American educators have received a powerful wake-up call from His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to introduce consciousness-based education as soon as possible, if the country is not to continue on the path of destruction. Maharishi was speaking on 26 October to an international press conference held during the First Global Symposium on Consciousness-Based Education, taking place at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, USA. The event took place on Victory Day, Vijayadasami, an important day in the Vedic calendar.
Speaking live via video-conference from Holland to the 300 educators and press at the symposium, and thousands more listeners connected via telephone world-wide, Maharishi said: I would like to congratulate the organisers of the conference at this time when there is a great disastrous failure in the field of education.
In a message that was equally relevant to educators in Britain or any country, Maharishi said: On the one hand, today, there is Unified Field-based knowledge - the Unified Field of knowledge has been discovered by the different disciplines of modern science through rigorous scientific research. But on the other hand, this knowledge has not been applied in the practicalities of daily life.
This greatest discovery has therefore lost its purpose, Maharishi said. Every scientific discipline has bought out a great upsurge of fortunate knowledge for all mankind, he said, but this has no meaning in the practical life of the world, because it is not being used.
Maharishi said that in his view scientific research has no meaning in the life of America, and especially in the leadership of America. Science has no application and this is disastrous to life, he said. The science of America has created Hiroshima, and now it is proudly creating disaster in the world, Maharishi said, referring to the tactics of the US led coalition in bombing Afghanistan and threatening to bomb other countries as well in their attempt to eliminate terrorism.
Where are the scientists who have discovered the Unified Field? Maharishi said. Where is that science? The President of America is prepared to root out life in the world. Is this a scientific country? Has scientific research any meaning in the country?
Then Maharishi posed the question, from where should management be organised? From the root of intelligence, he said, from the transcendental field of intelligence, which is the root of life. Maharishi quoted an important saying in the Vedic literature: If you don't attend to the root, then you don't have flowers and fruit, you don't have seed, you don't have anything.
Maharishi pointed out that, as long as the basic value of total Natural Law that governs the universe with perfect order was not known - as long as that had not been discovered - human beings were naturally not capable of using it. But when the scientific discovery has been made that there is a Unified Field and there is a complete record of its existence in the Veda - there is the total knowledge of the Unified Field, the field of self-referral consciousness - then it is a very poor thing that this knowledge is not being applied, and this is why the US is on the path of disaster.
It is very necessary that the American people realise forever that education should be to awaken the ultimate reality of one's own self-referral consciousness - one's own Atma, one's own Self, Maharishi said. If not, then the students who graduate from such institutions and are devoid of such knowledge become like thorns to overthrow the balance of the whole body. If the student does not open his awareness to the field of consciousness, and study this field through scientific research, then education will always fail.
Americans should realise that it is highly dangerous that the scientifically discovered knowledge of the Unified Field has been left out of education, Maharishi emphasised. It is very necessary for education to bring out the knowledge of the Unified Field, which has now been discovered on both levels - theoretical and practical - to give the experience of the most exalted, supreme level of consciousness, Unity Consciousness.
Maharishi described the President of the United States as a dull man, a poorly educated man, who does not know the Unified Field, who does not know that there is a field of consciousness. George W. Bush was voted in to become President, but this is a vote for an ignorant, rash man, and guided by him the country can destroy a lot of the world.
There have been so many aggressive, uneducated people who just believe in the power of arms. This is a man who does not know science. Consciousness-based education should be immediately applied. America should not have a second experience [of what it went through on 11 September]. This experience is enough.
Americans, you should wake up to knowledge, Maharishi said. Wake up to Veda, the eternal record of total knowledge of the self-referral field of everyone's consciousness. In whatever words you talk about it, education means unfolding whatever is latent, hidden in the transcendental, self-referral field. Scientific research in every field lays open the hidden treasury of the inner life of everyone. The conclusion is: 'The individual is Cosmic.'
Maharishi said: I have been teaching consciousness - the experience of it, and the application of it in behaviour - for forty to fifty years. Now, I am disappointed that America, which I was proud of as a country of science, is not a country of science. The whole thing has been highly disappointing.
Life is different from money, Maharishi emphasised. Money should serve life, money should not be allowed to destroy life. It is not good enough to say that people work hard to earn money. That money should be used for the promotion of life, not the destruction of life. America, you should wake up from this present experience. Don't wait for another experience, tomorrow or the next day. Finish off with this president who is destroying the world. You can go for destruction, but you must face the consequences. The consequence of staying in the darkness when the light is available is not a fortunate thing.
America, where are you going? For the sake of the world, you will be better to put out this man who is ignorant of science. Put a scientist at the head of the administration. Put in Dr John Hagelin, a scientist who can handle the administration with infinite harmony, infinite integration. Science has discovered the root of life, and if you don't water the root, you don't have the fruits to enjoy. [Dr Hagelin is one of the world's leading Unified Field theorists, Chairman of the Department of Physics at Maharishi University of Management, and Minister of Science and Technology in Maharishi's Global Country of World Peace.]
About Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Maharishi said: It is not a University, it is the University, which can put its light in all the universities, and wake up all the different generations in the country forever, so that America is considered to be back as a country of science.
