Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, born Mahesh Prasad Varma

Indian Guru, Advocate of Transcendental Meditation Movement

"The meaning of life is rooted in each person’s search for happiness. Happiness is not something one has to go anywhere to find: The nature of life is happiness. Life knows this about itself, not through analysis or investigation but simply by virtue of being."

"Physics has discovered the edge of infinity; the wisdom of the ages takes us across the border, which is nowhere but in us. When each person rejoins the stream of evolution that upholds the galaxies ands sweeps life forward on the wave of eternity, human existence will cease to contain any suffering, and our real purpose in living - to create heaven on earth - will be realized."

"All occurrences of violence, negativity, conflict crisis, or problems in any society are just the expression of growth of stress in collective consciousness. When the level of stress becomes sufficiently great, it bursts out into large-scale violence, war, and civil uprising necessitating military action."

"Life finds its purpose and fulfillment in the expansion of happiness."

"Whatever we put our attention on will grow stronger in our life."

"We must take situations as they are. We must only change our mental attitudes towards them."

"People are influenced by what we are, what we radiate. This has greater appeal than what we say."

"The whole purpose of life is to gain enlightenment. Nothing else is significant compared to that completely natural, exalted state of consciousness. So always strive for that. Set your life around that goal. Don't get caught up in small things, and then it will be yours. "

"Doubts are death... Doubts are the dry rot of life."

"Success in anything is through happiness. "

"The important thing is this: to be able, at any moment, to sacrifice what we are for what we could become."

"All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think, we become."

"Happiness radiates like the fragrance from a flower, and draws all good things toward you. Allow your love to nourish yourself as well as others. Do not strain after the needs of life. It is sufficient to be quietly alert and aware of them. In this way life proceeds more naturally and effortlessly. Life is here to Enjoy!"

"Experience shows that Being is the essential, basic nature of the mind; but, since It commonly remains in tune with the senses projecting outwards toward the manifested realms of creation, the mind misses or fails to appreciate its own essential nature, just as the eyes are unable to see themselves. "

"1-Don't analyze. 2-Don't complain. 3-Don't compare yourself to others. 4-Don't expect things to be done for you. 5-Don't expect perfection in the relative. 6-Look to the knowledge aspect daily. 7-Own the movement. 8-Problems are all in your head. 9-Hold yourself together."

"It (prayer/wisdom) is not through logic but through love; it is not through words but through a wordless state called meditation-a state of no mind."

"20 minutes in the bank, all day in the market place."

"A good teacher will appreciate the good qualities of his students. If one good quality is allowed to emerge, a world of good qualities will emerge from that one."

"A comfortable and regulated life is needed for fastest pace of evolution."

"A criterion of natural duty ---an action which is necessary and does not produce any undue tension or strain in the doer and his surroundings is his natural duty."

"About humility we speak with an analogy: When the branches are full of fruit, they just bow down."

"Action is always based on the level of consciousness. A man can only see red when he has red glasses on, and then he cannot see anything other than red. In the same way, when we raise a person's level of consciousness, he can only behave rightly. An ideal society will result from people's spontaneous right behavior, which will take within its fold all the necessary considerations for the proper sense of values for their own interests and for the interests of other people. An ideal society can never be created by telling people the importance of caring for the interests of others. A balanced life can only grow in society when every action is spontaneously able to accommodate both the interests of the individual and the interests of those around him, and this will be on the basis of his ability to perform action that is spontaneously in accordance with all the laws of nature. Only action in accordance with nature will simultaneously satisfy the interests of the individual, society, and the cosmos."

"Action should be to nourish the fine feeling developed in the practice of the TM sidhi program."

"A mature mind is a stable mind, and stability is based on flexibility. Since life is always changing, one must be very stable and flexible in order for life to be most progressive."

"Adopt the standard of perfection, because it is a perfect universe."

"All problems in life arise from some weakness of mind. All weakness of mind is due to the mind's ignorance of its own essential nature, which is universal and the source of infinite energy and intelligence. ... In order to root out any problem of life it is only necessary to be brought out of ignorance, to be brought to knowledge."

"All freedom to man, but freedom is useful when we know what life is, when we know what past is, what present is, when we know how to go about things, not that every man should be left to experiment by himself."

"Allow your love to nourish yourself as well as others."

"All speech, action, and behavior are fluctuations of consciousness. All life emerges from, and is sustained in, consciousness. The whole universe is the expression of consciousness. The reality of the universe is one unbounded ocean of consciousness in motion."

"Allow the fulfillment to come to you."

"All weakness of mind is due to the mind's ignorance of its own essential nature, which is universal and the source of infinite energy and intelligence... In order to root out any problem of life it is only necessary to be brought out of ignorance, to be brought to knowledge."

"An uneducated man - he will get tired everywhere."

"America is a country where wealthy people donate to promote something they think to be good. And now there is an awakening that it is possible through the program of the peace government upheld by all the great scientists of the world to create a new civilized world where harmony will prevail, where the light of God will prevail. And people will be engaged-- all the money that will be donated--people will be given salaries and there will be those peace creating experts here, there everywhere, and they will automatically generate coherence in the world consciousness, where negative trends and tendencies and actions and destruction and killing will not sprout in the world. So the money that will be raised will be for the sake of safety and security of those who are useful to life. Those who have money they will enjoy their money. Otherwise, everyone is aware, this is a time either you can create peace or you help destruction."

"Anything that is helpful to life, anything that will save life from pains and suffering and all those difficulties, that is - that is our intention, to have a better world created."

"An educated man knows how to do things so that he doesn't get tired."

"Anyone who is seriously interested and will not disturb, is welcome to come to Switzerland and see for themselves whether my students can levitate."

"As a result of regular practice, [the state of unbounded awareness] is maintained more and more . . . as though we were to take a white cloth and dip it in yellow dye. We bring the cloth out and put in the sun and the yellow fades away. Then we put it back again and again into the color and back again and again into the sun. It keeps on becoming yellow and yellow and yellow, then fading, fading, fading. But over time the color becomes permanent... [Thus, likewise,] through regular practice that unbounded awareness, that pure consciousness becomes ingrained in all activities of the mind [and] Unity Consciousness becomes a living reality."

"Attend to your own inner-health and happiness."

"Attend to your own inner health and happiness. Happiness radiates like a fragrance from a flower and draws all good things towards you."

"As brain functioning becomes more and more integrated, consciousness - the mind - becomes more and more invincible, and then any dictate of the mind is immediately followed by the body."

"Be happy, healthy, and let all that love flow through your heart."

"Be as delicate as possible. If communication accomplishes something on the gross but damages something on the level of feeling then it is a spiritual loss! The feeling is more important for life."

"Be established in the eternal unbounded reservoir of energy, intelligence and happiness present within yourself and perform action to enjoy maximum results. Transcendental Meditation is the key."

"Begin to enjoy, because it is the grace of the almighty"

"Being happy is of the utmost importance."

"By enlivening this most basic level of life, Transcendental Meditation is that one simple procedure which can raise the life of every individual and every society to its full dignity, in which problems are absent and perfect health, happiness, and a rapid pace of progress are the natural features of life."

"Bliss becomes blissful with practice. In our own bliss the desire, desirer and process of desiring are united ? they are one. Desire is fulfilled at its source."

"Competition is for the competent."

"Consciousness is the basis of all life and the field of all possibilities. Its nature is to expand and unfold its full potential. The impulse to evolve is thus inherent in the very nature of life."

"Decide what you want and don?t think of intermediary conditions. When Nature works for us, we should want what we want and Nature will work it out for us."