Article: “Meetings with Enlightened Men”
The inspiration for this column came while spending the day at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia home. Spending six months with the great guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi years ago also helped a lot. What follows are parallel observations of Jefferson, whose Declaration of Independence helped enlighten many governments, and Maharishi, whose Transcendental Meditation helped enlighten many people.
Jefferson was influenced by the Age of Enlightenment’s Locke and Voltaire; Maharishi inaugurated the dawning of the Age of Enlightenment in 1973. Both believed strongly in higher education: Jefferson founded and designed the University of Virginia in Charlottesville; Maharishi founded Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa, and played a major role in designing the curriculum.
On Happiness
In The Declaration of Independence, Jefferson wrote that people “are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” Maharishi wrote, “The purpose of Creation is the expansion of happiness.”
On Serenity
Our third president wrote, “Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.” The Beatles’ guru said, “The golden gate to peace in life is the experience of bliss, and it is easy for everyone to acquire this great glory and live it throughout life.”
On Consciousness
The political thinker wrote: “Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.” The spiritual thinker wrote: “Fulfillment is structured in achievement, achievement is structured in action, action is structured in thinking, thinking is structured in knowledge, and knowledge is structured in consciousness.”
On Enlightenment
Our first Secretary of State wrote: “Enlighten the people, generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like spirits at the dawn of day.” Maharishi said, “The goal of the Transcendental Meditation technique is the state of enlightenment. This means we
experience that inner calmness, that quiet state of least excitation, even when we are dynamically busy.”
On Government
Our second VP wrote: “My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.” The sage said, “Nature’s government spontaneously brings satisfaction to everyone because it promotes all innumerable, diverse tendencies of life in the evolutionary direction.”
On the Laws of Nature
Jefferson wrote: “A free people [claim] their rights, as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.” Maharishi noted: “When the mind is attuned to the cosmic law, all the laws of nature are in perfect harmony with the aspirations of the mind.
The Spirit of Jefferson
While driving to Monticello, I heard a Unity church recording of a man claiming to channel Jefferson’s spirit. The enlightened words that flowed from this spirit sounded more like what Maharishi said in the 20th century than what Jefferson did in the 18th. Perhaps our President from another age has become an ageless sage.
