Global Good News: Excellence in Action

In his book Enlightenment and Invincibility: Maharishi's Supreme Offer to the World, Maharishi wrote about the role of education in creating invincibility for a country. In Chapter 5, Maharishi explains the missing fundamental in education and offers the simple, natural solution.

Maharishi began by pointing out that the truth is that education everywhere has not been completely satisfactory, even though it has many achievements and has been successful in many ways.

The comforts available to man and the impressive technological and scientific discoveries that have been made are a credit to the systems of education in any country. 'But the fact remains that life has not blossomed to its full value in any nation', he said.

Individuals are stressed in every nation. A stressed person automatically creates complications with whomsoever he communicates. 'A harmonious man only extends friendship, and a nation peopled by harmonious citizens enjoys the bliss of freedom,' Maharishi said.

'There is no fear from anywhere, because the nation behaves in a harmonious and friendly manner in the family of nations. So, it does not create any enemies. To create such joyful citizens and such invincible nations is the task of education.'

Maharishi said that an educated man is one who does not make mistakes. So far, time could be labelled as the 'age of ignorance', because men did not know how to not make mistakes. This demonstrates a universal lack in education everywhere.

Education, so far, is informatory. All teachers know that education is not adequate, because it is not competent to take care of all aspects of life. Fullness of life does not blossom in the individual.

The missing fundamental
Current systems of education, although they have many good aspects, have failed to produce an ideal individual or an ideal society. A lot of things are taught to students but nothing is taught about how to receive education.

'Every teacher knows that while he teaches the same thing to all his students, some grasp it brilliantly and others fail to do so. This shows a difference in the levels of intelligence, or consciousness,' Maharishi said. 'Every student receives the education according to his level of consciousness.

'But, so far, education has not taught anything about consciousness and has not done anything to raise the level of consciousness. The need is to expand the ability of the student's mind to receive education.

'If the age is to change to one of invincibility, a fundamental value has to be supplied to the field of education. This missing fundamental is knowledge of pure consciousness and how to experience it.'

The Science of Creative Intelligence (SCI), with Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation and Transcendental Meditation Sidhi Programme, has now arisen to supply this fundamental—namely, the knowledge, understanding, and experience of consciousness.

'The Science of Creative Intelligence supplies this fundamental by providing direct experience of transcendental or pure consciousness within the individual by taking the mind to a state of least excitation. This is done through the Transcendental Meditation Technique.

'The individual then develops the habit of functioning from that level by using the Transcendental Meditation Sidhi Programme. The basic value of Transcendental Consciousness is that it is a state of perfect orderliness as well as being the home of all the Laws of Nature and the source of all thought and activity. . . .

The fulfilment of education
'Here is a chance for every system of education and every nation in the world to rise to fulfilment, by creating individuals who will be fully developed in intelligence and creativity. Here is a chance for every government to develop the full creative genius in the individual and bring vitality to the nation,' Maharishi said.

Through the Science of Creative Intelligence it is now possible to develop a full man. 'The Transcendental Meditation Technique takes the existing level of intelligence to a level where individual intelligence is capable of creating everything,' Maharishi continued. 'This happens because he functions from Transcendental Consciousness, which is just the simplest form of awareness, awake in itself.

'When the individual's attention reaches the deep level of his hidden and sleeping genius, the genius awakens and sets the individual and his nation on the road to fulfilment. The power of thought, emanating from the infinite genius of creativity, is infinite.'

Transcendental Meditation is a direct way of unfolding this hidden genius and making the individual spontaneously capable of such powerful thinking that he naturally succeeds in all his ventures. 'Regular practice makes coherent thinking a natural habit of the individual's brain,' Maharishi concluded.

"The potential of every student is infinite. The time of student life should serve to unfold that infinite potential so that every individual becomes a vibrant centre of Total Knowledge."—Maharishi