An Historic Lecture by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
(Reproduced with permission from Global Country of World Peace, from ‘Maharishi Schools of Gandharva-Veda Music”, published in 1990 by World Plan Executive Council–United States)
In the 1980’s after teaching Transcendental Meditation around the world for 30 years, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was thinking what more could he do to bring peace and happiness to mankind. He looked deeper into the Vedic literature of India, the oldest tradition of knowledge and human experience, and found Gandharva-Veda. He went on to organise ‘Festivals of Music for World Peace’ in many countries, to bring the benefits and enjoyment of these ‘rhythms and frequencies of Nature’ to the world. This keynote lecture was given by Maharishi at that time, when he introduced an initiative to establish 1,000 Schools of Maharishi Gandharva-Veda music.
“It is a very great joy for me to introduce in the world a Festival of Music for World Peace. It is very necessary that every generation of human life lives in peace, because on the ground of peace alone are progress, prosperity, and happiness possible.
We have been teaching Transcendental Meditation around the world for the last thirty years, and we find that each individual that practises Transcendental Meditation finds peace within himself—deep relaxation, which becomes the basis for freshness in life and happiness in behaviour.
Creating Coherence in Collective Consciousness
From scientific research we have learned that if one per cent of the people in society practise Transcendental Meditation, they will create coherence in the collective consciousness. In 1974 we found the first evidence of this in three cities where crime, sickness, and accident rates went down, indicating that the practice of Transcendental Meditation is harmonizing for the whole atmosphere.
In 1975 we learned that the world does not need as many as one percent of the people to practise Transcendental Meditation for world peace. For even the square root of one percent practising the TM-Sidhi programme together morning and evening is enough to create coherence in the world consciousness.
People practise Transcendental Meditation and experience transcendental consciousness. Then they learn to practise the TM-Sidhi sutras and experience waves of bliss. With that the mind becomes so powerful that the body immediately carries out the demand of the mind—the body lifts up in the air and moves forward. This is well known today as TM-Sidhi Yogic Flying.
Scientific research has found that 7,000 people — about the square root of one percent of the world’s population (at that time) — practising Yogic Flying together are enough to create coherence in the whole world consciousness. With one group practising the TM-Sidhi programme in one place on earth, world consciousness will be saturated with coherence. Everywhere there will be peace. Negative tendencies will drop, and wars, crime, and terrorism will simply vanish.
It is very, very important that peace is established on earth. There are hundreds of organizations in the world working from their different angles for world peace, and I welcome them all. From my level I’m always thinking, what more can be done to hasten the onset of peace on earth? Transcendental Meditation is there; the TM-Sidhi programme is there; group practice of the TM-Sidhi programme is there. Now our efforts are to have a group of 7,000 TM-Sidhas in order that the whole world consciousness can remain in peace.
Thinking more and more what we can do from this field of transcendental consciousness to bring world peace, and investigating into the Vedic literature, I found there is yet another field we can promote—the field of Gandharva-Veda.
What is Gandharva-Veda?
What is Gandharva-Veda? It is an eternal music of nature. Music is coherent frequencies—some different, some the same, many values of frequency or sound—and coherence in sound makes a melody. The whole universe, all the infinite number of items in the universe, are all different frequencies or sounds, and there is a swing of bliss everywhere in nature. Think of the earth moving around the sun or the many galaxies and stars all moving, but always with the same motion. It must be a very great satisfaction for the nature of the earth and of the entire starry world just to follow a particular path and never deviate. One would follow that pattern only if it is blissful. The element of bliss, of more and more, must be nature’s activity. It must belong to nature’s habit to move in waves of bliss. The eternal harmony of nature must be a pattern of bliss—the whole of nature always swinging in the waves of bliss. This comes as the passage of evolution, which means more and more and more—more knowledge, more happiness, more progress.
Gandharva music is the eternal music of nature, the melody of nature eternally the same, going on and on and on in swings of bliss everywhere. Gandharva music is that powerful swing of nature, those rhythms which are being maintained at all times. Due to the maintenance of all those rhythms the infinite variety of creation is very well coordinated by natural law.
When the people of the world violate the laws of nature, they create stress and disharmony, which results in pain and suffering. The whole population of the world has not been educated to think and act spontaneously according to natural law. Cries and failures and problems, terrorism and war—all these negative values spring from the violation of natural law by the whole population of the world.
Life Lived According to Natural Law
To neutralize this stress there has been a knowledge in India—Vedic knowledge from Vedic times. The Vedic civilization was that civilization which enjoyed Heaven on Earth, which means that life was lived according to natural law. Supported by natural law, everyone enjoyed increasing waves of happiness all the time. Gandharva music is the music of the Vedic civilization. It is that style of melody which matches the swings of nature that control the passage of evolution in waves of bliss. Gandharva music is the eternal melody of nature spontaneously sung in all levels of creation, from the most minute to the huge, enormous, ever-expanding universe. Gandharva music creates a powerful melody from morning ‘til morning to neutralize the negative trends and tendencies born of the violation of natural law by the whole population of the world.
Every level of creation is a frequency. One frequency melts into the other and this is how the process of evolution takes place. The night comes to an end and the dawn begins. At dawn, when the darkness and fullness of the night is over, some inspiring freshness comes and there is a different frequency in the whole atmosphere. At midday there is another big change in frequency; at evening, a different frequency; at midnight, a different frequency. This cycle of change is perpetual, and because everything is a frequency there is sound at every stage.
From morning to morning, the melody of nature is changing, changing. Gandharva music goes with the time, setting its melodies according to the changing nature. It sets forth those very natural melodies which match with the process of evolution. It provides a powerful harmonizing influence in the whole atmosphere to balance imbalances in nature.
