Remember one thing:
Consciousness is always individual.
There is no way for consciousness to become collective. It is always ”I,” it is never ”we.”
Why this concern? And this is not only your concern – millions of people around the world are
concerned with raising the consciousness of the world. And not only now; as far back as you can
find any records they have been concerned with raising human consciousness, humanity, making
the world divine, sacred. And the same problems ....
In Mesopotamia – where one of the oldest civilizations existed once and is no longer in existence,
but ruins are there – a pillar has been found which is six thousand years old at least. That is the
minimum, it cannot be more recent than that; it can be twelve thousand years old, but six thousand
is the bottom line. With all the scientific observations they have concluded that it is at least six
thousand years old, more perhaps.
What does it say? The pillar says: ”Man has fallen to such a rotten state that we have to teach
humanity again to become human. Sons are no longer listening to their fathers” – there is a
generation gap – ”wives are no longer faithful to their husbands. Husbands are doing all kinds
of things, which make them disrespected and fathers are not fulfilling their duties.” The whole pillar
seems as if it is in some newspaper, just today’s editorial.
In India the RIG VEDA is the oldest book. According to the Hindu scholar Lokmanya Tilak, a great
scholar, it is ninety thousand years old. He has immense proof and evidence, and as yet he has not
been challenged. It is almost sixty years or more since he proved that it is ninety thousand years
old. In these sixty years nobody has been able to disprove his evidence; it is now either forgotten or
accepted.
Whatsoever the case, the RIG VEDA is certainly the most ancient book in existence – but it raises
the same problems that you face today, the same questions: Is it possible to change man’s nature?
Is there time enough? Ninety thousand years before, they were worried: Is there time enough? And
the time has not proved enough, that’s certainly true, because the problems are still the same –
perhaps worse.
You are asking me the same questions but I am a different kind of man, a little bit eccentric ...
otherwise, if you had asked the question to any mahatma, any great religious personality, he would
have answered, ”Yes, we can raise humanity’s consciousness. Of course time is very short but my
methods are very quick too.”
That’s what Maharishi Mahesh Yogi goes on telling people. Time is short, according to all the
prophecies, all the astrologers; as this century closes there is every possibility that the earth will be
finished. Time is really short. It is 1985 – only fifteen years more. Ninety thousand years have not
proved enough. Fifteen years! But Maharishi Mahesh Yogi goes around the earth with jet speed. Of
course he has to use the jet speed – time is short!
But he says his method is quick: just ten minutes in the morning and ten minutes in the evening you
do transcendental meditation. And what is transcendental meditation? You repeat one word that is
given to you. Of course you have to pay a fee for it, two hundred and fifty dollars. And what does he
give? He asks you, ”Are you a Christian?” You say, ”Yes.”
He says, ”Catholic? Protestant?” – just to figure out who you are so he can give you a mantra
suitable to your religion.
If you say, ”I am a Catholic,” he will say, ”That’s very good. You start the mantra, ‘Ave Maria.’ Repeat
continuously: Ave Maria, Ave Maria, Ave Maria, anywhere, in any posture, just for ten minutes.
Between two Ave Marias don’t leave any gap, go as fast as you can.” One Ave Maria almost entering
another Ave Maria, just as when sometimes there is an accident of a railway train, and compartments
go over other compartments, and inside other compartments. All the buffers are broken and the train
is for the first time in a real unity.
This is a very traditional method in India. It is nothing new, and it is used by everybody; in every
village you can get it, very cheap .... If you are very rich then the price is eleven rupees, which is
less than one dollar. If you are poor it can be reduced; for the very poor, a coconut.
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