03 July 2002 Press Conference Highlights

Opening Remarks

Maharishi: ‘Jai Guru Dev. It’s a joy to welcome the world press to inform the world of a very bright future that lies ahead.

'This is the time for me not to waste the precious time of the people in presenting to governments. No.

'I have done this presentation to governments throughout the world for many, many years in the past decades and now the conviction is: don’t waste time in persuading the governments—let them do what they want to do. Whatever they have, with that let them serve their countries, their societies, their people. Whatever I have, I should serve my family of nations.

'What I have is the Constitution of the Universe on a very authentic level. I have the knowledge of total Natural Law, which governs the universe with perfect order. And what I see is that the whole world population has to come to enjoy this gift of total knowledge of Natural Law.

'For that I am setting up groups of knowers of this total knowledge of Natural Law here, there, everywhere, and particularly large groups in India, which is the seat of this total knowledge of Natural Law

'I have confidence that if real, big groups of coherence-creating are established in India, India will be the lighthouse of this Total Knowledge from where the Total Knowledge will radiate in the whole family of nations.

'That is my programme now—to create the effect, not much convince the governments.

'The thing is, governments are governed by man-made constitutions. Somewhere two hundred years ago, somewhere a hundred years ago, somewhere ten years ago, some people sat together, they wrote a constitution of their country and made laws that "All those who are here, in my administration, this is the constitution that will administer their affairs.’"

'All education, health, and all those different aspects of life are governed by man-made laws. Man-made laws—and man-made laws, man-made system of administration, will always have human weaknesses in it and human failings. With human weaknesses and human failings, a humanly conceived system of administration will never be really ideal; it will never be complete. It will be full of problems and inadequacies.

'This is the picture of the governments today: some people dictatorship, some people have kingship, some people have democracy, some people this, some people this, whatever—all with good will. But nevertheless, this good will is not that perfect good will which is God’s will. Good will is supreme in God’s will.

'Natural Law is the Will of God. Throughout time, throughout creation, God has been sung as merciful God, Almighty God.

'Where is the almighty constitution to guide human life? It’s not on earth. The whole world has been divided into so many [countries], this is natural. Divisions are natural, because of climates and all those different values—somewhere mountains, somewhere valleys. So nothing can be harmonious throughout the world except the Will of God, Natural Law, Natural Law.

'In a plant, Natural Law creates a green leaf or a beautiful pink rose. This is the variety of Natural Law in a unified value, which presents a beautiful plant. So variety in nature, variety in Natural Law is joy of different kinds, but this joy of different kinds is in the Will of God, Natural Law. That’s why everywhere it is pleasant and good.

'Take the history of any country, any country, any country—some people sat together, wrote a constitution, created a police, created a military, created fear, everything: "You must follow [the laws]", "You have to give that much tax", and all those things, by force. "If you don’t pay tax, you go to jail, if you don’t do this, if you don’t do this."

'Humanly conceived administrative systems will always be not completely satisfactory to anyone. Today’s situation was that neither the people in the government are satisfied nor the people who are being administered are satisfied. One country is not satisfied with the other country.

'With all the humanly conceived good will for each other, all these values of goodwill and friendship and all those things, they are well-meaning, but not practical.

'Therefore, it was logical that Natural Law should be brought into the administration. For 10-15 years I have tried presenting this beautiful logic and beautiful knowledge to governments, but I found the whole thing was a waste of my time.

'At least one good thing that came out of that waste of time was a conclusion that came to me that whatever I have, I should offer to the world. Whatever anyone has—so many kinds of governments—whatever those people have, they offer to their people. Whatever I have I should offer, and not persuade anyone to do it.

'For this I made a point that those who would like to have a problem-free administration; those who would like to have pure intelligence in their nation; those who would like to have the Will of God dominating in the behavioural patterns of the people, they would adopt this knowledge. It will all depend on to whom this knowledge comes.

'I started 50 years ago teaching Transcendental Meditation, one person by one person, one person by one person, one person one country, this country, that country—everywhere. So many people, so many hundreds of people, and thousands of scientists got into the physiology, into physics and this and this. So much scientific research was done but now the conclusion is that it’s not my message to persuade the people. I’m just informing the press to let the people know that a good time awaits their fortune.

