An Introduction
Kenneth Chandler
Maharishi International University
Fairfield, Iowa
(Originally published in Modern Science and
Vedic Science Volume 1, NO. 2, p. v-xxvi)
This journal provides a forum for research on the forefront of mankind's expanding knowledge of the universe. It is devoted to exploration of the unified field of all the laws of nature through the combined approaches of modern science and ancient Vedic science, as brought to light by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The identification of the unified field by modern physics is only the first glimpse of a new area of investigation that underlies all disciplines of knowledge, and which can be explored not only through objective science but through a new technology of consciousness developed by Maharishi.
The unified field is now beginning to be understood through modern physics as the unified source of the entire universe, as a unified state of all laws of nature from which all force and matter fields sequentially emerge according to exact dynamical principles. As each science and each academic discipline progresses to uncover its own most basic laws and foundational principles, each is beginning to discover that the roots of these laws and principles can be traced to the unified field.
This journal recognizes a new method of gaining knowledge of the unified field that combines the approach of the modern sciences with that of the most ancient of sciences, the ancient tradition of Vedic science. Many thousands of years ago, the seers of the Himalayas discovered, through exploration of the silent levels of awareness, a unified field where all the laws of nature are found together in a state of wholeness. This unity of nature was directly experienced to be a self-referral state of consciousness which is unbounded, all-pervading, unchanging, and the self-sufficient source of all existing things. They experienced and gave expression to the self-interacting dynamics through which this unified field sequentially gives rise to the diversity of all laws of nature. That experience is expressed in the ancient Vedic literature.
In our own time, Maharishi has brought to light the knowledge of this ancient science and integrated it with the modern sciences in such a way that Vedic science and modern science are now seen as complementary methods of gaining knowledge of the same reality-the unified field of all the laws of nature. The knowledge of this ancient science that Maharishi has brought to light is known as Maharishi's Vedic Science.
Maharishi's Vedic Science is to be understood, first of all, as a reliable method of gaining knowledge, as a science in the most complete sense of the term. It relies upon experience as the sole basis of knowledge, not experience gained through the senses only, but experience gained when the mind, becoming completely quiet, is identified with the unified field. This method, examined in relation to the modern sciences, proves to be an effective means of exploring the unified field of all laws of nature. On the basis of this method, complete knowledge of the unified field becomes possible. It is possible to know the unified field both subjectively on the level of direct experience through exploration of consciousness and objectively through the investigative methods of modern science. Vedic Science gives complete knowledge of consciousness, or the knower, complete knowledge of the object known, and complete knowledge of the process of knowing. In knowing the unified field, all three-knower, known, and process of knowing?re united in a single unified state of knowledge in which the three are one and the same.
Maharishi has developed and made available a technology for the systematic exploration of the unified field. This technology is a means by which anyone can gain access to the unified field and explore it through experience of the simplest and most unified state of consciousness. As this domain of experience becomes universally accessible, the unified field becomes available as a direct experience that is a basis for universal knowledge. The technology for gaining access to the unified field is called the Maharishi Technology of the Unified Field, and the science based on this experience, which links modern science and Vedic Science in a single unified body of knowledge, is called the Science of Creative Intelligence.
Maharishi is deeply committed to applying the knowledge and technology of the unified field for the practical benefit of life. He has developed programs to apply this knowledge to every major area of human concern, including the fields of health, education, rehabilitation, and world peace. These applications of the Maharishi Technology of the Unified Field have laid it open to empirical verification and demonstrated its practical benefit to mankind. Hundreds of scientific studies have already established its usefulness. From these results it is clear that the Maharishi Technology of the Unified Field is far more beneficial than technologies based on present day empirical science; it promises to reduce and even eliminate war, terrorism, crime, ill health, and all forms of human suffering.
The Maharishi Technology of the Unified Field, the applied value of Vedic Science, represents a great advance in methods of gaining knowledge. Past science was based on a limited range of knowledge gained through the senses. This new technology opens to mankind a domain of experience of a deeper and more far reaching import. It places within our grasp a new source of discovery of laws of nature that far exceeds the methods of modern science yet remains complementary to these methods.
