Consciousness-Based Education - Maharishi University of ...

absolute principles of societyhave the same absolute status in its explanation of the nature of society,of the causes of social dysfunction, of the goal of social life, and of thebest strategy of social advancement. This is the absolute theory of societypresented in Maharishi’s commentary on the rest of Chapter I of theBhagavad-Gītā.Dharma and SocietyFrom a consideration of the absolute basis of dharma, Maharishi moves toa consideration of its applied, practical value in human life. Maharishi firstcomments upon the fact that the Bhagavad-Gītā speaks of “dharmas,” inthe plural, as well as in the singular, as Arjuna considers the possible consequencesof allowing the destruction of his kinsfolk to take place:kul=ye [p5ÅyiNt kul/m;R" sn;tn;"/mRe n¢e kul' kÍTSnm/moRŒi..vTyutKulakshaye praԗashyanti kuladharmԀԝ sanԀtanԀԝdharme nashte kulaԣ kԆitsnam adharmo ’bhibhavatyuta(Bhagavad-GԂtԀ, 1.40)The age-old family dharmas are lost in the destruction ofa family. Its dharma lost, adharma overtakes the entire family.This diversification of dharma Maharishi (1967) connects to theemergence of diverse paths of evolution, all of which are expressions ofthe one universal field of dharma already discussed:“Dharmas,” the plural of dharma, signifies the different powers ofnature upholding different avenues of the way of evolution. They takeexpression as specific modes of activity or different ways of righteousness,which keep the whole stream of life in harmony—every aspect oflife being properly balanced with every other aspect—and moving inthe direction of evolution. (p. 64)Maharishi locates two steps of diversification, moving from abstractto concrete. The first is related to the “different powers of nature” and“different avenues of evolution”; that is, the different values of naturallaw that arise at the level of the unified field of all the laws of nature.The second is related to “different modes of activity” that are governed111