'The sun comes. Those who come in the sunlight, they have the sunlight. Those who remain in their caves in the dark, they remain caves in the dark. But now is the time for total knowledge of Natural Law, and the effect will be created by a few people.

'Some one or two hundred thousand people here and there in different parts of the world, that’s all that it takes. A big hall, it takes just one bright bulb and everywhere there is light. It may take a hundred candles here and there, but one big bulb and there is light.

'Everywhere in the night, all around is dark, but people do light their rooms and live in the light, even when surrounded by deep darkness everywhere in all directions.

'So, this is the time. Those who want to take, they take the knowledge. Total field of Natural Law is authenticated in the Vedic Literature so much that the human awareness itself is the seat of total Natural Law.

'Human awareness itself is the seat of Natural Law, and total Natural Law from the Transcendent creeps up in the field of speech, behaviour, and this is how the relative fields of life begin to live the transcendental level of reality—invincibility, affluence, peace, harmony, harmony, harmony.

'My message is not on the basis of what the world is today . Today the world, from my point of view, is in a mess. It’s a simple logic. Every country is governed by man-made constitutions, and man-made constitutions will always have human weaknesses and human failings.

'I’m not touching that set up of administration. It is not a matter of this or that. No. Let your man-made constitutions govern your country, whatever it is. I'll put up groups of people who will radiate the Light of God, who will radiate the coherence, that unified influence, in the field of diversity—on their own.

'They will not go to preach this or preach this. No, it’s not a matter of preaching. It’s not a matter of persuading anyone. It’s a matter of producing the effect. These groups, whom I have created, and now I’m going to create more and more and more, they will create that effect.

'In the Sanskrit language it is called Sattwa, in order to ride over the influence of Rajas and Tamas. That means harmony eliminating the disharmony and discontent and all negativity. That will be the natural effect.

'It will be my joy to answer the questions from the press.

'The press is fond of presenting different things to the people, to their readers as they come up, as they come up. So now this dawn has come up. The principle of a government of Natural Law has come up, and now it is the press whose joy it will be to radiate this new light in the field of administration.

'So, I invite the press to just freely ask questions. We want to be like a family at the dining table, talking together in a very informal way. So, don’t feel any restrictions. We are a world family. We are faced with the requirement; it is today’s requirement that we sit together and evolve a light, a new light where knowledge will influence life, where harmony, peace, will influence life. So, we will have the joy of answering questions now.'

Question: On Coherence Creating Groups

Dr Hagelin: ‘Maharishi says that the effect of peace in the world will be created by one or two hundred thousand people. What will these people do to create permanent peace, and who are they? How will they radiate “the Light of God”, coherence, to create this effect? And how does Maharishi know this will really work?’ 

Maharishi: 'When the tree begins to dry out and the leaves begin to be yellow and all, the gardener waters the root. From the root he supplies nourishment to all manifestations of the sap.

'The root of life is consciousness, Atma, the field of consciousness. So all these people in groups will be enlivening their Self through Transcendental Meditation and all the Advanced Techniques and the Transcendental Meditation Sidhi Programme and Yogic Flying.

'They will be enlivening the field of the transcendent in their own awareness, and then their awareness will begin to radiate that unifying influence, invincible, very strong, unifying influence in the field of their speech, their action, and their behaviour. This is what will radiate harmony in the world consciousness, and this is the mechanics of why the topsy turvy nature, the problematic controversies in behaviour will not arise. They simply will not arise.

'And I have the experience of 50 years teaching Transcendental Meditation to the people. This is on the ground of the Vedic Literature. The Vedic Literature is there to vouch for its authenticity, eternal authenticity. This is what will work and this is what will create coherence in world consciousness. This is what will not require punishing anyone. The whole administration will have a fatherly, affectionate behaviour towards all the people.

