in life is intellectually and experientially within the Unified Field—the self-referral consciousness of everyone.  

‘Today I would like to ask the world press if they can suggest something we can do which we may not have done? Open the discussion to the world press. Give them a chance of discussing with all their intelligence and alertness. Let us all discuss together and eliminate the age-old discrepancies in life.’

Question: Broadcasting More Loudly

Dr Hagelin: ‘One question regarding this, Maharishi, has come in. When people clearly hear your message, they are very interested. Is there some way you can broadcast your message more loudly?’ 

Maharishi: ‘We are reaching out with all this network of information [satellite television] and also the Internet. We are doing everything.’

Question: One Solution for Government Leaders

Dr Hagelin: ‘The question from the press today is: Maharishi is offering so many different solutions to the different problems in the world—education, health care, defence, agriculture, architecture, etc. What is the one solution Maharishi would advise a government leader to adopt right now to have the biggest impact on creating a better world?’

Maharishi: ‘A few minutes of experience of deep peace within himself. World peace has as its unit the peace of the individual. The peace of the individual is in the self-referral dynamics of consciousness, the Unified Field within everyone, in the Atma of everyone.

‘Everyone should take recourse to his own field, the Unified Field, on the level of experience, and send their children and friends to the Vedic Universities to intellectually study the science of thought and to experience the reality of the source of thought—Transcendental Consciousness. This is the only way for the individual to rise to a state of harmony and unity, and to move the unmanifest field which is a field of all possibilities.

‘That is the one advice, the one programme, the one field of knowledge—the Unified Field—which is going to ring the bell of eureka for all those who want to live life. Due to the lack of knowledge of how to live life, people have to flounder around with fear and stress. The solution is very simple and universal. There is no reason why everyone should not have it. And those who will have it will have it.

‘I have come to the conclusion that it is a waste of time trying to convince anyone. For the last forty or fifty years, we have been hammering hard on the knowledge for them. But it is the individual who has to light the lamp for himself. Without the individual lamp lit up in itself, there is no chance of eliminating darkness.  

‘Sometimes I hear the news and the whole thing is very childish. It is a very undeveloped civilization and human mind. It is very unfortunate. But that is for those mosquitoes who will always remain. And why blame the mosquitoes, “Why are you hovering around my ears?” The tigers will always remain in the forest. It is a waste of time to tell the tiger, “You are no good because you are pouncing on me.” That is its nature. There are people who ride on the lions, and there are people who run away because the lion is chasing them. It is a matter of how much one knows about oneself. On that, one’s life depends.  

‘The most unfortunate, wretched system of administration is democracy. Democracy is the most wretched, bloody system. It is so cruel that it divides every nation into pieces, into so many parties. And foreign powers maintain the weakness of nations. With parties fighting, world politics is a very unfortunate thing. The world press has the fate of describing the unfortunate streams of destruction.  

‘But it doesn’t matter. We are shouting aloud day after day, from all directions—the field of science, the field of religion, the field of education, the field of health—in the ancient languages and modern languages. What else can we do? Those who are destined to suffer, they are destined to suffer.’

Question: Building Orientation and Good Fortune

Dr Hagelin: ‘There is a question from the press on Vedic Architecture. Last week, Maharishi said that the entrances to all homes and office buildings should face east, because that particular direction promotes peace and prosperity for the inhabitants. On the other hand, if a building has a south or west entrance, Maharishi said there will be more conflict, quarrels, and problems. The question for Maharishi is: Why does the orientation of a building play such a significant role in promoting the good or bad fortunes of its inhabitants?’

Maharishi: ‘The answer is in the nature of things. An apple is sweet, and something else is pungent, sour, or bitter. Why? It is its nature. You live in a non-Vastu house, and what it offers is all it is capable of offering. There is no other reason, because total Natural Law organizes things in such a manner that all the different structures of the galaxies and their movements are very balanced. It is its nature. Ours is not to question why. It is so.  

‘If some research is made on the slums or other areas, it will only reveal to us what has been there for all times as a practice. If you eat something sweet, you feel sweet, that’s all. Generally, all the major buildings in the world are not built according to Vedic Architecture. It was not known. But now, with the grace of Guru Dev, we have come to know it. Just as Transcendental Meditation was known and will give a particular effectiveness to those who practise it.

