Scientific research on Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Programme demonstrates that the total potential of human life can be unfolded by any individual in any age to achieve the highest purpose of human existence.

Meditation brings fulfilment to students’ quest for spirituality and religion
by Global Good News staff writer
10 February 2010

Recent research conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute shows that 80% of college students are interested in spirituality. Yet traditional religious practice, which maintains ritual and dogma, is not in the forefront of their lives, as it apparently does not bring them fulfilment.

Is there anything which can bring the spiritual fulfilment which students are seeking?

In The Science of Being and Art of Living, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of the Transcendental Meditation Programme, discusses the importance of spirituality, the inner content of life. He offers a simple way to bring the goal of every spiritual quest and every religion—to achieve the highest purpose of human existence.

The following excerpt from Maharishi’s book is from the section entitled, ‘The Fulfilment of Religion’.

‘The fulfilment of religion lies in gaining for man that for which the word religion itself stands. The word comes from the Latin infinitive religare: re, meaning back, ligare, to bind; or, that which binds one back. The purpose of religion is to bind man back to his source, to his origin.

‘If religion succeeds in bringing a man’s life back to its source by bringing the mind back to its source, by bringing the activity of the body back to the source of all activity, religion succeeds in fulfilling its purpose. Mind is the pivot of life. If the mind can be drawn back to its origin the whole of life will be drawn back to its source, and the purpose of religion will be fulfilled.. . . .

‘Religion should co-ordinate the individual life with cosmic life and so improve all the values of human life. Religion provides a practical way to the realisation of the supreme reality brought to light by philosophy. . . .

‘We need not describe in detail the deplorable state of religion in the world today; it will suffice to say that only the body is found; and the body is devoid of the spirit. . . .

‘The purpose of religion should not only be to indicate what is right and wrong; to fulfil its purpose it should elevate man to a state of life where he will choose only that which is right and will by nature avoid that which is wrong. . . .

‘A religion which brings to its people a message to do good but which fails to develop their consciousness or to raise them to live naturally a life of good, is a religion merely of words. A religion worthy of the name should be of real practical value. It should set a man directly in a way of life full of good and free from evil.

‘It is the responsibility of religion to see that good shines from the faces of its followers. If religious teachings fail to inspire people to live naturally a life of good in God-consciousness, the preachers of these religions should renew their strength and do justice to their teachings. The inner light of religion is missing from religious teachings; this is the case all over the world, with the result that peace and happiness are absent from the lives of people and everywhere tensions are increasing. . . .

‘It is the time for the custodians of religion to be awakened. This meditation is offered to them out of love of God and of that for which they stand. It is time that Transcendental Meditation is adopted in churches, temples, mosques and pagodas. Let all who are proud of their religions, who are living their own ways of life in their own faiths, enjoy the fulfilment of life—the divine life in the life of man—through the precepts of their own religion.

‘Here in a simple practice is the fulfilment of every religion. It belongs to the spirit of every religion; it existed in the early days of every faith and has since been lost. The principle is still contained in the scriptures. It has only been lost in practice. Unfortunately, religious teachers seem to have put the cart before the horse. They advise man to behave righteously, teaching that through right action he will gain purity and be able to realise God. The right approach would be to offer a direct way of gaining God-consciousness. Established in higher consciousness man would naturally behave righteously. . . . Religious life is the result of God consciousness; God-realization is not the result of a religious life. Unless this is understood the goal will never be achieved but will always be a far-fetched dream, forever in the realm of unattainable hopes. . . .

‘This practice has fortunately come to light during the present generation. Let it be adopted by the people of all religions and let them enjoy it while remaining proud of their faiths. Let the intelligent minds of all religions and the custodians of the various faiths delve into the deeper essence of their scriptures and there discover Transcendental Meditation; let them learn the practice and adopt it in the light of their own teachings. . . .

‘Religion should not only provide a solid foundation but should be able to build a high edifice of divine life in the life of man, and this can be accomplished only by transforming man’s nature into divine nature. . . .

‘Unless the mind rises to high values and attains a fair degree of divine intelligence man will continue to err. While man remains bound in the field of humanity he is apt to err. It is necessary, therefore, to take him above the field of error, to bring divine intelligence within the range of the conscious mind and thereby to infuse divine nature into his human nature. Raise humanity to divinity and then it does not matter what rituals are followed on the gross level of religion and life.

‘. . . As long as they [the people] are established in the spirit of religion and have risen to a state of God-consciousness, as long as the stream of life is attuned to the cosmic stream of evolution, it does not matter whether they call them selves Christian, Mohammedan, Hindu, Jew, or Buddhist—any name will be significant. . . .

'What does matter is that man should have a life of God-consciousness in eternal freedom, a life of complete integration. The key to the fulfilment of every religion is found in the regular practice of Transcendental Meditation.

‘We invite the custodians of all religions, the masters of philosophy, the leaders of metaphysical movements all over the world to test for themselves the validity of Transcendental Meditation and to offer to their followers the gift of fulfilment of life.

‘This meditation is in no way a threat to the authority of priests or ministers. It is something which belongs to their religions but which has been forgotten for many centuries. This is something that will restore to them their followers. Let them know that this will re-establish in society the value of the temples and churches, and will restore to the priest the status which should be his. . . .

‘Transcendental Meditation is the practice which enables man to live all that religions have taught throughout the ages; by this practice he easily rises to the level of divine Being, and this brings fulfilment to all religions.’

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