Global Good News: Excellence in Action

In answer to a question from the press in his Global Press Conference, held on 25 August 2004, Maharishi spoke about Total Knowledge that would be given out in Vedic Universities.

First Maharishi said that every man who has a pain wants to run out of pain. Anyone who is a failure wants to come out of failure.

'This is a natural tendency, because the nature of life is bliss—to enjoy health, immortality, and perfection,' he said. 'This is the nature of life. However, during the time of education, children are not told: a flower blossoms on the basis of the abstract sap; success comes in the field of action on the basis of intelligence; the galactic universe runs most effectively and efficiently, and promotes evolution of everything all the time, because Natural Law permeates everything in the universe.'

Maharishi then explained that something that is all-pervading and beyond space and time is transcendental, and because it is transcendental, it is not known. There is a proverb, 'Out of sight, out of mind.' Being out of sight, Transcendental Consciousness is not known, but it is the basis of everything.

'The sap is the basis of the well-being of everything in the tree,' Maharishi said. 'If one doesn't bother about the sap, and only bothers about the leaf or the flowers or fruit, then the basis of good leaves, good flowers, and good fruit is missing.'

It is a universal principle throughout the world that there is only one way to make all kinds of trees flourish and blossom. In every country there is but one process for nourishing all the leaves and flowers of all the different trees—and that is just put a bucketful of water at the root.

'The one formula is to put a bucketful of water at the root to nourish thousands of leaves and flowers in millions of varieties of trees,' Maharishi said. 'The care of the transcendental field of consciousness is like that.'

We have to bring our conscious awareness to one basic, transcendental area for the blossoming of all the different people—whether they are in the North Pole, South Pole, or at the equator; whether they are Americans, British, Germans, French, Indian, or Chinese. 'Whatever the nationality, there is one formula for everyone: take your awareness to your own source of thought,' Maharishi continued.

'Thousands of thoughts arise from somewhere. From where do they arise? They arise from the field of silence, from a field everywhere, and they are nourished from their source.

'But this knowledge is not given to the children,' Maharishi said. 'So children do not know how to satisfy all areas of their daily life. Therefore, all this little selfishness arises, and children are completely drowned in the limitations of time and space.

'That is why we have all this destruction and all these negative sentiments, actions, and thoughts. We are only missing one level that would satisfy all fields of life everywhere. Realizing this, we are opening universities—Vedic Universities.'

Vedic University means university of Veda, university of Total Knowledge. Total Knowledge resides in the Transcendent. The Veda is not studied from the text because the meaning part of it depends upon the level of consciousness of the person.

Maharishi said, 'Level of consciousness means how awake [the person] is—fifty per cent awake or forty per cent awake or ninety per cent drowsy or ten per cent drowsy. Human intelligence depends upon how awake one's consciousness is.

'However consciousness has not been taught; it's not a subject in the universities, colleges, and schools—consciousness is not a subject. Therefore, the basic route for the blossoming of all values of life in perfection is lacking. Education is lacking, fragmented, and not total. Education is only informative about this and that.

'How many pieces of information can you have? There are millions of things in the universe. That is why Vedic Education focuses on Total Knowledge first. Gain Total Knowledge and open your awareness to the field of Total Knowledge; then as constituents of this Total Knowledge, you can roam about in different fields of knowledge.

'But you will be satisfied when you have the total perspective of knowledge. With that, your action will be supported by Total Knowledge. That's what we say: supported by Natural Law, by the Unified Field.'

In the Upanishads, which are part of Vedic Literature, there is a saying, 'Know that by knowing which everything is known.' In this scientific age, we say, 'Know the Unified Field.'

'By knowing the Unified Field, you will come to realize different aspects of the Unified Field as constituents of the Unified Field,' Maharishi emphasized. 'Then you will be in possession of Total Knowledge, but you will also have the advantage of knowing the different fields of knowledge as well.'

Maharishi concluded by saying that giving Total Knowledge to children everywhere is 'our parental role for the present generation and for all generations.'

"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