March 2001

Bringing Peace to the Mind, the Home, and the Universe
Interview with Liz Taggart by Helen Ederer

Maharishi recommends that everyone create peace, or Shanti, in three spheres of life: Manas Shanti, Vastu Shanti, and Graha Shanti. Peace for the mind, Manas Shanti, is gained through the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs. Vastu Shanti provides a peaceful home, built according to Maharishi Sthapatya Veda design. Graha Shanti is peace with our "cosmic counterparts"—the sun, moon, stars and constellations—achieved through Maharishi Yagya performances.

Hollis and Liz Taggart, who own an art gallery in New York City and live in North Carolina, have been enjoying abundant benefits from the full range of Maharishi's programs for many years.

Enlightenment: You and your family are anchored in all three programs that Maharishi has said we need— Manas Shanti, Vastu Shanti, and Graha Shanti.

Liz Taggart: We’ve been practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique for about 30 years. We always really appreciated the meditation and TM-Sidhi program so much. Then we started doing yagyas in the late 1980s. About four years ago, I wanted to see if we could track any results from the yagyas. I asked our accountant to give me a chart showing what our monthly profits were for the past 18 months. She created a chart, and there were clearly spikes in our profits. I laid a second chart on top of it, showing when we had done yagyas for business success.

It was very compelling. Directly following the yagyas for business success, every time, there was a big spike in profits. That showed us a quantifiable result for those specific intentions.

Right after that the monthly yagya program began. We had understood that the Maharishi Yagya program was primarily for prevention: "Avert the danger that has not yet come." We liked the idea of creating a quality of life where we could avert mishaps before we had to deal with them, and then augment that with specific yagyas for financial success, good health, or other special interests. So we started doing the monthly yagyas.

We also started to do some yagyas for our extended family. There were a couple of dramatic instances. My father had surgery when he was in his 80’s, and after the surgery he was on several forms of life support. The doctors told us he had almost a zero percent prognosis for recovery.

Over several months, we did a series of five different yagyas, and gradually his condition reversed. Within six months, he was off the life support and back at home. Now, in April, we’ll be celebrating his 88th birthday, and he has such a wonderful quality of life.

Enlightenment: Have any other family members had Maharishi Yagyas performances?

Liz Taggart: This last year when my Mom needed to have surgery, she insisted that she get yagyas. She was getting ready to have surgery in July, and we did the yagyas a little bit ahead of time. When she went for the pre-operation exam, they discovered a problem and postponed the surgery for a couple of months. If they hadn’t discovered that problem, she could have had some very serious complications in her surgery. That was a real clear example of "avert the danger before it arises."

Once they had addressed the problem and she had her surgery, we did a couple more yagyas and she had a remarkable recovery from a major surgery. We feel that this is one of the greatest gifts that we’ve ever received. When you can prevent the people you love the most from suffering, it’s sort of irresistible.

Enlightenment: So you see yagyas as a gift you can give to others as well.

Liz Taggart: Yes. And this brings up another point that is always in the back of our minds. Every time you do a yagya with specific intentions for improvement in your own quality of life—because it is performed on that level of consciousness which pervades all of creation—that Maharishi Yagya performance produces a huge life-supporting effect for the whole world consciousness. As this is done over and over again, it continually uplifts and enlivens the consciousness of our whole world family, not just one individual. This is a point that is really important to us.

Enlightenment: What about the Vastu Shanti aspect of your life?

Liz Taggart: We were very interested when we heard about building a home with the principles of Maharishi Sthapatya Veda design, that you could build a home where you and your family can naturally live in accord with cosmic intelligence.

Maharishi was so emphatic about it, saying that it worked in tandem with meditation. He put it on that level— that to live in a proper Vastu is as important as it is to meditate. We immediately felt that we wanted to offer this to our children and our extended family.

We have a business that only can work in New York City. It’s an art gallery. We talked a lot about where we should build this house, and we really felt that the most powerful place to have a home is at The Maharishi Spiritual Center of America. So although on a practical level it doesn’t make a lot of sense to have a home in North Carolina and a business in New York City, on a deeper level it was the only thing that felt right to us.

In reflection—living in a Sthapatya Veda home in The Maharishi Spiritual Center of America, doing the monthly yagyas, and meditating regularly— what’s really growing is a quality of life that I don’t think we ever knew existed.

You feel tremendous gratitude that somehow you snuck into this Heaven on Earth, literally. We’re profoundly grateful for it. I think that’s the drive for speaking publicly in a magazine—it’s out of our gratitude for all this.

Enlightenment: You wanted to build a family home that would go on forever. There’s no better way to get longevity in a house than to build in accord with Natural Law.

Liz Taggart: Right. We feel that we want to share Maharishi’s Vedic knowledge with our family and grow in it ourselves. What better way can you provide that to others than with a home that naturally aligns each and every person with Natural Law so that their health is better, their decisions are better, and the love and harmony that we cherish becomes their experience as well. Once you understand and experience what this quality of life can really be, you know that you have to give it to your family.

Enlightenment: Manas Shanti, Vastu Shanti, and Graha Shanti. Do you experience an interplay or relationship between these three?

Liz Taggart: They all address separate fields of life, but there is an interplay between them. They greatly enrich one another. When you build a Maharishi Sthapatya Veda design home, the northeast corner of your house is dedicated to a meditation room. Our experiences in that meditation room are very deep and profound. Vastu Shanti creates a protective "armor" around your home, and yagyas help protect you by preventing dangers that have not yet come.

Enlightenment: So life becomes noticeably better…

Liz Taggart: Definitely. Yet it’s not as though you suddenly stop having problems. We have a very active, demanding life that involves a lot of people and a lot of employees. We deal with a lot of problems and challenges. I think anyone who has known us in the past few years has commented on how eventful our lives are.

But in our problem solving, what we see happening more and more is that we make decisions that create all good for everyone, that are more nourishing and broad in their nourishment. We don’t have these win-lose situations as much. We are more able to create win-win solutions. I think that is a direct result from taking advantage of these three very profound technologies.

Enlightenment: Anything more that you would want to add?

Liz Taggart: Just our most humble, deep gratitude to Maharishi. It’s not expressible. And we would wish this quality of life for every family. If every family had this, world peace would be automatic.