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The Maharishi Effect in the Ramayana Excerpts from: Natural Law in the Valmiki Ramayana in the Light of Maharishi Vedic Science and Technology, Volume 8, Number 1 (1998),The Silver Jubilee Issue, Maharishi University of Management, USA. Note: As an introduction to this article, please see previous Excellence in Action articles: "The Ramayana in the context of the Vedic Literature" and "Ramayana: Enlivening Dharma in individual life". The third book of the Ramayana contains an important, though little noted, passage that provides insight into the mechanics underlying Ayodhya's ideal society during Ram's reign. In this selection of verses, a spontaneous transformation of evil forest creatures into more harmonious, more life-supporting beings takes place simply from the presence of the enlightened sage Aygastya: "From the moment that this virtuous sage arrived in this area, the evil creatures have become peaceful and free of hostility." 3.11.83 Agastya's effect on the forest dwellers comes neither from his good intentions nor his actions; rather he pacifies the eveil creatures merely through his vicinity. His coherent consciousness gives the sinful no choice but to change or depart: "This sage is of such a nature that a liar, a cruel person, a thief, or a sinner cannot live in this area." 3.11.90 These verses suggest that when individuals such as Agastya are fully established in self-referral consciousness, they naturally create greater harmony and orderliness around them. However, Maharishi explains that this same outcome can be created by many individuals experiencing self-referral consciousness in their daily practice of Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation technique and the collective practice of the Transcendental Meditation Sidhi Program. This effect, termed the Maharishi Effect after its founder, relies on the phenomenon of collective consciousness. To fully appreciate the significance of these verses, as well as to better understand Maharishi’s exposition of how to bring life into accord with Natural Law, it will be useful to examine Maharishi’s discussion of collective consciousness and the Maharishi Effect. Maharishi describes collective consciousness as the wholeness of consciousness of any specific group: “when we talk of community consciousness, we merely put together the consciousness of all the individuals who make up the community, or the nation.” By community Maharishi refers to any specific group, and while there are innumerable divisions and organizations of collective consciousness, he notes seven that are principal: family consciousness, community consciousness, city consciousness, state or provincial consciousness, national consciousness, world consciousness, and universal consciousness, each created by its component individuals. Maharishi’s account of collective consciousness may first appear unusual unless we understand consciousness as a field as described by modern science. Physicists delineate a variety of infinite, unbounded, and all pervasive fields that operate invisibly throughout creation governing the activities of innumerable laws of nature. For example, the electromagnetic field—one of the four principal force fields—permeates the entire universe, and enables radio and television transmitters to send signals by creating waves within the field. While the waves are unseen, they nonetheless create effects with which we are all familiar—the sounds and images of radio and television. Likewise, the other three fundamental force fields—gravitation, weak interaction, and strong interaction—also pervade everything and behave invisibly throughout Nature. Maharishi holds that self-referral consciousness also operates as a field, though on an even more fundamental level; it is the omnipresent, invisible, and unbounded field from which all force and matter fields emerge. Just as a radio transmitter can create waves in the electromagnetic field, individuals constantly create influences on all parts of creation simply because consciousness permeates every aspect of the material world. Maharishi frequently employs an analogy to explain this point: "If a stone is thrown into a pond, waves are produced that travel throughout the pond. Each wave produces some effect in every part of the pond. Similarly, the wave of individual life, through its activity, produces an influence in all parts of the cosmos." Similarly, the direct experience of self-referral consciousness influences every aspect of the universe, enlivening it with the perfect order and harmony inherent in its structure. Moreover, groups of individuals also can create very powerful effects in the environment through their collective practice of the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs. Essential to this discussion of collective consciousness is its relationship to individual consciousness. Maharishi explains that “as individual consciousness grows, collective consciousness rises; and as collective consciousness rises, individual consciousness grows.” In other words, as an individual regularly experiences self-referral consciousness and enlivens it in the awareness, the levels of collective consciousness in which the person participates—family, city, province, etc.—are simultaneously improved. This higher value of collective consciousness in turn affects every individual who comprises it. Individual consciousness is thus the basis of all levels of collective consciousness, influencing them and in turn being influenced by them. Since individual and collective consciousness maintain a reciprocal relationship, it stands to reason that a large number of individuals practicing the Transcendental Meditation program will bring a powerful influence of orderliness and harmony to collective consciousness, enabling an entire population to act more coherently. In 1962, in fact, Maharishi predicted significant improvements in the quality of life in any population in which a small percentage practiced the Transcendental Meditation technique: "My calculation is that the day one-tenth of the adult population of the world begins to meditate a half-hour morning and evening and begins to emit an influence of peace and harmony from the deepest level of consciousness—from that day, the atmosphere of the world, this negative atmosphere of the world, will be neutralized, and from that day will dawn the chance of no war for centuries to come." Maharishi later noted that one percent of the adult population would be enough, but that he had indicated ten percent “for safety factor.” He added that the requirement for improving the quality of life in society is small because the influence from the level of pure consciousness is much more powerful than from the conscious level. The figure of one percent has since become the basis for research into Maharishi’s prediction. In 1976, however, after introducing the advanced TM-Sidhi program, including Yogic Flying, Maharishi predicted that only the square root of one percent of a population practicing this more powerful technology in a group was necessary to create World Peace. The introduction of this program has provided greater opportunities for empirically verifying Maharishi’s prediction, for experts in the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs periodically assemble in large groups to create the Extended Maharishi Effect. The results of this collective practice have been documented on every level of society, including city life, state and provincial life, national life, the life of neighboring countries, of international life, and global life. We can now see that Agastya’s influence on his environment can be clearly explained through the scientific principle of the Maharishi Effect. While the effect is generally produced by many individuals experiencing self-referral consciousness during their Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi practice, in the case of Agastya it is created because he is an enlightened sage, permanently established in self-referral consciousness; he thus naturally and automatically brings the total potential of Natural Law to collective consciousness. © Copyright 1997 Journal of Modern Science and Vedic Science Global Good News invites you to read the full version of this paper, ‘Natural Law in the Valmiki Ramayana in the Light of Maharishi Vedic Science and Technology’, Volume 8, Number 1 (1998),The Silver Jubilee Issue, Maharishi University of Management, USA.
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