The system of electing the president has failed, Maharishi said, because it was designed at a time when science was not fulfilled. Now that the ultimate reality has been discovered by modern science, life should be lived on the ultimate level of reason, peace and happiness - giving that to the world.
Don't waste time in conferences and talking, Maharishi told the conference delegates. All these scientific discussions have no meaning in the country. Get back to the Unified Field, to a scientist who is competent to nourish the whole world from this ultimate research about the ultimate reality. There are so many good scientists, but they should take hold of the consciousness of the country.
Maharishi said that he was not happy having to express all this, but it was necessary to do so. The solution is in unfolding the cosmic value ingrained in the Self of everyone. Physiology has been found to have consciousness at its basis. There are seven states of consciousness, which I have been teaching for decades. But what is the use of this knowledge, which is being imparted, when the whole country goes wild and goes out to destroy.
Every day, America is going to be a bigger sinner, Maharishi warned. I thought Americans are from all different religions. What is this religion in America? Is Christianity, Islam, Hinduism allowing such a thing, such massacres? How could any of these support such behaviour? It's very shameful, that's all.
Follow the path of Vedic wisdom. In a very short time, total knowledge is gained, because to gain it, one doesn't have to go out anywhere, one goes in everywhere, in one's Self.
Maharishi said that in his opening remarks Dr Ashley Deans, Director of the Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment in Fairfield, had beautifully summarised the achievements of this approach to education in unfolding the full potential of the brain. Follow the example of this university, Maharishi told the educators at the symposium. Let all the universities know that they have failed. Yale University, which trained the President, has had a bad venture, created a bad President.
Challenge all the presidents of the different universities that if they don't improve their knowledge, they will be creating such rash people, not just in government, but in every field of business, religion, social affairs, creating such destructive performance. It is knowledge - enlightenment - that will help the country and the world.
Maharishi advised that the symposium should raise a voice to bring out how the population of the country is pressing deeper into the mud of sinfulness every day. Killing is sin! Remove that man from the authority of dismantling life in the world. He is creating a direct road to hell for everyone in the country. You will not show your bravery by killing the world. Be awake in the field of consciousness, be a civilised country.
The solution is obvious: Change the man at the top. There are so many good people in the government, but the top man will not listen to them. He has plunged the country into fire, and will take everyone into fire. This is not patriotism; it is blind. What is this kind of patriotism that says, 'I'll kill all of you and I'll be the only one.' It is shameful, and nobody can ever support it. Get a better man and a better country; don't wait to become a bigger sinner tomorrow. Ask your religious leaders in America what happens to a man who sins.
Maharishi emphasised that Dr Hagelin is a scientist who has the knowledge of modern science and also a very profound knowledge of Veda, the science of consciousness. It is fortunate that he is an American. He has national and international patriotism. He is patriotic to the God of all religions. Choose him to be president. Make your administration meaningful, of service to life and elevating to higher sates of living, and encouraging to the people in the world for all future.
Make America for the world. Make America in the light of God. Make America in the light of science. Make America in the light of life. This is my advice today. My words are not spoken in anger. I am only sensible. I am not in the habit of hiding my thoughts. It's a simple message of caution.
The nation is going the wrong way and it is the educators who can save the nation, so that it enjoys the sympathy and support of all mankind. God will be happy with you because you will have stopped sinning any more.
In his keynote address to the educators' symposium, reported on the previous pages, Maharishi laid out the second aspect of his plan to eradicate crime and terrorism and to create permanent world peace. He had announced the first to the world on 28 September when he called for the creation of a one billion dollar Endowment Fund to support 40,000 Vedic Pandits in India, professionally engaged in the performance of proven Vedic technologies of consciousness to create peace and harmony in world consciousness (see last issue of TM News).
The second aspect of Maharishi's plan is entirely complementary to the first: The introduction of consciousness-based education into schools and colleges throughout the world in order to develop the full cosmic potential of every student's brain, as the basis of behaviour that is truly life-supporting and evolutionary at all times.
The 300 delegates to the symposium included many visionary educators' who have pioneered the introduction of consciousness-based education in the USA. They presented the documented successes of the programme and mapped out strategies to bring it to thousands more schools and universities. If students are required to take social studies, art, or physical education, why aren't students-and teachers-required to take the Transcendental Meditation and consciousness-based education programme? It will make our schools much better, and it will reduce the deep stress that led to Columbine and all the other violence and terrorism in the world. - Dr George Rutherford, public school principal in Washington, D.C., who has seen dramatic results of improved learning ability and decreased violence in his schools
Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment is a world-renowned independent school of the highest calibre academically, akin to the finest independent schools in your state. In fact, the Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment routinely is recognised as outstanding in Iowa, since its students frequently take top prizes in state-wide academic competitions. - Patrick F. Bassett, President, National Association for Independent Schools, Iowa, USA
Photo caption: Dr Ashley Deans, Director of Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment, Fairfield, welcomes delegates and tells them that Maharishi School students are renowned for their leadership skills, high quality of lifestyle, and for their work to reduce violence within schools and on a global scale.
Reprinted with kind permission of Transcendental Meditation News