'Anywhere the government is punishing the people, that means the government has been incompetent to train the man and to train his brain physiology not to fight. This lack of training in education does not enable the people to use their full brain, and that is why one does what one wants to do, and all that

'The whole thinking, the whole action has to be from the pure field of one's own consciousness and this quality of consciousness is developed or is enlivened through this programme, the Vedic programme, the Vedic way of life.

'And the whole world doesn't have to meditate. Just a few people here and there is my strength. The strength is that one lamp will light the whole room—one big group of Vedic performers in the world.

'There are two things: one is the Vedic thing, the total thing, Yagya, through Yagya. The other is an aspect of it, which is Yoga. Yoga is unifying influence. Unifying influence is the transcendental field where there is no duality. It's all unified wholeness. That is the basis of all diverse creation.

'So, attunement with that, the awareness will behave more coherently in the field of behaviour. That is the technique, and that is my confidence in it, and that will work. That will work, that's all.

'It has worked on individuals, and now when it has worked on individuals, it will work on the groups of individuals, which are nations. So I am using a tried out formula that has its eternal authenticity from the Vedic Literature.’

Question: On the Will of God

Dr Hagelin: ‘Maharishi, you spoke of government by the Will of God and the Constitution of the Universe is the best way to govern. What would you say about those terrorist nations that say they are governing by the Will of God and justify their actions by saying they are doing the Will of God. How can we tell the difference between action in accord with the Will of God through the Constitution of the Universe and nations simply justifying their actions as though they were God's Will?’ 

Maharishi: ‘It's not the proclamation of light that will remove darkness. It's bringing the lamp, bringing the light. Religions, those who proclaim the Will of God and they are poor and they are suffering, then their proclamation is faulty. There's something wrong.

'It's not the Will of God. It's not the Will of God for anyone to suffer. It's not the Will of God that anyone suffers. If one keeps on suffering, remaining poor, remaining complicated and problematic himself and to others, the whole thing, the Word, the faith or religion is a fraud.

'We know it from the man. If the man is poor and he says Almighty God and all that, the whole thing is unrealistic impractical, and useless.’ 

Question: On the Effect of the Vedic Pandits

Dr Hagelin: ‘What will be the signs and the concrete actions of the powerful countries that the Vedic Pandits are having their worldwide effect? What sort of signs in the concrete actions of nations will indicate that the Vedic Pandits are having their effect?’ 

Maharishi: ‘Just the same thing as happened when the lamp is lighted in the dark. What was in the dark? Everyone was breaking his head, his legs, and this and this. There was suffering. There was chaos. Elimination of suffering, elimination of problems, elimination of hatred, elimination of negative things in the world will show that the formula is working.

'Only the positivity, increasing positivity only can be the test of the lamp in the darkness. Just proclaiming will not do, proclaiming will not do. The actuality, the experience will be there.

'What will be seen is less and less crime in society, the police will inform every government. Government will inform that there is less crime, just as they have been informing that there is less poverty now, more wealth in the market. They are proclaiming, proclaiming. So here also they will proclaim less crime, less crime, less crime, less crime. Less sin, less sin, less killing, less killing, less war, less war, less fear, less fear. These will be the hallmarks of a new time dawning on earth.’ 

Question: On the Will of God in Government

Dr Hagelin: ‘There is a very unusual action of the US courts in the US recently. The so called “Pledge of Allegiance” was challenged by somebody saying that children in the schools cannot pledge allegiance to the United States in this way, their loyalty to the US in this way, because the Pledge of Allegiance suggests that the United States is one nation under God, and somebody challenged that as the state promoting religion, a particular religion. Remarkably the courts upheld that challenge, and for the moment it appears to be unconstitutional for the students to recite this Pledge of Allegiance in the schools. If we bring the Will of God into government, does it mean governments are adopting a religion?’ 

Maharishi: ‘If religion can bring peace, why not have religion? If religion can have prosperity, why be afraid of religion? If religion can have cordiality with others, friendship with others, why be afraid of religion?

'Religion is really the way to God. "Re" means back,"ligio" to bind: religion means bind back to the source, bind back to the source. If the government is not bound with the eternal law of nature, with what it is bound? It is only bound by the human concepts of law. That will never be satisfactory to any population.

