Archives
Contribute
| Government According To Natural Law |
Martha B. Colby
10/01/2008
Part 1
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and his technologies for developing the full potential of human consciousness are known worldwide. He has established centers around the world whose trained teachers make available a variety of programs, including the Transcendental Meditation® and TM-Sidhi® programs. The following is an interview with one of New England’s top administrators of these programs, Dr. Robert Stowe. The topic is “Government According to Natural Law.â€
Robert Stowe, Ph.D. is Manager of the Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements and Associate Director of the Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group at the Harvard Kennedy School. Rob has worked in non-profit, academic, and business organizations, including as Vice President of Programs of the Citizens Network for Foreign Affairs, which provides assistance in agriculture and agribusiness to developing countries, and Human Factors International, one of the world’s leading firms in the field of software and Web usability. He has consulted to the World Bank and other organizations on agricultural management projects in Uganda, Russia, and Ukraine. Dr. Stowe holds a Ph.D. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an A.B. in physics from Harvard College. Dr. Stowe was a faculty member at Maharishi University of Management from 1990 to 1995 and is a Teacher of the Transcendental Meditation program as taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
Q: What is the role of government from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's point of view?
Dr. Stowe: Maharishi saw the ideal government as one that embodied government by Natural Law. Its constitution is the “constitution of the universeâ€-- in other words, it has its basis in the unbounded, silent functioning of Nature itself. And we know that Nature operates perfectly -- from the orderly spin of atomic particles to the vast cosmic orbits of distant galaxies. Such a government would operate flawlessly -- free from mistakes. So if a national, state, or city government were attuned to that orderliness, that intelligence, it would behave in a way that was always in the direction of evolutionary qualities -- that is, in the direction of more happiness, health, prosperity, and coherence for all its citizens. It would certainly have its own written constitution created by its own statesmen; but it would also recognize the value of maintaining the connection to Natural Law.
Q: Does any government today meet those criteria?
Dr. Stowe: No, there isn't one, although I think that the world as a whole as well as its constituent political parts are certainly moving in that direction. The way you create a government like that is that you create coherence in the collective consciousness of the people who are being governed. Whether it's the people of the United States or any other country, the way to achieve that ideal government is to create coherent consciousness in the people.
The individuals who are operating on that fundamental, unbounded level of Nature’s functioning contribute immense coherence to the overall functioning of the population. The government simply reflects the quality of the collective consciousness of the people who are governed. So if the collective consciousness is incoherent, then there will be problems.
What needs to happen is that enough people in the country need to practice the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs in groups each day. This has been scientifically shown in published research studies to increase societal coherence. When a critical threshold is reached (the square root of 1% of the population), then the governments spontaneously start making more life-supporting decisions. This is such a small number of people compared to the total population, but they can have a profound influence. And then all the citizens start enjoying the benefit of more useful administrative actions.
Q: Are we on the verge of having a large enough group in the U.S.? What will that mean for the country?
Dr. Stowe: To answer your first question: Yes, we are very close to having a group as large as 1,743 (the square root of 1% of the U.S. population) in Fairfield, Iowa, on the campus of Maharishi University of Management. As far as your second question goes: It's impossible to predict specifics. But we can predict general tendencies in the quality of life in the nation as a whole. No matter who runs the government, as long as that coherence-creating group is in place, the administrators will make more life-supporting decisions and grow in the direction of evolution, and solve social problems without destructive tendencies.
Sometimes we think that if a particular person or a particular political party comes to power, they would solve all the problems. But history has shown that it doesn’t happen. The government is an innocent mirror of the people. As long as the population as a whole is functioning incoherently, the government can only reflect that incoherence. When more coherence starts to be experienced in the individuals of the country, then that, too, starts to be reflected in the functioning of the government.
Q: We understand that there are large groups of school children and groups of adults, as well as groups of Vedic Pandits in India. What effect will they have?
Dr. Stowe: It’s the same situation. Different government, but same answer. As the groups of school children in the Maharishi Vedic Schools, and the groups of Maharishi Vedic Pandits increase in size, then the harmony and coherence will grow in the country. While their cultural integrity is maintained and strengthened, they will also strengthen their country. We know that there are many diverse groups there. They will all operate more coherently together.
(Part 2 of this interview will appear in the next issue.)
®Transcendental Meditation, TM-Sidhi, and Maharishi University of Management are registered or common law trademarks licensed to Maharishi Vedic Education Development Corporation and used under sublicense or with permission.
|
You may also access this article through our web-site http://www.lokvani.com/