Modern science and Vedic Science, explored together, constitute a radically new frontier of knowledge in the contemporary world, opening out vistas of what it is possible for mankind to know and to achieve, which extend far beyond present conceptions, and which demand a revaluation of current paradigms of reality and a reassessment of old conceptions of the sources and limits of human knowledge.
This introductory essay will provide a preliminary understanding of what the unified field is, what Vedic Science is, and how Vedic Science and modern science are related. It also defines fundamental concepts and terminology that will be frequently used in this journal and surveys the practical applications of this new technology. We begin with a description of the unified field as understood in modern science.
Within the last few years, modern theoretical physics has identified and mathematically described a unified field at the basis of all observable states of physical nature. Einstein's hope of finding a unified field theory to unite the electromagnetic, gravitational, and other known force fields has now been virtually realized in the form of unified quantum field theories. Instead of having several ir reducible and distinct force fields, physics can now mathematically derive all four known force fields from a single supersymmetric field located at the Planck scale (10(-33cm) or 10-(43sec.), the most fundamental time-distance scale in nature. This field constitutes an unbounded continuum of non-changing unity pervading the entire universe. All matter and energy in the universe are now understood to be just excitations of this one, all-pervading field.
Physics now has the capacity to accurately describe the sequence by which the unified field of natural law systematically gives rise, through its own self-interacting dynamics, to the diverse force and matter fields that constitute the universe. With a precision almost undreamed of a few years ago, the modern science of cosmology can now account for the exact sequence of dynamical symmetry breaking by which the unified field, the singularity at the moment of cosmogenesis, sequentially gave rise to the diverse force fields and matter fields. It is now possible to determine the time and sequence in which each force and matter field decoupled from the unified field, often to within a precision of minute fractions of a second. This gives us a clear understanding of how all aspects of the physical universe emerge from the unified field of natural law.
Mathematics, physiology, and other sciences have also located a unified source and basis of all the laws of nature in their respective disciplines. In mathematics, the foundational area of set theory provides an account of the sequential emergence of all of mathematics out of the single concept of a set and the relationship of set membership. The iterative mechanics of set formation at the foundation of set theory directly present the mechanics of an underlying unified field of intelligence that is self-sufficient, self-referral, and infinitely dynamic in its nature. Investigations into the foundations of set theory are ultimately investigations of this unified field of intelligence from which all diversity of the discipline emerges in a rigorous and sequential fashion. In physiology, it is the DNA molecule that contains, either explicitly or implicitly, the information specifying all structures and functions of the individual physiology. In this sense, therefore, it is DNA that unifies the discipline by serving as a unified source to which the diversity of physiological functioning can be traced.
Each of the modern sciences may indeed be said to have glimpsed a unified state of complete knowledge in which all laws of nature are contained in seed form. Each has gained some knowledge of how the unified field of natural law sequentially unfolds into the diverse expressions of natural law constituting its field of study. Modern science is now discovering and exploring the fundamental unity of all laws of nature.
Maharishi's Vedic Science is based upon the ancient Vedic tradition of gaining knowledge through exploration of consciousness, developed by the great masters in the Himalayas who first expressed this knowledge and passed it on over many thousands of years in what is now the oldest continuous tradition of knowledge in existence. Maharishi's work in founding Vedic Science is very much steeped in that ancient tradition, but his work is also very much imbued with the spirit of modern science and shares its commitment to direct experience and empirical testing as the foundation and criteria of all knowledge. For this reason, and other reasons to be considered below, it is also appropriately called a science. The name "Vedic Science" thus indicates both the ancient traditional origins of this body of knowledge and the modern commitment to experience, system, testability, and the demand that knowledge be useful in improving the quality of human life.
The founders of the ancient Vedic tradition discovered the capability of the human mind to settle into a state of deep silence while remaining awake, and therein to experience a completely unified, simple, and unbounded state of awareness, called pure consciousness, which is quite distinct from our ordinary waking, sleeping, or dreaming states of consciousness. In that deep silence, they discovered the capability of the mind to become identified with a boundless, all-pervading, unified field that is experienced as an eternal continuum underlying all existence. They gave expression to the self-sufficient, infinitely dynamic, self-interacting qualities of this unified state of awareness; and they articulated the dynamics by which it sequentially gives rise, through its own self-interacting dynamics, to the field of space-time geometry, and subsequently to all the distinct forms and phenomena that constitute the universe. They perceived the fine fabric of activity, as Maharishi explains it, through which this unity of pure consciousness, in the process of knowing itself, gives rise sequentially to the diversity of natural law and ultimately to the whole of nature.
