Consciousness-Based Education - Maharishi University of ...

absolute principles of societyfield of pure intelligence, and are always self-referral in their functioning:"From the most quiet, transcendental level, nature performs, and itperforms within itself. It is the self-referral activity of Natural Law thatis responsible for absolute order in creation" (p. 75). He continues, " It isthe most refined level of quantum-mechanical activity of nature, fromwhere absolute orderliness controls, commands, and governs all affairsof the universe" (p. 75). natural law is always powerful, and every naturallaw has two sides to it, creative and destructive. In balancing thetwo processes of creation and destruction, natural law promotes evolution.The promotion of evolution requires a balanced state of creativeactivity; nature does this spontaneously by self-referral functioning.Here again Maharishi identifies the central elements and relationshipsof the basic functioning of nature: the creative and destructiveaspects of natural law, whose balanced state (equivalent to “equilibrium”)is linked to evolution. Evolution in turn is connected to “self-referralfunctioning”; that is, to the way in which the parts are continually connected,or referred, to the whole, in such a way that “absolute order” ismaintained (Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, 1986a, pp. 109-110). The conceptof the self-referral functioning of natural law and its role in maintainingbalance in nature is discussed in more detail below.In his commentary on the Bhagavad-Gītā, Maharishi (1967) appliesthis understanding of dharma and evolution to both individual andcollective human life. He affirms, firstly, the existence of free will formankind: “Man’s life is so highly evolved that he enjoys freedom ofaction in nature. This enables him to live in any way he desires, eitherfor good or for evil” (p. 27).The results of action, Maharishi goes on to explain, are determinedby the quality of that action: “As he behaves, so he receives” (p. 27).Dharma operates according to this principle in a completely set andautomatic way, like a machine, its output determined by its input.Maharishi (1967) describes this process of action and reaction in termsof a principle of equilibrium:When the good increases in life and the positive forces tend to overbalancethe normal state of existence, then the process of dharma, restoringequilibrium, results in feelings of happiness in the heart and satisfactionin the mind. In the same way, when evil increases in life and the nega-107