'So it's not running away from religion that will bring sovereignty to the people. No, no. It's following the Will of God, and the Will of God is now available on the ground of science. If you do the experiments, then you get the results predicted, predictable results. All that is there. We are not afraid of religion.’ 

Question: On Why the World Has a History of Non-peace

Dr Hagelin: If there is a simple, practical road to peace, as Maharishi is saying, why does world history show such a long pattern of non-peace?’ 

Maharishi: ‘The goal is reached only by those who walk on the path. When the path was not started, how is the goal possible? No. Religions exist in name, they exist in the books. Interpretations in each generation are different. People are very religious people. So many religions, I don't have to go into that. The heads of religions are requesting to God to forgive them, "Oh God, forgive me because my organization has been cruel to the people," and all that. So, in the name of organization there has been a lot of unwanted things happening. That is only lack of knowledge, lack of knowledge, lack of knowledge. Lack of knowledge.’

Question: On What Is Necessary for World Peace

Dr Hagelin: ‘How long will it take for the Vedic Pandits to bring about world peace? Are you 100% sure this will happen? Please provide details on the signs of impending peace that we should be looking for?’ 

Maharishi: ‘When this thing happened in New York, all that crushing of the building and all, I made an appeal. This was printed in so many papers there, in all the important papers of USA. I wanted an endowment fund of one billion dollars in order to maintain groups of these Vedic Pandits in order to have coherent world consciousness for ever. Whenever that happens, that will be the time this will be, it will happen. If it [the endowment for permanent groups of Vedic Pandits] doesn't happen, it [coherent world consciousness] will not happen.’

Question: On How to Follow the Will of God

Dr Hagelin: ‘Today's religions seem to be in conflict with each other. How does a country or people know how to really live in the Will of God?’ 

Maharishi: ‘Follow their religion. In every religion Transcendental Meditation is taught. In every religion's books, the originators of religions have put it down there; only they should be properly interpreted, and they should follow their religion. Follow your religion and in that, Transcendental Meditation, because so many preachers of Christianity, preachers of Islam, preachers of Buddhism are practising Transcendental Meditation and they are finding correlation with this theme of perfection in life through higher consciousness. So, it's there. It's there, but if they don't follow, they don't follow, that's all.

'The time is fast coming. The number of groups are increasing as means are available, and it will be difficult to say, but I think when the dawn is seen, then one could predict sooner or later the midday shining sun. The dawn is apparent today. The dawn is very apparent today. . . The phenomenon has started.’

Dr Bevan Morris, Prime Minister of the Global Country of World Peace, then spoke mentioning that in the last couple of days President George W. Bush said that he was guilty of talking too much about war. Dr Morris said this was a sign of change of the in the consciousness of the USA progressing towards less violence.

Question: On Maharishi’s Message for the USA on July 4th

Dr Hagelin: ‘It is the eve of 4th July, the Independence Day of the United States. Does Maharishi have any message for the people of the United States on the eve of their National Independence Day?’ 

Maharishi: ‘So, the message of this day of freedom will be: man-made constitutions to be lighted in the light of God-made constitutions—the constitution of Natural Law. This is the Day of the Constitution of the Universe, where people sat around and made the constitution, but now that constitution will rise to the level of the God-made constitution to administer the whole universe with perfect order. This is the message today. A very beautiful day for the world.

'The United States is a mighty country and now the country is rising to fatherly care for the coherence, peace, happiness, affluence of the whole world.

'I am very comforted to hear from Dr Bevan Morris that President Bush is realising that it is now the time to bring the message of light for the world. It was very heartening and I congratulate President Bush for this feeling of his, very genuine feeling, and this will raise the parental role of USA for the whole world. It's very heartening to hear his changed emotions today. Very good, very good.’

Question: On the Role of Maharishi Vedic City and Fairfield, Iowa in Radiating Peace

Dr Hagelin: ‘What is the role of Maharishi Vedic City and Fairfield, Iowa, now and in the future, in radiating this effect of peace and coherence to the United States and the rest of the world?’ 

