Consciousness-Based Education - Maharishi University of ...

consciousness-based education and governmentnature and raise themselves and their nation to a state of Heaven onEarth.Section Two: Ideal Government as Understood in MaharishiVedic ScienceDrs. Geoffrey Wells and Samuel Boothby consider excerpts from theBhagavad-Gita, considered by Maharishi to be the essence of all Vedicwisdom (verse translation and commentary by Maharishi). Drs. Wellsand Boothby discuss passages from the Bhagavad-Gita that illustrateprinciples of an ideal society, with particular emphasis on the enlivenmentof dharma, natural law, in both individual and society.Dr. William F. Sands offers a paper titled “Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇ: TheEternal Record of Perfection in Government” excerpted from his doctoraldissertation. This paper describes the principles of enlightenedleadership and the mechanics through which a society can be broughtto an ideal state, as depicted in the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇ, one of the mostpopular and important texts of the Vedic literature. Through a carefulanalysis of Sanskrit words and expressions, Dr. Sands demonstratesthat the principles of Maharishi’s Absolute Theory of Government areconsistent with those found in the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇ.Section Three: Solutions to Challenges Facing GovernmentDr. John Hagelin is an award-winning quantum physicist and theleader of the organization teaching the Transcendental Meditationprogram in the United States. The introductory paper to this sectionincludes Chapter 5 from Dr. Hagelin’s Manual for a Perfect Government,titled “Harnessing the Laws of Nature to Bring Maxium Successto Every Area of Government.” It examines practical outcomes of thepractice of the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program forhealth, crime, defense, and the economy.The subsequent articles of this section examine several of the topicscovered by Dr. Hagelin in his chapter and in his book. These articlesbegin with a paper presenting research on governmental effectiveness:“Transforming Political Institutions Through Individual and CollectiveConsciousness” by Drs. Rachel Goodman, David Orme-Johnson,Maxwell Rainforth, and David Goodman, excerpted from the leadauthor’s dissertation research. This paper summarizes the results of the16