Maharishi Reflects on His First Visit to Canada
21 October 2007
Highlights
On 21 October 2007, Vijaya Dashami, Day of Victory in the Vedic calendar, and the 46th anniversary of Maharishi's first visit to Canada, Dr Harris Kaplan, Raja (Administrator) of Canada and India for the Global Country of World Peace, invited Maharishi to address via satellite broadcast over 600 Canadians gathered at the Fairmont Empress Hotel in Victoria and in locations all across Canada, to commemorate this occasion, which marks the day when the gates of enlightenment first opened for all of Canada.
Maharishi replied by giving his reflections on the early history of his worldwide Transcendental Meditation Movement.
Maharishi: ‘When I first landed [in Canada], this landing was not my landing. I was led on to land and wherever from Canada—from this village to this house, to this town, to this province—wherever I went, I did not go. I was led on to go.
'It appeared that I may have been struggling, but struggle I never knew in my life. I landed wherever I was led on to land. I went from here to there. I went from this house to that house, from this city to that city, and I was not going. Someone was taking me from here to here to here. So I remained always, every day, in the same atmosphere of someone around me, someone making me go here, go here, go here, go here.
'I don't remember in how many houses I stayed all these fifty years, and now when I hear from the memory of Canada that I was here, I landed here, and I was there, and I was there—the whole thing becomes a history: a history for me for spontaneous steps in the direction the steps went. So I never went from here to there to there. I was led on. I was led on.
'And what led me on? Now I know. The collective consciousness of the area, just like a magnet, draws me. The miraculous influence of Guru Dev [Maharishi's Master, His Divinity Brahmananda Saraswati, Jagatguru Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math, Himalayas]. The miraculous influence of the destiny of the people took me there.
'When I said ''Close the eyes'', people were wondering, ''We are practical people, we are active people, we make our way.'' I said, ''No, you close your eyes.'' I did not say to anyone to open the eyes. When they opened the eyes, I talked to them: ''You had silence?'' He said, ''Thank you very much.''
'The whole thing was spontaneous. And when today the Raja of India and Canada, Raja Harris, asked me to recapitulate my landing in Vancouver, I said, ''I never landed.'' I was led on to land. Someone was taking me from here to there to there. This is the secret of transformation of the collective consciousness from year to year, from year to year.
'What is it, forty-six years now? We are celebrating the memory of how the transformation took place; and what I have to report to you is that the transformation was brought about by the destiny of the people, that their collective consciousness in one state drew me like a magnet.
'I went there, and the other town drew me, and I went there. I went from place to place, but I, as a single I, was an expression of the collective consciousness of the people—absolutely enjoyable situation, very natural, very simple. I did not go; I did not know where I was going.
'I landed first in Hawaii. From this side I went. I went to Hawaii from Hong Kong, and when the crowd came to give me a send off, I left that barrier at the airport and entered into the field and the plane was 100 metres away. Someone asked me, he said, ''Maharishi, do you know where you will stay in Hawaii?'' I said, ''No, I don't know. I am going to Hawaii and that's all that I know.' He shouted to me—with a louder voice because I was moving towards the plane—he said, ''Remember Watumal''. He said to me, ''Remember Watumal, and when you land there, phone and he will receive you.'' I said yes.
'This is the story of my travel. I was travelling, but I was on a soft land of Guru Dev's blessings. Same thing came today. I was led on to wherever—led on. And I had nothing to speak other than what I spoke. I spoke, and I told the story of ''I''. I was speaking. And who was speaking? The big ''I'' inside was projecting himself. So the voice was the voice in the beginning of the unknown ''I''. The voice became the voice of the known ''I''. Then I thought, small ''I'' is no longer valid. It was the big ''I'', the big ''I'', the Cosmic I, the I of the light of God, the I of the light of God.
'Exactly today on the Vijaya Dashami Day, the Day of Victory, when we are celebrating, we are commemorating, the day of my landing in Canada. I remember how many places I landed. I always landed on the same ground, the collective destiny of the people, and therefore I had no distinction to make on where I left and where I landed. There was no distinction, there was no difference. I don't remember any difference—what led me from this to this to this—except that I was led on by the big ''I''.
'People sometimes in California said to me, ''You are always talking the same thing.'' One man said, ''I have followed you seven places and I heard you talk the same thing.'' I said I only know one thing, which is best, and that comes out of the mouth. What can I do? I have nothing else to say. So what was being projected was the power and the utter simplicity of the Grace of Guru Dev, omnipresent Grace of Guru Dev.
'And now when I begin to look into the past, I remember what happened. The first such thing happened somewhere in Kerala, where I went from Uttar Kashi to Kerala, South India, and people wanted to learn this practice of meditation. I thought, ''What to do, what to do, what to do?'' Then I thought, ''I should teach them all in the name of Guru Dev''. . . . That was my connection with the outside world. And there was no outside. All outside was well connected with inside—inside, outside, inside, outside. When we are celebrating in Canada my arrival first time—when I look back, how I was coming and where I was going and what I was doing—the whole thing was one uniformity, one uniformity.
'It's a great thing, Raja Harris, you have reminded me to be conscious of the Oneness, what Guru Dev was, Totality—certainly total abstraction, but certainly realistically Total, Total. I was teaching Transcendental Consciousness, but Transcendental Consciousness was total consciousness. It included waking, dreaming, and sleeping, all the three states, Totality. And this Totality was Brahm.
'Total was lively from beginning to end, and that I was experiencing even today, from morning to evening. All these fifty years of the past, forty-six years ceremony of arrival in Canada, reflecting on those forty-six years, I compare from this morning until this evening. The whole thing came about to be Puja (Vedic ceremony of gratitude) to Guru Dev. The day started with a song, Puja. The day ended with a song, Puja. The whole day from a level of consciousness to the same level of consciousness, but in the worldly way, completely different level of consciousness. It's the same level of consciousness—morning sun, same level of consciousness, evening sun.
'And towards the evening now comes the celebration of the first step on the land of Canada. A big story about that which is everywhere the same. Fifty-year-long story, forty-six-years-long story on how many places I went here, there, but I went on the basis of what this place where I was, was. The whole difference came out, now I think between small ''I'' and big ''I'', between the collective consciousness of the individuals and collective consciousness of the cosmos, all the individuals of the world.
'It's a very beautiful memory that you have ignited in me, Raja Harris. And when I see how I landed in Canada, and when I see today we have, on the west coast of Canada—Dr Harris, you describe to our people in Canada, who are joining us in this celebration, what Heaven on Earth you have purchased in Canada . . . . Describe to everyone. I would like to enjoy to hear it again today, on the great day of awakening for the world. Let the world listen to a description of the home of Heaven on Earth in a beautiful spectacular view on the island by the side of Vancouver. Describe to them and let me enjoy the waves of this unprecedented beauty on earth. It is meant to be the Capital of Heaven on Earth, and that will be your guesthouse for people from all over the world to come and see the Capital of Raam Raj on the island of Ganges, pure Ganges, in Canada, and that was the beginning of the story* of Canada.'
* Maharishi refers to Salt Spring Island, largest and most developed off the Gulf Islands off the coast of Vancouver Island, which area he first blessed on 17 October 1961, on his first arrival in Canada. Ganges is the largest village on the island.
