Maharishi with Merv Griffin, who practiced the Transcendental Meditation Technique and raved about the benefits he experienced.

Maharishi describes the principles of the Transcendental Meditation Technique
by Global Good News staff writer
5 March 2010

A beautiful, historic film made by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in 1968 features Maharishi Mahesh Yogi walking through alpine meadows beside Lake Louise, in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada.  

In this rare footage, Maharishi gives deep insight about the nature of life and the principles of his Transcendental Meditation Technique. He explains that the principle of Transcendental Meditation is simple. ‘Being is bliss in its nature,’ Maharishi said. ‘It's infinite happiness. 

‘The mind is always moving in the direction of greater happiness. This is the experience of everyone—wherever the mind goes, it goes in the direction of greater happiness, and because the nature of inner Being is bliss, infinite happiness, therefore the mind during Transcendental Meditation takes that inward course in a most spontaneous manner.’ 

Maharishi explained that during the Transcendental Meditation Technique we do not concentrate or try to control the mind. ‘We let the mind follow its natural instinct towards greater happiness,’ he said, ‘and it goes within and gains bliss consciousness in Being*.’ 

He explained that during Transcendental Meditation we take a specific thought that suits us—which is called the mantra; it is a suitable sound for us, which we receive from the trained teacher of Transcendental Meditation. ‘These teachers are found everywhere in the world,’ Maharishi said. ‘I have trained them properly, and they give a suitable word.
  
‘The man experiences the thought of that sound,’ Maharishi continued, ‘and starts minimizing that thought to experience the finest state of that thought until the source of thought is fathomed and the conscious mind reaches the transcendental area of Being.  

‘So from gross thought to the subtle state of thought to the subtler, to the subtlest state of thought, this is the path of Transcendental Meditation. 

‘Then the conscious mind reaches the bliss consciousness or Transcendental Consciousness or pure consciousness or the state of Being.' 

In the spring of 1975, in an equally historic television appearance on the Merv Griffin Show, again Maharishi explained the principles behind the Transcendental Meditation Technique. 

‘There could be so many systems of meditation—mind control and trying to concentrate here and there,’ he said. ‘But all these procedures put the mind to strain, some kind of resistance, because if you try to concentrate the mind, you are holding the mind in one spot. 

‘What is necessary is to let the mind move until all the moving comes to a standstill. In a natural way that state of least excitation of consciousness [or Being, or Transcendental Consciousness] is gained. It can only be gained in a natural way. Any effort, any trying to accomplish that state of least excitation will always keep the mind in an excited state,’ Maharishi said.  

He explained that in the name of meditation, so many systems are there. ‘They have existed since all time, but they keep the mind in strain, in stress,’ Maharishi continued. ‘They don't relax the mind. Transcendental Meditation, being a very natural procedure, by itself the mind settles down and once it comes to that state of least excitation, then it becomes most orderly. 

‘Orderly thinking starts; behaviour becomes better. Everything in life starts from that experience of least excited state of consciousness.’ 

* Maharishi has explained that there are three fields of life—the field of action, thinking, and Being, or pure consciousness, the transcendental field of pure existence, which is the basis of all our thought and action.  

Scientific research has found the experience of pure consciousness to be a ‘wakeful hypometabolic physiologic state,’ in which the mind is awake but the body is in a state of rest deeper than deep sleep—as measured by the breath rate etc. It is the combination of deep rest of the body and pure wakefulness of the mind that brings the many benefits of the Transcendental Meditation Technique.

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