Consciousness-Based Education - Maharishi University of ...

Ideal Government in the Vålm⁄ki RåmåyaÔparticipating in the activities of one’s life. In this state, the entirety ofnature’s administration is fully available to human thought and action,providing the most effective basis for achieving anything that onewishes to accomplish.There are descriptions of higher states of consciousness throughoutthe Rāmāyaṇ, but without Maharishi’s precise teaching a reader mayfind them obscure. In one example, Sītā comments that/Ny;" ,lu mh;Tm;no muny" sTysMmt;"ijt;Tm;no mh;.;g; yeW;' n St" i[py;i[pyeDhanyāԝ khalu mahātmāno munayaԝ satyasammatāԝjitātmāno mahābhāgā yeshāԥ na staԝ priyāpriye(Sundar KԀԗd, 26.47)Fortunate indeed are the great-souled, renowned, and illustrioussages, who have conquered the Self, and for whomthere is nothing dear or unpleasant.Jitātmā—one who has conquered the Self—is the key expressionhere, for it identifies this verse as a description of higher states of consciousness.Maharishi (1969) comments that conquering the Self refersto the individual self becoming identified with its cosmic nature, thehigher Self:The acquisition by the mind (the self in its relative aspect) of the stateof Self-realization, or transcendental consciousness, is described here asa conquest: the lower self has conquered the higher Self. Through thisconquest, the individual mind has gained the status of cosmic mind, orpure consciousness. (p. 397)The result of this conquest is a balanced state of mind, in whichcosmic intelligence becomes the basis of practical life. In addition, onefeels eternally peaceful, being immersed in the eternal bliss of selfreferralconsciousness:153