Gandharva music is a most refined evaluation of the sound value, the frequency. Ultimately, it’s the self-referral dynamics of consciousness, which is infinite frequency. Infinite frequency is on the level of the unified field of natural law, which Vedic science calls the Samhita of Rishi, Devata, and Chhandas. What are Rishi, Devata, and Chhandas? Those who are practising Transcendental Meditation know that when they transcend, consciousness is unbounded. We call it transcendental consciousness, and in that state of unbounded wakefulness, consciousness knows only itself. Knowing itself, it is the knower. It is also the known and the process of knowing—knower, knowing, and known, all three values in the unified wakefulness of consciousness. It is complete unity and yet, because it is awake, it has these three qualities. The intelligence aspect of consciousness locates its three-in-one structure and this is how the unity, through its own self-interacting dynamics, becomes diversity.
Vedic Science[1], The Complete Science of Life
This is Vedic science, the science of knower, knowing, and known. It is the science of subjectivity, objectivity and the relationship between subject and object. It’s a tremendously complete science of life. From it we know the different values of frequencies emerging from that infinite frequency of unbounded awareness or transcendental consciousness. All possible sounds are lively there in that infinite, unbounded silence which is fully awake within itself. That is the field of all possibilities, the field of all frequencies. It’s like the silent surface of the ocean: all kinds of waves are there, but they are in their ground state. All the activity of all the different waves has settled down in that state. In it is the lively presence of all frequencies. We cannot sing the glory of transcendental consciousness enough. It is the basis for perfection in life.
Gandharva music is that eternal melody of nature which is ever lively in transcendental consciousness. From there is reverberates and constructs different levels of creation. Gandharva music is the basis of all order and harmony in nature; therefore, it has that most harmonizing, most integrating influence. It is a very precious science and art of creating harmony within oneself, one’s family, one’s city, one’s country, and the whole world.
Gandharva music is that melody from which all the melodies have sprung. When we say Indian classical music or Western modern music, these are different aspects of Gandharva music, the eternal music of nature. All languages and melodies spring from the infinite order that is maintained in nature in its different rhythms, harmonies, and frequencies.
In Vedic Science we study all the different melodies and sounds and use them to create different objects, situation, and circumstances. It’s very fortunate that the Vedic pandits have been preserving all of that enormously useful science and art of creating harmony in a situation of disharmony and discordance in the world consciousness. Our offer of Gandharva-Ved is an offer added to the influence of Transcendental Meditation to hasten the day of celebrating world peace.
Gandharva music is a must today in this generation when people are fighting and creating trouble for others. With all the problems in the international and national world, Gandarva music is a must for everyone…
Schools of Gandharva-Veda Music
We want to open at least 1,000 Gandharva music schools because we want the melodies to be played everywhere. Then, wherever it is morning around the globe, morning Gandharva music is being played. Wherever it is ten o’clock around the world, Gandharva music for that time of day is being played and likewise at twelve o’clock, in the afternoon, and in the evening—all the time Gandharva music is being played. It gives me very great delight to say that whether someone listens to that music of not, if those reverberations are created in the atmosphere a harmonizing influence will prevail and imbalances will become balanced. This is the value of Gandharva music.
It’s a great joy that all the expert Gandharva musicians in India have joined in this undertaking to create a peaceful atmosphere and balance in nature through the thrills of the Gandharva melodies. We express thanks to our tradition of Masters, who have given us this insight into the activity of nature and this gift of Gandharva music to create harmony in nature. Gandharva music is a precious gift for the whole world and for all times. Jai Guru Dev.”
Lecture ends.
Festivals of Music for World Peace and Schools of Maharishi Gandharva-Veda Music
The Academy of Arts for Enlightenment proudly promotes Maharishi Gandharva-Veda music for its profound value to human life. We encourage Festivals of Gandharva-Veda music in all parts of the world as well as the establishment of at least 1,000 Schools of Maharishi Gandharva-Veda music. If you would like to support this laudable endeavour to create world peace through music, please donate here or contact us.
The Maharishi Veda App
In the above lecture, Maharishi has explained how Gandharva-Veda music restores balance and harmony to mind, body, behaviour, and the environment. The beautiful melodies on the Maharishi Veda App have been recorded by some of the finest Gandharva-Veda musicians in India, the land of the Veda.
In addition to Gandharva-Veda music, the Maharishi Veda App presents a range of traditional Vedic recitations performed by Maharishi Vedic Pandits. These experts in Vedic recitation who practice Transcendental Meditation and its advanced techniques, have been specially trained in the ancient science and art of Vedic recitation from the level of transcendental consciousness, total Natural Law. Maharishi carefully revived these precise Vedic procedures in their purity, thus restoring their full effectiveness for creating balance and peace in individual and collective life.
All proceeds from the Maharishi Veda App support the establishment of large groups of Maharishi Vedic Pandits in India, whose daily routine and Vedic performances are dedicated to enlivening the Unified Field of Natural Law in world consciousness.
More on the Maharishi Veda App
https://www.maharishivedaapp.com/faq/
How to subscribe to the Maharishi Veda App
For more information on Maharishi Gandharva-Veda music:
- MERU Concerts: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFeLHWlco3Ba4JtI63kVV1Q
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgLi6iACBhRs7h_xlPdgtyA
To purchase Maharishi Gandharva-Veda CD’s
- USA: https://press.shopmiu.com/product-category/audios/gandharva-veda/
- UK: https://www.maharishi.co.uk/gandharva-ved-music
- Europe: https://www.ayurveda-products.eu/scents-music-books-and-more/maharishi-gandharva-veda-music.html
[1] Maharishi Vedic Science: https://artsforenlightenment.org/total-knowledge/maharishi-vedic-science/