Consciousness-Based Education - Maharishi University of ...

absolute principles of societypractice of Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program,this field becomes available in the daily life of the people, thetranscendental, absolute value of life and the concrete, relative valueof life have come together. All human life, on every level—individual,family, community, nation, and world—is in accord with its dharma,in accord with the total potential of natural law, flourishing in its ownright and integrated with every other level. Therefore, creating an idealsociety is an co-operative enterprise:All men have to play their part in it, and this can be done only whenfamily and caste dharmas are properly maintained by the individualsfirmly established in their individual dharma. (p. 70)Maharishi notes that in the hierarchy of dharmas the individual hasthe priority and the responsibility: It is only through individuals thatthe greatest possibilities of social life are realized. He emphasizes, however,that the process is a cooperative one: Every individual is necessarilyinvolved in it, since every individual thought and action contributes,for better or worse, to the quality of the collective consciousness of thesociety. The highest goal is reached only when the people of a societycollectively recognize their responsibility to practice the TranscendentalMeditation technique and gain higher states of consciousness.In such a situation every individual benefits from the growing higherstates of consciousness of every other individual in the society. Theresult, Maharishi (1972) teaches, is a wholeness that is more than thesum of the parts:Existence, life, thrives in growth, in progress. So the purpose of existingtogether is evolving together, progressing together, and the goal ofthis growth is fulfillment. Therefore growing together is for enjoyingfulfillment together. One man’s fulfillment is one’s own fulfillment,but the fulfillment of two men together is more than the fulfillmentof each. Something more gets created. For that something, togethernessis important. There is a saying, “A house is more than a collectionof bricks.” Keep on putting bricks together and what comes out is ahouse. A fulfilled society is something more than a collection of fulfilledindividuals. And gaining that greater fulfillment is an inspirationto be together. (p. Lesson 11, p. 4)135