This experience was not, Maharishi asserts, on the level of thinking, or theoretical conjecture, or imagination, but on the level of direct experience, which is more vivid, distinct, clear, and orderly than sensory experience„perhaps much in the same way that Newton or Einstein, when they discovered the laws of universal gravitation or special relativity, enjoyed a vivid experience of sudden understanding or a kind of direct "insight" into these laws. The experience of the unified field of all the laws of nature appears to be a direct experience of this sort, except that it includes all laws of nature at one time as a unified totality at the basis of all existence?n experience obviously far outside the range of average waking state experience.
The ancient Vedic literature, as Maharishi interprets it, expresses in the sequence of its flow and the structure of its organization, the sequence of the unfoldment of the diversity of all laws of nature out of the unified field of natural law. The Veda is thus to be understood as the sequential flow of this process of the oneness of pure consciousness giving rise to diversity; and Vedic Science is to be understood as a body of knowledge based on the direct experience of the sequential unfoldment of the unified field into the diversity of nature. It is an account, according to Maharishi, of the origin of the universe from the unified field of natural law, an account that is open to verification through direct experience, and is thus to be understood as a systematic science.
These ancient seers of the Vedic tradition developed techniques to refine the human physiology so that it can produce this level of experience, techniques that were passed on over many generations, but were eventually lost. Maharishi's revival and reinterpretation of ancient Vedic science is based on his revival of these techniques which have now been made widely accessible through the training of thousands of teachers of the Maharishi Technology of the Unified Field. He has thus provided a reliable method of access to this field of direct experience where the oneness of pure consciousness gives rise to the diversity of the laws of nature; and he has also developed applications of this technology that render it open to experimental testing. These applications will be considered below.
Maharishi describes the experience of this unified field of consciousness as an experience of a completely unchanging, unbounded unity of consciousness, silently awake within itself. Gaining intimate familiarity with the silence of pure consciousness, Maharishi holds, one gains the ability to experience within that silence an eternal "fabric" or "blueprint" of all laws of nature that govern the universe, existing at the unmanifest basis of all existence. This unmanifest basis of life, where all laws of nature eternally reside in a collected unity, is experienced as the fabric of the silent field of consciousness itself, which is not in space and time, but lies at the unmanifest basis of all manifest activity in space and time. Through Maharishi's work, this experience comes to be understood (as we see below) as a normal state of consciousness that arises in the natural course of human development.
Glimpses of this universal domain of experience where all possibilities reside together in an eternally unified state have been reported in almost every culture and historical epoch, from Plato to Plotinus and Augustine, and from Leibniz to Hegel and Whitehead. Scientists like Kepler, Descartes, Cantor, and Einstein also appear to have written of it and seemingly drew their insights into the laws of nature from this experience. Descartes writes, for example, of an experience that he had as a young man of "penetrating to the very heart of the kingdom of knowledge" and there comprehending all the sciences, not in sequence, but "all at once." Scientists and writers from many traditions have described this experience of unity, which confirms that it is completely universal, and not a product of a particular cultural tradition. Just as the Vedic tradition has been misunderstood, however, so have those descriptions of consciousness found in these different cultural traditions; for without a technique that makes the experience systematically accessible to everyone, the understanding that this is a universal experience of the most fundamental level of nature's activity has been obscured, and has not before now emerged into the light of universal science.
According to Maharishi's Vedic Science, it is not only possible to gain direct experience of the unity of natural law at the basis of the manifest universe, but one can also directly experience the unity of nature sequentially giving rise to the diversity of natural law through its own self-interacting dynamics. Maharishi's most recent research has centered on delving deeply into the analysis of these selfinteracting dynamics of consciousness.
