Consciousness-Based Education - Maharishi University of ...

improving national economy—alliance with nature’s governmentMaharishi emphasizes that whatever a government does, it is thedoing of the collective consciousness of the nation, in the same way asanything done by the individual is motivated by the mind.Because the quality of governmental activity is merely a reflection ofthe quality of national consciousness, Maharishi’s Absolute Theory ofGovernment suggests that misguided or ineffective government policy,administrative inadequacies, and all other forms of governmental failurehave their ultimate basis in stress and disorder in the collective consciousnessof the nation. Thus one of the important channels by which collectiveconsciousness influences the quality of national life is via the influence ofnational consciousness on government (Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, 1985,p. 206). This paradigm implies, for example, that to the extent that economicproblems arise from, or are exacerbated by, the failure of governmentaleconomic policy, the growth of stress in collective consciousnesswill adversely affect the economic health of the nation.Solving all problems of government. Since governmentalachievements reflect the quality of collective consciousness in society,Maharishi (1982) explains that the government will be the first tobenefit from an improvement in the quality of national consciousness:The most frustrating and most regular experience of any governmentis that its best laid and noblest plans for the people fail because of disorderlysocial and individual behavior. When individual thinking isincoherent, governmental actions too become incoherent because thegovernment mirrors the nation’s collective consciousness. The governmentcan only achieve as much as the collective consciousness will allowit to achieve. When collective consciousness becomes orderly and supportive,governmental achievements reach their zenith. Then all of thegovernment’s highest aspirations are fulfilled. Introducing the technologyof higher consciousness into education and other walks of life is thesole method of maximizing governmental achievements. (pp. 5–6)Because all problems confronting governments have their ultimatebasis in the violation of natural law by the citizens of the nation, “theonly solution to problems faced by any government, therefore, is to educatethe people to spontaneously become incapable of doing anythingcontrary to natural law” (Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, 1978, pp. 194–195).Maharishi emphasizes that “economic policies, health policies, etc. will401