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Students and spirituality Spirituality among college students is lively today with research in the first decade of the new millennium showing that 80% of students are interested in spirituality and 75% believe in God. UC Newsroom reports that as part of the study, performed by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA in the United States, a forum was held to discuss how undergraduate students can be provided with opportunities to explore spirituality. Similar concerns were also prevalent back in the ‘60’s. At that time, a question of ‘how to make the grace of God come to us’ was posed to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of the Transcendental Meditation Programme. In the following excerpt from Thirty Years Around the World, Dawn of the Age of Enlightenment, Maharishi explains that the grace of God is all-pervading and that, through a simple meditation technique, we can easily bring our attention to it and automatically 'we just enjoy.' ‘Grace of God is all-pervading. It’s always present. It’s not that it comes; it is that we begin to make use of it. . . . There is nothing new that is to come; it has already come. It has not started with us as long as we have not started with it. The grace of God, the blessing of God, help from God, doesn’t come from anywhere. It is already there. Just like the air, it’s already there. Now it is up to us to breathe it or not to breathe it. If we don’t breathe, we begin to suffer. If we breathe, we begin to be normal. 'Like the air, the grace of God is available to us. It’s permeating every fibre of our being and the being of the entire universe . . . Only, that which is the all-pervading grace of God is never isolated as an individual entity. It is just there. That which is to be all-pervading is not isolated, not bound, and that which is not bound is finer than the finest existence in creation. When we take our attention to that Being, finer than the finest, then we establish ourselves on the level of God’s grace. Immediately we just enjoy. If we don’t take ourselves to the level of God’s grace, to that level of the finer than the finest, then remaining in the gross we don’t have it. 'That is the story of the grace of God. He is said to be all-merciful . . . all-mercifully He has spread His grace much before we could want it. Much before the need could arise, it is there available for us. Through diving during meditation, we bring our attention, our conscious mind, to that level of grace, and we get filled with it completely. . . . 'We associate ourselves fully with that grace and then enjoy. That is why this is the merciful nature of the Almighty. Very compassionately, very lovingly, He has spread His grace for us. Any time we can take our attention to that level, and we begin to own it. It’s a matter of owning the grace of God. From His side He is available. From our side, as long as we hesitate to accept it, we hesitate to accept it. We get ourselves to that level, and it’s already there. 'The grace of God is like a full lake, a big lake full of water. Now, the water is there. Any farmer can take the water to his field. If the pipeline is not connected up to the level of water, the water remains. Water is just full, ready to flow. But it will not flow of its own accord. If the connection is made, it will naturally flow. If the connection is not made, it won’t flow . . . and any man is free to make the connection from his field to the level of water. But if one doesn’t make the connection, the water remains full. 'Just like the fullness of water in a lake or ocean, the grace of God is full. Those who make a connection, who draw the pipeline through Transcendental Meditation, to them it flows. And if we don’t, it remains full. Of itself it cannot flow. [Maharishi then asked the participants at his course,] ‘How many of you are feeling that life is becoming better and more graceful ever since you started meditation? [All hands were raised.] And one thing more let me ask. How many of you find that it’s very easy to maintain? [Many hands rose.] Now, this is the merciful nature of God. He has created us so that we don’t have to do much . . . very easily we enjoy His grace. 'Out of our experience [of Transcendental Meditation] we see that it is easy to make life better; it is easy to put an end to suffering and sorrows that used to cling to our mind and body before; and it is easy to be freer, better in life, by devoting a few minutes to draw the pipeline from the gross to the transcendent. Just during meditation, we take our attention from the gross to the transcendent—just drawing the pipeline from the outer gross through the subtle to the transcendental state of Being, which is the hidden level of the grace of God.' © Copyright 2010 Global Good News®
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