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Mistake-free education According to a major international survey reported in the newspaper Washington Post in December 2004, American high school students had fallen far behind in basic math skills compared to high school students in other leading industrialized nations. Parents, educators, and businesses use test scores and grades as a measure of intelligence and academic success, and the study mentioned in the Washington Post ranked the United States 24th out of 29 countries. During the Global Press Conference on 8 December 2004, Maharishi was therefore asked whether Consciousness-Based Education will help students become smarter and do better in math? Or do test scores and conventional academic achievements simply not matter? Maharishi answered that the difference is between watering the root of a tree and watering the branches of a tree. ‘You educate a man on what he sees around—the world of sensory perception—or you educate him at the source of all thought, the self-referral field of consciousness, the Unified Field of all the Laws of Nature,’ Maharishi said. ‘You can educate them from the basis of all life within themselves, from where the thought begins, or you can tell all the story about what one sees on the surface,’ Maharishi explained. ‘The difference is between watering the root of a tree and watering the branches of a tree.’ Maharishi explained that in present, modern civilization, physical sciences deal with the physical values—but consciousness deals with the basis of all physical values at the basis of all life. Maharishi continued: ‘From there, you can think, and your thought will be upheld and promoted and made successful without your doing anything. By being on the level of the Unified Field, you allow the Unified Field to work for you.’ The Unified Field is that infinitely powerful field of intelligence at the basis of the orderly functioning of the enormously diversified universe, Maharishi said. ‘So there is a big difference between the thought of the ruler and the thought of the ruled. The thought of the ruled can only be dictated; the thought of the ruler dictates.’ Maharishi then explained that when we say ‘enlightenment for the individual’, we mean that level of intelligence where the whole of Natural Law works for him. Rig Veda and the other Vedas pronounce this: when you are on that self-referral, unified level of consciousness, on that Yoga level [Transcendental Consciousness], on that Vedanta* level, then Natural Law functions for you. ‘That is the difference in the two different systems of education,’ Maharishi said. ‘You know accuracy from mathematics. But you know that a drowsy man, when he solves a problem, creates a different solution when he is fully awake. So whether a drowsy man makes a decision, a fully awake man makes a decision, a drug-influenced mind makes a decision, or a clear, pure, simple mind makes a decision, the mathematics of one person can be wrong. But the mathematics of total Natural Law will always be right. It will always be right. ‘Education should be on a level where one cannot make a mistake. That will be the right type of education,’ Maharishi said. ‘Go to the source of all the laws, and from there, let Natural Law conduct your values. It will always be beneficial; it will always be fulfilling; it will always be cordial to the individual and to his environment. . . . ‘Vedic wisdom is completely open to knowledge. It is Total Knowledge—and based on that, action will always be right and instant. . . . Veda is knowledge of total Natural Law—the knowledge that administers the infinite diversity of the ever-expanding universe,’ Maharishi concluded. * Vedanta level: Unity Consciousness, the highest level of human development, full awakened consciousness or enlightenment.
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