Consciousness-Based Education - Maharishi University of ...

consciousness-based education and governmentBringing national life in accord with natural law. By bringingindividual life in greater accord with natural law, the practice of theTranscendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs promotes morepositive trends in society and contributes to the improvement of thequality of national life. Through this technology of consciousness,Maharishi (1982) explains,Since the individual avoids violating the laws of nature, he does not sowany seeds of future suffering for himself, nor does he create tensions incollective consciousness which could burst into disasters, criminal tendencies,and war. Extended scientific research has demonstrated that as theindividual’s thought process becomes more coherent, collective consciousnesstoo becomes more coherent. Since the laws of nature are silently organizingand putting perfect order into all of creation—from the galaxies tothe individual—the practitioner of the Transcendental Meditation andTM-Sidhi programme also exhibits more orderly and coherent behavior.As individuals become more ideal, society becomes more ideal. (p. 3)Thus from the perspective of Maharishi Vedic Science, the key toimproving the quality of life in society is promoting greater order andcoherence in collective consciousness through the practice of the TranscendentalMeditation and TM-Sidhi programs by a sufficient numberof individuals in society.Maharishi’s Absolute Theory of GovernmentAccording to Maharishi Vedic Science, there is an intimate connectionbetween the functioning of government and the quality of collectiveconsciousness in society. From the perspective of Maharishi’s AbsoluteTheory of Government, every action of the national government isseen as the expression of national consciousness, just as every action ofthe individual is an expression of individual consciousness (MaharishiMahesh Yogi, 1986, p. 81). Maharishi (1986) explains thatThe government of any country, irrespective of its system—whethercapitalist, communist, or any other system—is governed by the collectiveconsciousness of the nation. Whatever the quality of national consciousness,that will always be the quality of national government andnational law. (p. 80)400