‘It is so. Examine it anywhere. If a man behaves like a poison, then examine where he is living and his habits of eating and drinking—what he knows to be life. It is all set. There is no argument that can change it. That is its character, that’s all.  

‘Vedic Architecture is like nectar. Examine this, and ask the world press to examine the capital cities where all the governments are functioning, and all the ministers and presidents are living. They are a failure in their administration because they are not supported by that cosmic intelligence which is only available in the structure of a proper, Vedic building—period. It is not a partial thing; it is a universal principle.  

‘One could test the people. Those who follow get the advantage. Those who don’t follow get the other kind of effect. Just as if you have a lighted lamp, you live in light; if you don’t, you live in darkness. It is natural.’

Question: Value of Experience of Total Natural Law

Dr Hagelin: ‘Maharishi recently made a strong point about how life flows in “a sequential evolution from the unity of total Natural Law to the infinite diversity of Natural Law, and from the infinite diversity of Natural Law to the unity of total Natural Law.” Maharishi also said the Rajas will enliven this process in the consciousness of the people. Why is it important for an individual to experience this process of the universe swinging from unity to diversity and diversity to unity? What is the practical value of going through this experience in one’s mind?’

Maharishi: ‘The practical value of it is in gaining the ability to achieve anything. If a man wants to achieve something, and he is not able to achieve it, his intelligence is short of fullness. If one is not fully awake, in one’s drowsiness one cannot achieve what one could achieve when fully awake.

‘If one wants to succeed in life and not face problems, one has to have one’s awareness open to that field which is a field of all possibilities, self-referral consciousness. If one has developed this through the practice of all that we are teaching, then one has the ability to fulfil one’s desires more easily.  

‘If one hasn’t opened one’s awareness to that transcendental field, which is the field of total Natural Law, the supreme level of intelligence, then one is drowsy. There is a proverb somewhere that a weak man has no right to exist; he just perishes away.

‘Life, in its real value, is an enormous field of all possibilities, the controller of the ever-expanding universe—huge, beyond any imagination. When that is the possibility, then it should be adopted, lived, and cultivated. Through education, it is possible. It is very easy.

‘Grown parents may not understand, but they can take pity on their children; they can educate their children in the science and art of fulfilling their desires. This is education. An educated man should be able to quietly achieve what he wants to do. An uneducated man must flounder around, be a nuisance to others, and meet with all problems himself. Without proper education, there is such a waste of life.’

Question: Education and Fulfilment of Desire

Dr Hagelin: ‘There is a follow-up question from the press on the subject of education and the fulfilment of desire. Maharishi has said that when the awareness of the individual is in tune with the Unified Field, he is virtually the ruler of the universe. Practically speaking, what this means is that all he wants or needs, without asking, will be at his disposal. How does this happen? What law or agency in the vast universe is able to anticipate the needs of a single human being and fulfil his need even before he asks?’

Maharishi: ‘That is the parental role of the Great Father, the parental role of the father. It is the love of the father. The children do not have to say to the father, “Now winter is coming, and I want warm clothes.” Before winter comes, it is the parental role of the father to supply them.  

‘Like that, the entire universe is the play and display of the total Natural Law that governs the infinite diversity of the ever-expanding universe. That is the reality of life. It is not any favour of life; it is its real nature.  

‘That is why normal, natural prayer is to the almighty, merciful Father. There is no other element except the merciful nature of the Creator. And the Creator in the language of modern science is the Unified Field itself, the area from where waves of thought arise.  

‘When thoughts arise from the ocean of infinite energy and intelligence, it is from the parental role, the supportive role, of the Great Father. There is no reason; it is the nature of life, the nature of the flow of life. That is why the reality one reads says, “Man is made in the image of God.” In scientific terms, total Natural Law designs the manufacture of the human physiology. Human brain physiology is a natural design from the almighty level of total awareness—singularity. From that level, everything is a possibility.

‘We can only inform the people; we can only offer to the people. But the proverb is, “Everyone has to take his own cross.” You have to bear your own cross. As you sow, so shall you reap—whether you sow yourself, your father asks you to sow, or your friend asks you to sow, but as you sow, so shall you reap.  

‘It is very simple, uncomplicated, clear, and the same for all. Man is made in the image of God. With all humility, one says, “Yes, that is the reality of life.” It is so good.’