Global Good News: Excellence in Action

In a talk given on 27 February 1978, Maharishi explained that it is the very nature of life to progress in the direction of fulfilment. ‘It's the nature of life to progress,’ he said. ‘It's the nature of life to rise to fulfilment; it's the nature of life to demand fulfilment. The whole dynamic nature of life is for fulfilment.’

He said that every activity in life is for fulfilment. If fulfilment is not achieved, there is always desire for it, effort for it, struggle for it, if it can't be had in a peaceful way.

‘Life must have fulfilment at any cost,’ Maharishi continued, ‘and when it is not available in a natural way, then there is a struggle for it.’ He explained that struggle is unnatural to life, just because there is an area of life that is eternal fulfilment in its character. And that is the most silent area of man's awareness.

‘It is bliss consciousness,’ he said. ‘It's a state of eternal fulfilment. That must come up to be lived in all the waves of daily living, then life will be in fulfilment and then life will be in peace.’

Maharishi went on to say that fulfilment is the word for peace. He explained that achievement of the total value of life—unbounded awareness, infinite bliss—is the desirable element for experience in daily life. If this experience of bliss and unbounded awareness is available, life will be lived in such a way that we can have world peace.

However, if there is any lack of fulfilment, there will be a revolt against that, because it is the very nature of life to progress in the direction of fulfilment.

‘When individuals have learned to live this state of fulfilment in their daily living, and when with this influence the societies have grown in the value of fulfilment, inner self-sufficiency, nations will enjoy invincibility,’ Maharishi continued. ‘When every nation is invincible, or even if a few nations are invincible, world peace will be a common experience.

‘Due to its expanding nature, life is always joyful in the waves of joyfulness, and in the waves of increasing values of joyfulness there cannot be any lack of peace.

‘Therefore as far as the real nature of life is concerned, peace is not a thing that should be sought for. It's built in the breath of life. Life naturally—whether it's on the individual level, society level, community level, national level, world level—life is always by nature fulfilled, because it is ever-growing more and more and more.

‘In this state of ever-growing fulfilment,’ Maharishi said, ‘life is and must be lived in ever growing intensity of peace. But in the absence of this knowledge about the nature of life; in the state of ignorance of this value of life, peace becomes a project to be achieved, a goal to be sought.’

Otherwise if life is lived according to its nature, if nature is lived according to Natural Law, every stage of its existence is more and more fulfilling, Maharishi said, because evolution means more and more and more.

The sought-for world peace came about from the ignorance of life. When life was lived in ignorance, there was struggle and strife, and there was threat to life, and everyone was afraid of annihilation, ‘so they started to talk about peace and peace became a project,’ Maharishi said.

‘It was just the ignorance of life, the ignorance of the total value of life—when only the surface values of life were known to be lived. When only the material values became predominant, then the basis of life was ignorant, and in that situation, peace became a goal of the world's desire. "We want to be in peace.’’ ’

Maharishi said that we should naturally be in peace, but peace is not a thing that could be structured on the level of unfulfilled life. ‘Unfulfilled life will always be living for fulfilment or dying for fulfilment,’ he added. ‘This kind of ignorance about the nature of life can be completely effaced, but that nature of life must be given out to every single individual in society.

‘It must be a common knowledge of every man, therefore this knowledge about the full potential of life and this technology of unfolding the full potential of life—this methodology of living fulfilment in life—must be made available to all the people and then world peace will be a natural and constant phenomenon.

‘Without life in fulfilment, peace in any nation, peace in any community, peace in any family, peace within any individual will always remain a dream,’ Maharishi concluded. ‘It doesn’t have to be that way because by nature life is abundance, affluence, bliss, unboundedness.’

"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