Maharishi: ‘I think the second part of your expression is the answer of the first part! The role of Vedic City is to have all cities lighted. When electricity was invented, city after city received light, city after city. Now every city is fully lighted.

'So, this Vedic city—city after city, city after city [will become Vedic cities]. . . .

'Global Country is like the umbrella, which has every country as its units. The units have begun to come in the light of God, adopting the Constitution of the Universe for their administration of society. It is a great sign of an absolutely new horizon for the betterment of mankind—a new horizon—very beautiful, very beautiful.’

Question: On a Worldwide Meditation

Dr Hagelin: ‘When will the large groups gather for this worldwide meditation? Will this worldwide meditation be coordinated to take place at the same time for maximum effect?’ 

Maharishi: ‘The Global Country of World Peace has a programme of creating three thousand Peace Palaces around the world—3,000. Wherever mayors have a significant population, of 100-200,000 people, there in 3,000 places, Peace Palaces have to be built. This is a part of it.

'In all these Peace Palaces of course Yogic Flying will go around the world, around 24 hours. The world cannot miss now a coherent world consciousness. The whole thing is very definite to come about, to brighten the human race—forever, forever, for all times.’

Question: On Whether Everyone in the World Can Live Comfortably, Prosperously

Dr Hagelin: ‘Throughout history people and nations have always lived in fear that there is not enough of what is needed, food, land, riches, so he fights for it. Can there really be enough of what is needed in life for everyone in the world to live comfortably, prosperously? Is there really no need to be afraid and therefore to fight?’ 

Maharishi: ‘No, we have to intelligently use what God has given us: the land. From the land comes the food and so much of the land is unused.

'All these developing countries—they are suffering from poverty. We have been inviting them now: I asked the Press to awaken the interest of the developing countries, so that they don't have to remain poor anymore, because they have a lot of land, and the land could be put to organic agriculture. Organic food is very much needed in all the wealthy countries, because in all the wealthy countries, the production in the country has been so spoilt by the poison, by fertilizer, poisonous fertilizer.

'So, there is a cry in the world for healthy food. And now all these developing countries have a chance to completely get rid of their poverty. And I am very happy to say that the Cultural Minister of the Cabinet of Maharaja Adhiraj Raja Raam [first ruler of the Global Country of World Peace] has invited many local traditional Kings—local traditional Kings, who are followed by their population—and they have all the land, and they are responding to our poverty removal programme.

'So, very soon the unused agricultural lands will be used and there will be a lot of production of good, pure healthy food. Healthy nutritious food will be there from the unused lands, and they will export it to wealthy markets and get many times higher price. They will lose their poverty and the wealthy countries will get healthy food.

'The programme is underway, only living for centuries in poverty, they think, "Oh, how it will happen, how it will happen, how it will happen?"

'Very gradually this field of ignorance is being broken and very soon we will have a right sense of judgement everywhere in the world as it rises to more coherent quality and we'll have a better world.’

Question: On the Effects of Education to Develop Total Brain Functioning

Dr Hagelin: ‘There are many so-called intelligent people in society who are aggressive and disharmonious. Does Maharishi's programme for educating students to use their total brain, also make the students peaceful and loving?’ 

Maharishi: ‘That is the experience of those who have started to meditate. Children are more intelligent, more sharp, more to the point. Their thinking is better. A huge amount of research is there to show that total brain. Dr Lubimov from the research institute in Moscow stated his results of brain research: he said that the brain reserve begins to be used by the people.

'That means previously they were using less of their brain potential, and now they begin to use more of the brain potential with Transcendental Meditation and all those programmes. So, there is huge amount of scientific research just to show that it works, that's all.

'This is Yoga, and the Yogic Sutras of the Vedic Literature. Vedic Literature has 40 values. Yoga is one of them; Vedanta is another of them—all those beautiful fields of knowledge. It's not necessary for anyone to suffer, but we are creating that atmosphere now by creating groups, groups, groups, groups.

'I have spent 40-50 years on individuals and now I have to spend time on countries, countries. It is not a matter of persuasion any more. We put up the people there [groups of Yogic Flyers], and they will change the character of the collective consciousness.’

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