We all know that a dream of all good citizens of any society and nation is to make their society and nation ideal. When we drive through highways, we see the sign "Ideal Village". If the village is really ideal or not, that’s a different question. But at least good thought and resolution is there. We never have come across a sign "Ideal City". Why? May be it is too much to think that a city can be ideal. Did we ever think what we need to make our society, city, province, nation and our dear family of nations ideal? Perhaps not. Everyone is busy in his/her own affairs. No time to think even of him/her self, what to think of others or of society. Great Saints, Rishies, Maharishies from different religions, different cultures, different times have been thinking about this in great deal, were propagating this idea, bringing out theoretical knowledge and practical programmes to achieve the goal, but somehow it did not appeal enough to citizens of respective time.

His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Ji has given a practical programme to create Ideal Individual, Ideal Citizen in every society. Maharishi Ji said that Every Individual is an important unit of a society. If we want to have a specific quality of a society, all the units of that society have to be first introduced to that specific quality. If we consider Army as a society, we know that every officer and every soldier of Army is trained to be an Army man. If we want to create Ideal Society, we need to train every individual to be an ideal unit of that society. If we want to create world peace, all citizens of the world as unit of whole world population have to be peaceful.

Maharishi Ji has talked about Ideal Society Programme in mid-sixties of nineteenth century during a course in India. In 1979 Maharishi Ji has blessed India with a Scientifically Validated Programme of Creating an Ideal Society on the basis of test done in 108 countries.

On 1st June 1978 it was decided to send large number of Governors of the Age of Enlightenment (Senior Transcendental Meditation Teachers) in selected provinces in 20 countries throughout the world. Over 2,000 Governors have gathered in these provinces and states to participate in a project to create a Model Province. More Governors have gone to go to the 88 smallest nations in the world to demonstrate that, irrespective of its size, any nation can be made invincible and brought to the level of an ideal society within a few months.

In these nations and provinces, mayors, local government officials, professionals, retired people, students, and citizens in every walk of life have participated in this programme to enrich the life of society with enlightened individuals whose inner life and outer achievements radiate an influence of harmony and coherence to the whole environment.

The MERU Ideal Society Index

In order to measure in the most scientific way the effect of the Maharishi Model Province Project, scientists at Maharishi European Research University (MERU) have devised an index of statistical and sociological criteria for assessing the growth of collective consciousness in society. The structure of this index has been based on the development in every aspect of life of six Fundamentals of Progress: 1. Creativity 2. Adaptability 3. Stability 4. Integration 5. Purification 6. Growth

These fundamentals, expressed in Physiology, Psychology, Sociology, and Ecology, were measured by drawing upon the wealth of statistics, news reports, scientific and professional journals, and government records available in all walks of life: Education, Health, Law and Order, Economics and Industry, Government, Agriculture, Environment, and Social Welfare.