(Education for Enlightenment)
Consciousness-Based Education for Total Development of the Brain
"The process of education takes place in the field of consciousness. The prerequisite for gaining complete education, complete knowledge-the prerequisite for knowing everything, experiencing everything, and doing everything-is to bring the awareness to the level of pure intelligence, pure knowledge, self-referral intelligence, self-referral consciousness, Transcendental Consciousness."
—Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

Maharishi's Consciousness-Based Education is Vedic education based on total knowledge of Natural Law. Maharishi has brought to light the missing element at the basis of education-the field of pure consciousness (Transcendental Consciousness), which lies at the source of thought and is the fountainhead of Natural Law. The experience of Transcendental Consciousness, which awakens the total functioning of the brain, makes it possible to unfold the full creative potential and inner happiness of every student.

Consciousness is the prime mover of life. In Maharishi Vedic Education System institutions offer complete theoretical and practical knowledge of consciousness, which opens the gate of all possibilities in the life of the students. Through the technology of Maharishi Vedic Science, the institutions offer mastery in the field of consciousness, enabling the student to accomplish anything and live a complete life.

This most vital element of life, the study of consciousness has unfortunately been out of the mainstream of education. That is why the tree of life on earth has segregated from its roots and lost the source of its vitality. It lost its nourishment and became fruitless. The bliss quality of consciousness became dormant; suffering dominated human awareness; and problems prevailed in the world.

The time has now come in this scientific age for everyone to gain complete knowledge of his own consciousness, and to live life in its full potential of bliss, freedom, and fulfillment. Maharishi Institutions offer this to everyone through courses in the science and technology of consciousness, which is a part of Maharishi's Vedic Science and Technology.

Everyone knows that education available in the existing educational institutions today is 'job-oriented education', which does not develop higher states of consciousness and does not help students to live the full potential of life. Present education is not life oriented; it is not 'enlightenment oriented'. It does not educate the students to spontaneously think and act according to the laws of nature. Therefore, the whole population is suffering, tension and conflicts, crime and terrorism prevail in every country and human life everywhere is shrouded with problems.

Maharishi Institutions are for those, who like to develop their full creative potential, gain the support of natural law, be the guiding light of their nation, and lead the world to lasting peace and happiness.

The highest educational goal of every nation is to create ideal citizens, ideal society, ideal nation through individuals capable of fulfilling their own goals while upholding the interests of others and the progress of the whole society. For this goal to become a living reality, education must actualize the full potential of the most precious resource of the country, the human brain of every citizen.

Education should be defined as the process of culturing the individual to display perfection in life. Education should enable any individual to spontaneously utilise the total Creative Intelligence of Natural Law. All his thought, speech, and action will be spontaneously upheld by the silent power of peace that permeates all activity in the universe.

The potential of every human brain is unbounded, infinite. Everyone is equipped with the physical machinery in his brain physiology to experience that level of intelligence, which is the ocean of all knowledge, the ocean of all energy, intelligence, and bliss.

'Fragmented, intellect-predominant education in schools or universities today does not utilize the total creative potential of the brain. Utilizing only a small part of the brain, such education over time disables other parts of the brain from functioning.

Unbounded is the potential of individual life; unbounded is the field of intelligence of every individual-every individual should be able to know anything, do anything spontaneously right, and accomplish anything through the support of Natural Law. Creating such a perfect individual is the purpose of Maharishi educational Institutions.

The reality is that 'Life is Bliss', 'Life is the Field of All Possibilities'-the Self of everyone is the eternally self-referral state of consciousness, and in this state of eternal silence is the lively field of all possibilities.

Maharishi educational institutions are designed to demonstrate perfection in education and offer all knowledge in every brain unlike other educational institutions, which are established to offer limited field of knowledge in their campuses.

Every Teacher at Maharishi Institutions knows the whole field of knowledge through his own discipline. This is true because the latest discoveries in the fields of Science, Arts, and Commerce have located the source of each discipline-Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, etc.-on the common ground of Total Knowledge, the knowledge of the Unified Field of all the Laws of Nature.

Researches clearly indicate that education today is not realizing this immense potential, with the exception of universities and schools that are directly developing the consciousness of the students through the approach of Consciousness-Based, Atma-Based Education. Through Maharishi's system of Education, we will take away the inadequacies of education by offering Total Knowledge to unfold the total brain potential of everyone so that man may use the full creative potential with which he is really born to live perfection in life, heavenly life.

Consciousness-Based Education to Fulfill the Goals of Education

Extensive research and decades of experience with Consciousness-Based Education have demonstrated that this approach, which adds study and research in consciousness to the existing curriculum in any country, eliminates the weaknesses of current education.

Research verifies that students at Consciousness-Based universities and schools improve significantly in mental capacity, academic achievement, health, and social behaviour, compared to students in other institutions. At the elementary and secondary levels, year after year classes of students at Consciousness-Based schools, who enter at an average level of performance, score among the highest in their nations on national standardized examinations by the time they graduate. They also distinguish themselves by winning top state and national prizes in an unusually wide range of subjects, including science, mathematics, speech, history, poetry, drama, art, music, and sports.

These scientific findings and educational outcomes give additional support to the research outlined in this document indicating that Consciousness-Based Education develops greater use of the brain's potential.

Experience and research also show that when any university or school adds to its curriculum a Consciousness-Based course for all the students, the same desirable changes in academic performance and behaviour take place. Students grow in enthusiasm for knowledge, in alertness and creativity, and in exemplary citizenship-the ability to achieve their goals while promoting the interests of others. Increasingly they enjoy the 'fruit of all knowledge'-a problem-free, happy, healthy life, spontaneously in harmony with Natural Law.

Furthermore, when large groups of students together practice the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Siddhi Programme including Yogic Flying, an influence of coherence and harmony is generated in the whole society-in the city, state, or nation as a whole, depending upon the size of the group. This effect is documented by nearly fifty studies showing reduced negative trends and improved quality of life in society. This influence of coherence in society, known as the Maharishi Effect, is the expression of increased brainwave coherence during the practice of Yogic Flying. In this way, the growth of harmony in society is fundamentally connected with development of full brain potential.