Transcendental News, Vol 24. No 2, September 2020

Maharishi: Celibacy is not part of
Transcendental Meditation. It is
my life. Hundreds of thousands of
householders, husbands and wives
meditate together.
LC: So we don’t have to give up
anything?
Maharishi: No. We only add on to life.
200% life. That is the offer.
LC: You’re offering everyone a double
life?
Maharishi: Full hundred per cent
inner, and hundred per cent outer.
To enjoy the outer beauty of life, the
flower, and enjoy the honey within it
also.
LC: Maharishi, as you know, the
Beatles, your students, are on the
cover of Time magazine this week.
And inside is a picture of you, and a
story all about you and the Beatles.
They describe you as a ‘cherubic seer
with shoulder-length locks,’ and it’s
true – I’ve never met any other guru,
but you are the cutest guru (laughter
from Maharishi and the audience);
you’re so full of joy and life, it’s
beautiful!
Maharishi: It goes with the message
of Transcendental Meditation
LC: You mean everybody gets this
happy that practises Transcendental
Meditation?
Maharishi: They do. (audience
applause)
LC: Well, the Beatles say you’ve
changed their lives dramatically. How
did you get together with the Beatles?
Maharishi: I was speaking at the
Hilton in London, and towards the end
of the lecture I knew that the Beatles
were hearing the lecture, and they
wanted to talk to me. And the next
day I was to go to Wales to conduct
a course there, and I called them on
the dais and talked to them. And they
said, they had tried so many things,
along with drugs and all that, for some
higher spiritual experience. And at
my talk they heard that this higher
spiritual experience can be gained
very easily and comfortably without
any restrictions of habits, through
Transcendental Meditation.
LC: Had you heard about the Beatles
before you met them at this time?
Maharishi: In California I had heard of
them, two or three years ago.
LC: We know they had been taking
LSD and smoking marijuana.
Maharishi: They told me, there
is nothing in the Western world
which can give this higher spiritual
experience. When they heard it can
be gained very naturally and easily
through Transcendental Meditation,
they said they would do anything to
have that experience in a natural way.
And then they followed me {to Wales},
and two days of experience convinced
them that this is what they have been
seeking in their life.
LC: They gave up drugs of all kinds?
Maharishi: They had given up drugs
even before meeting me. But then
they were fixed on the idea that they
don’t need the drugs, and drugs don’t
fulfil that desire for higher spiritual
experience.
LC: Many people talk about the drugs,
such as LSD, as being some kind of
a spiritual experience. Have you ever
experimented with those kind of
hallucinatory drugs?
Maharishi: They are just as you said,
hallucinatory. They just produce some
hallucinations. Some people begin to
laugh, others begin to weep, nothing
is fixed about their experience. I
was never attracted to drugs; I was
fortunate to have a good master,
and that set my life on very proper
grounds.
LC: Do they [the Beatles] claim
[Transcendental Meditation] has
changed their music in any way?
Maharishi: It must have improved!
Their records now will show, it must
improve. Because when the conscious
mind expands, expanded capacity of
the mind brings improvement on all
levels. Just like watering the root of a
plant makes every aspect of the plant
fresh and green. [The following year,
the Beatles wrote 30 songs – including
most of The White Album – while in
India with Maharishi, a period often
regarded as their most creative].
So it is the mind of a man. Even
modern psychology tells us that man
uses only a small portion of his mind.
Transcendental Meditation is a natural
way to expand the conscious capacity
and use the full mind.
LC: What exactly is Transcendental
Meditation?
Maharishi: It is transference of
attention, from the common levels of
thinking to the finer levels of thinking,
until the attention goes to the finest
level of thinking and the source of
thinking.
LC: Does that mean that you are
instructed to think about some
specific, fine, thing?
Maharishi: Not a fine thing, but
a thought, without meaning. See,
when we say ‘carnation,’ someone
who understands English knows that
carnation is this flower. But someone
who doesn’t know English, what he
hears is ‘carnation,’ just the sound
of it. Now, if the mind is held on the
meaning, it will always be working on
the horizontal level, like swimming
on the surface of the pond. And
if the mind is not held up by the
meaning, then it is possible for the
mind to experience the finest state of
the sound of the thought. And that
takes the mind to the vertical activity,
fathoming the source of thought.
Part 2 will continue in our next issue n
Transcendental Meditation News • September 2020 • Vol. 24 • No. 2 • 13