Living Peace

“A stressed man will always create, in his own mind, doubts about others. Because of stress, his comprehension is narrow, so he loses contact with the elements outside his perception and comes to a wrong decision. The more the stresses, the worse the situation and the more the number of enemies that will be created. If there are problems, examine your own situation, closely analyse your thoughts and actions, and make sure you are not violating Natural Law. The only effective defence is prevention; that means disallow the birth of an enemy; that means we must learn how to be friends with Nature, because Natural Law is the only invincible force. The nation can be invincible only when national life is behaving in accordance with all the Laws of Nature…The practical technology for achieving this is Transcendental Meditation practised by the people.” —Maharishi Mahesh Yogi On Living Peace This book begins with a chapter by Maharishi on his Absolute Theory of Defence. Maharishi presents his core philosophy of defence and points out that it has its beginnings before creation where the unmanifest field of absolute peace is an invincible continuum of pure existence or pure consciousness and thus free from disturbance. This is followed by a chapter by Dr Bevan Morris on Maharishi Vedic Science and Technology as a systematic approach to creating permanent world peace. Dr Morris points out the failure of government leaders to create world peace either at the negotiating table or the battlefield and asserts the only means to create lasting peace is with permanent coherence creating groups. Two chapters by Dr Lee Fergusson consider the theme of world peace in Maharishi’s literature from 1955, organised in five separate decades, and the plans, programs and events that Maharishi designed and implemented over 50 years to operationalise his theories and demonstrate evidence of their effectiveness. These chapters document the remarkable and unswerving life-long goal of Maharishi to bring peace to everyone across the world. Following on from these is a chapter on Artists for World Peace and Strategies for Vedic Defence with colour art pages, and an important chapter by Dr Geoffrey Wells on Peace in the Individual in Maharishi Vedic Science as expressed in the Bhagavad-Gita. As Maharishi pointed out: “The Bhagavad-Gita is a complete guide to practical life. It will always be there to rescue man in any situation. It is like an anchor for the ship of life sailing on the turbulent waters of time…It brings fulfillment to the life of the individual. When society accepts it, social well-being and security will result, and when the world hears it, world peace will be permanent.” The last three chapters are updated articles devoted to research on: 1) Global impact of the Maharishi Effect from 1974 to 2017: Theory and Research by David Orme-Johnson and Lee Fergusson. This is a survey of the theory and research on conflict resolution as documented in the published literature over 43 years, revealing the role of Transcendental Meditation and the TM-Sidhi program on improvements in society; 2) U.S. Soviet Relations During the Cold War: An Historical Time Series Analysis of Soviet Behaviour Towards the U.S. by Ken Cavanaugh, Paul Gelderloos, and Michael Dillbeck, which puts Maharishi’s theories to the test by empirically analysing the relationship of the superpowers during the Cold War period from 1979-1986; and 3) U.S.-Soviet Relations During the Cold War: An Historical Time Series Analysis of U.S. Presidential Statements concerning the Soviet Union, by Paul Gelderloos, Ken Cavanaugh, Martin Frid and Xiaoping Xue, which empirically tests the hypothesis that individuals practicing Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation-Sidhi Program in a group have a salutary impact on relations between countries as expressed by the head of state. The purpose of the book is to investigate peace as it has been explained by Maharishi, specifically his contribution to an understanding of individual peace, world peace and global security and to systematically explore how they can be achieved and sustained. As Dr Tony Nader, MD. PhD. MAAR states in his Foreword: ”This book…provides hope for a better future. It seeks to systematically present a viable and trustworthy approach to world peace, based upon a clearly articulated set of propositions, principles, and theories and a well-documented series of empirical technologies and global programs which explain and demonstrably show that peace is not only possible but within easy reach of every society. These theories, technologies, and programs, rooted in the ancient Vedic tradition and built on a reliable foundation of creating peace within the individual, are the work of one man: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. I recommend the book to the world’s well-wishers who seek to find a viable, scientific approach to creating a long sought after and lasting peace for the world.”