The Self-lnteracting Dynamics of Consciousness
When one gains the capability, through the practice of the Maharishi Technology of the Unified Field, of remaining awake while becoming perfectly settled and still, one gains the ability to experience a completely simple, unified, undifferentiated, self-referral state of pure consciousness, which is called samhita in the Vedic literature, in which knower, known, and process of knowing are one and the same. Consciousness is simply awake to itself, knowing its own nature as simple, unified pure consciousness. Yet in knowing itself, the state of pure consciousness creates an intellectually conceived distinction between itself as knower, itself as known, and itself as process of knowing. In Vedic literature, this is reflected in the distinction between rishi (knower), devata (process of knowing), and chhandas (object of knowledge). According to Maharishi, from the various interactions and transformations of these three intellectually conceived values in the unified state of pure consciousness, all diverse forms of knowledge, all diverse laws of nature, and ultimately all diversity in material nature itself sequentially emerge.
The conscious mind, awake at this totally settled and still level of awareness, can witness the mechanics by which this diversification of the many out of the unity of pure consciousness takes place. The mechanics of rishi, devata, and chhandas transforming themselves into samhita , samhita transforming itself into rishi ,devata , and chhandas , and rishi , devata and chhandas transforming themselves into each other are the mechanics by which the unity of pure consciousness gives rise to the diversity of natural law. These mechanics are expressed in the sequential unfoldment of Vedic literature. These are the self-interacting dynamics of consciousness knowing itself, which, Maharishi asserts, sequentially give rise to all diversity in nature.
Maharishi (1986) describes this self-referral state of consciousness as the basis of all creative processes in nature:
This self-referral state of consciousness is that one element in nature on the ground of which the infinite variety of creation is continuously emerging, growing, and dissolving. The whole field of change emerges from this field of non-change, from this selfreferral, immortal state of consciousness. The interaction of the different intellectually conceived components of this unified self-referral state of consciousness is that allpowerful activity at the most elementary level of nature. That activity is responsible for the innumerable varieties of life in the world, the innumerable streams of intelligence in creation. (pp.25-26)
The Structure of Maharishi's Vedic Science
One of Maharishi's most important contributions to Vedic scholarship has been his discovery of the Apaurusheya Bhashya , the "uncreated commentary" of the Rig Veda , which brings to light the dynamics by which the Veda emerges sequentially from the self-interacting dynamics of consciousness. According to Maharishi's analysis, the Veda unfolds through its own commentary on itself, through the sequential unfoldment, in different sized packets of knowledge, of its own knowledge of itself. All knowledge of the Veda is contained implicitly even in the first syllable "Ak" of the Rig Veda , and each subsequent expression of knowledge elaborates the meaning inherent in that packet of knowledge through an expanded commentary. The phonology of that syllable, as analyzed by Maharishi, expresses the self-interacting dynamics of consciousness knowing itself. As pure consciousness interacts with itself, at every stage of creation a new level of wholeness emerges to express the same self-interacting dynamics of rishi , devata , and chhandas .
Thus the body of Vedic literature reflects, in its very organization and structure, the sequential emergence of all structures of natural law from the unity of pure consciousness. Each unit of Vedic literature -Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda, Atharva Veda, Upanishads, Aranyakas, Brahmanas, Vedangas, Upangas, Itihasa, Puranas, Smritis , and Upaveda -expresses one aspect or level of the process. As Maharishi (1986) describes it:
The whole of Vedic literature is beautifully organized in its sequential development to present complete knowledge of the reality at the unmanifest basis of creation and complete knowledge of all of its manifest values. (p.28)
Veda, Maharishi asserts, is the self-interaction of consciousness that ultimately gives rise to the diversity of nature. The diversity of creation sequentially unfolding from the unity of consciousness is the result of distinctions being created within the wholeness of consciousness, as consciousness knows itself. Thus from the perspective of Vedic Science, the entire universe is just an expression of consciousness moving within itself: all activity in nature is just activity within the unchanging continuum of the wholeness of consciousness.
Through the texts of ancient Vedic science, as interpreted by Maharishi, we possess a rich account of the emergence of diversity out of the unity of natural law. On the basis of this account, it becomes feasible to compare the Vedic description of the origin of the universe with that of the modern sciences.
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