The fullness of Vedic knowledge and the fullness of modern technology have come together at just the right time I history, to enable the blossoming of Maharishi Open University into a worlwide satellite university. The knowledge is now complete, and the technology is in lace to bring this knowledge to every part of the globe

Since the 1970s, Maharishi has spoken of creating a global satellite system to offer the benefits of Vedic knowledge and technology to every person in every country. During the inauguration of Maharishi Open University on August 3, 1998, it became clear that this was to be the long-awaited direct link between Maharishi and the rest of the world.

In response to Maharishi’s desire to reach every country through Maharishi Open University, a team of expert engineers gathered in Vlodrop to develop a worldwide network of satellites as quickly as possible.

"We contracted for eight satellites and began to provide programming on all of them at once," remembers Dr. Walid Bechara, Director of Broadcasting. "Maharishi Open University is now the largest direct-to-home, small-dish, all-digital satellite network in the world. It has the further distinction of starting up in record time, just four months.

"Using digital cameras and recording equipment, we set up three video studios. Our 53 faculty now come to these studios to produce and edit each lesson in 18 languages. When the faculty are satisfied with the quality of the finished digital tape, it is delivered to the satellite playout station."

A visitor walking into the playout station will see banks of monitors, watched by a team of technicians. The technicians work three 8-hour shifts each day, seven days a week to keep the programming going out. In order to broadcast just one lesson to all time zones, the technical staff must load tapes over a 37-hour period.

To get a sense of the scope of their task, consider the schedule for a Wednesday broadcast. At 9:00 p.m. on Tuesday evening in Holland, a technician loads the tape for Japan and Northeast Asia. The team continues loading tapes for 18 different languages all throughout the day on Wednesday, and concludes by sending to the Americas on Thursday morning at 10:00 a.m. Holland time.

The tapes are broadcast from the station in five streams, which feed the net-work of satellites. One stream goes to India and Southeast Asia, one to Japan and Northeast Asia, one to Africa, Central Asia, and Australia/New Zealand, one to Europe and the Mideast, and one to North and South America. Some streams are fed through a set of turn-around stations, which take the signal and beam it up to the final satellite.

The eight satellites each reach a geographic broadcast area called a "foot-print," which are depicted in a general way in the Maharishi Open University logo. The entire network beams the signal back down to almost every corner of the globe, bringing the knowledge of how to live perfection in life to every student of Maharishi Open University.

"It has always been Maharishi’s desire to speak to the whole world," Dr. Bechara observes. "Our great satisfaction is that this desire is finally fulfilled. Now at any time, Maharishi can speak and immediately reach the entire globe."

Each day at dawn, Maharishi Open University’s network of satellites begins pouring Pure Knowledge from the skies over Japan, and as the sun moves across the face of the earth so does this wave of enlightening knowledge.