Saturday, August 11, 2007

The First World Peace Assembly

[note: August 18, 2019 will be the 40th anniversary of the day Maharishi Mahesh Yogi announced plans for the first World Peace Assembly, to be held in Amherst, Massachusetts.]

"Amherst Memories"


"I'm going!" I said those words right out loud when I heard that the very first "World Peace Assembly" was going to be held that summer of 1979 at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. The title of the assembly struck a deep chord in me, and I just knew I would be going. There was one problem: I did not have the funds to go. I had been teaching TM to the Portuguese speaking population of Rhode Island and Massachusetts for the year following the Ideal Society campaign. While immensely rewarding spiritually, the work was doing little to help my bank account. But still, I was confident that somehow I was going.

Within the next 24 hours I received a long distance call from my father. "You've got to help me out", he said. "Your mother and I have a big deposit on our planned vacation to Hawaii, but one of my salesman (Dad managed a furniture store) just quit, and I can't leave the store without him being replaced. I need you to fill in for him." I was rejoicing within myself - knowing that the two weeks of sales work would likely earn me the money I needed for the course. But rather than reveal my joy, I said: "Well, I will need two hours in the afternoon to do my TM program." "What?! Two hours! I'm running a business here!" "Sorry, then, Dad. I can't help you out." "Oh, all right, you've got me. Two hours." "Plus I need a half hour for dinner." I won't repeat the word he then uttered, but he agreed to the full two and a half hours.

When I picked Mom and Dad up from the airport the first thing Dad said was: "How much business did you write?" "Guess." He gave his best guess and I replied: "Double it." I was going!

I was extremely one-pointed in following the course schedule. And I was rewarded with deep programs. I had been having deep programs ever since I got the full TM-Sidhis program, but now they were deeper. And I assumed that the blissful programs must be having an effect in the larger environment - maybe even the nation - as described by the Maharishi Effect. But then, during one particular group yogic flying session at the assembly, "the bottom fell out". The bliss I experienced was the most profound I had had until that point. Infinitely dynamic silence - I was, as the tree analogy goes - "the sap in the gap". I was at the control panel of the entire universe. Just as the sap when enlivened brings nourishment to every particle of the tree, the pure consciousness I was reveling in was thrilling every particle of the universe. This was true Super Radiance.This was in reality much more than a "World Peace Assembly"; it was a "Universe Peace Assembly".

For days later I felt that I was in a state of consciousness that knew only truth. I'm not sure if back then I had ever heard the term "ritam bhara pragyan", but that's what it was. So when, during our assembly, Maharishi described the urgent need - to save the nation - for a group of 800 of us to go live in Fairfield and be part of the coherence creating group there, I was in the very first group to stand up to show I would go. Usually with important decisions like that I would weigh all the pros and cons back and forth before committing to it. But this time there was no hesitation whatsoever. Again, in that state of ritam I knew without a doubt that I was doing the right thing. When I sat down I said to the sidha next to me: "I volunteered to go, and I don't even have the money to get out there." He said: "Don't worry; I will loan you the money." He did, and when he later saw that I was completely devoted to being a permanent part of the creating coherence community, he relieved me of my debt to him. He is now himself a pillar of the Fairfield TM community and sponsors my participation in the Maharishi Purusha Program.

The profound experience I had on that first WPA showed me that it was the power of the large group of sidhas that enabled me to go so deep. That is why since that time I have made being in a big group of sidhas the major focus of my life. I have been to many large courses including the Taste of Utopia Assembly, Philippines, India, and Washington, DC. And I'm in my 37th year on the Purusha program. All these courses have provided great depth of my personal experience and have created an immeasurably great influence of coherence in a world where threat of catastrophic wars and/or terrorism is a Damocles sword hovering over us all. We have the most powerful antidote to this danger; let's use it!

Jai Guru Dev.

Craig Berg