In this telephone interview with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a student reporter from UCLA’s The Daily Bruin asks about the role of students, how the TM technique can improve effectiveness, and ‘the best question’—what is enlightenment? Dr. Keith Wallace, who performed the first scientific research on the TM technique as UCLA doctoral student, was also present on the telephone call.

Reporter: My name is Rachel Kelley and I am a reporter with the UCLA Daily Bruin newspaper and I am doing a story on the Transcendental Meditation program. And I was wondering if I could ask you some questions?

Maharishi: Yes, yes.

Reporter: Okay, thanks.

Maharishi: Transcendental Meditation is a very old story, so, yes, ask some new questions.

Reporter: I have heard that you talked about enlightenment as being easy, and I was wondering what exactly you mean by ‘enlightenment’?

Maharishi: ‘Enlightenment’ means lack of darkness, absence of darkness. And ‘absence of darkness’ means no mistake, no weakness, no shortcoming—success everywhere, fulfillment of desire everywhere—that is enlightenment. One is living in full accord with Natural Law. Spontaneously Nature is supporting us: then we are not in the dark about anything.

Reporter: And can anyone learn the TM technique? What does it require?

Maharishi: It requires just a desire to learn, and as anything is learned from a teacher, Transcendental Meditation is also learned from the teacher. For these 40 years, millions of people are learning TM, and they’re gaining enlightenment. That means they are becoming more and more in accord with Natural Law. That means greater success all the time, no mistakes in life, no harm to anyone—that is enlightenment through Transcendental Meditation.

Reporter: What do you feel is the value of students learning the TM technique?

Maharishi: The student life is to gain as much knowledge as possible, and if possible, total knowledge. So when they learn Transcendental Meditation, they also learn the principles of Transcendental Meditation—total knowledge.

Transcendental Consciousness is the Unified Field of all the Laws of Nature—Unified Field, you know? This quantum field theory has established that there is one Unified Field of all the Laws of Nature at the basis of all creativity of Natural Law. So when one transcends, one gets into that level of intelligence which is all-knowingness. This is enlightenment. And one spontaneously begins to think better in every way—better means in every way—right for everyone, useful for everyone, and quickly achieving the desire. That is enlightenment.

And the life of the student is to develop all knowledge that is possible, to gain all creativity that is possible. There is an infinite degree of creativity in the consciousness of everyone, and Transcendental Meditation unfolds that, very easily, very simply, so total knowledge can be gained by every student. So the purpose of a student career, the purpose of gaining education, can be fulfilled through the practice of Transcendental Meditation.

Reporter: What do you think students can do for the world?

Maharishi: They can re-create the world. The world must be redone, it must be reestablished. And basically there is only one thing to restructure the world—and that is enlightenment for everyone.

Reporter: People in the United States don’t normally associate ease with effectiveness, so how does the TM technique encompass both?

Maharishi: Transcendental Meditation makes the active mind fully silent, spontaneously, and that silence remains when one comes out of meditation, then the mind remains silent and remains active—silent and active. Just like a businessman goes to the bank and he comes out, his pocket full, and he moves around in the market very easily, and he does not have to struggle to gain profit in the market if he has money in the pocket. Like that, the inner creativity from Transcendental Meditation comes out and then, with increased creativity, people don’t have to work that hard.

The principle of Transcendental Meditation is no hardness in life. This great principle is—do less and accomplish more. In the principle of shooting an arrow with great force, we just pull the arrow back and release—it will go very far and hit the target with great force. So success is not gained through hard work: success is gained by having the infinite organizing power of Natural Law in our favor. So Transcendental Meditation brings the favor of Natural Law—brings the creativity of Natural Law which governs the whole universe—so everything becomes very easy for the Meditators to achieve.

Reporter: How would you respond to students who are afraid of putting themselves in such a deep rest state because that feeling is so foreign to them?

Maharishi: No, No. Everyone knows sleeping is very natural. No one has to work hard to sleep. So resting is a natural process. One rests, one feels better, one feels relaxed. ‘Work hard’ is a wrong principle. Only, one should draw the mind inward, pull the arrow and release. This is the way to fulfill our desires. The desiring mind should be pulled back, should be brought to a state of silence, and there, in that Transcendental Consciousness—there will be no mistake in pushing forward the desire—it will get fulfilled. It is a great science of life which does not require hard work. Enjoy and fulfill your desires—that is the theme of a really educated man. This is the difference between an educated man and an uneducated man. An educated man knows how to do things so that he doesn’t get tired, and an uneducated man—he will get tired everywhere.

Reporter: What would life at UCLA be like if a significant number of students practiced Transcendental Meditation?

Maharishi: Then they will be such great scientists and leaders of society as is Dr. Keith Wallace. And his sons are getting on to this great field of scientific research—they’ll be the leaders of the world. So UCLA will be creating leaders of the world as it has created in the time of Keith Wallace.

Reporter: I have heard that you are a very busy man and you work 25 hours a day, so what exactly does your work on a daily basis encompass?

Maharishi: I can go for 25 hours because I don’t work hard: I just sit and talk. My philosophy is—not to work hard, and not put anyone to a hard-work direction—easy, simple, support of Nature, bliss consciousness. Use the Natural Law to work for us—that is it.

Reporter: What is the best question a journalist ever asked you?

Maharishi: This is what you asked today, what is enlightenment.

Reporter: Okay, cool!

Maharishi: Because enlightenment is the total knowledge, total thing, everything. So that is the best question.

Reporter: Oh, wow! Thank you.

Maharishi: So you have done the best in the world of journalism.

Reporter: That’s all the questions I have for you, Maharishi. Thank you so much for all your time.

Maharishi: It was very good.  Jai Guru Dev.