Imagine a world without consciousness.

On second thought, that may be beyond the reaches of imagination.

Instead, imagine what the world would be like without being aware of consciousness. Imagine a creation based on nothing, foundationless and fragmented. Imagine if you and I had nothing at all in common, if cultures and societies, communities all around the world suddenly dissolved into

throngs of complete strangers wandering about without any purpose, aims or goals. What would life be like without the knowledge of the fundamental relationships between planets and stars, without that understanding that entire solar systems are united together, as one intimate and intricate system? Could life exist in a meaningful way without this awareness?

Consider if physics described only gross laws of nature that were completely isolated from each other, and if the very fibers of the human brain operated completely independent of one another with no interconnectivity present whatsoever. Imagine if religions were as bodies without souls, trees without roots, disconnected empty shells numbly describing the unachievable, the unattainable in life; if G-O-D were three random letters thrown together by chance. Picture a world where questions had no answers, or more than that; where no connections between anything existed and every thing was just an individual piece floating about unable to relate to any second piece.

Hard to imagine, isn’t it?

But the reality of this time, is that many many of us in the world live much like this. Alive, yet seemingly alone. We encounter daily life completely without the intellectual understanding and direct experience of what is greater than ourselves, and more substantially, we live utterly unaware, of whom or what we actually are. We live as though we are a point on a “connect the dots” drawing, only no connecting lines have been applied. We live amongst a diverse, ever-changing existence completely by ourselves, unable to relate to anyone or anything, existing as an isolated knower, as the sole observer.

Now imagine that one day said person, say Adam, is instructed in the Transcendental Meditation technique, and the direct experience of Consciousness is introduced into his world, and instantly things begin changing, or rather they begin unchanging. Immediately after learning to transcend, after being given the technique to experience Wholeness, to experience his own Self, Adam begins to become aware of connections that were not available to him when he lived in the waking world of diverse things, facts and figures, objects of all kinds, emotions and thoughts. Right away Adam begins to see that, yes there are groups present in creation, human beings, animals, plants, organisms of all kinds that have some likeness. He continues to go about his life only now Adam is aware of his consciousness, and he begins learning, experiencing and gaining insight into the consciousness of others. He begins to see the connections present in creation, realizing that everything he thinks, says and does affects others.

Further, I’d like you to imagine that Adam becomes a Sidha (a person practicing Maharishi’s TM-Sidhi Program including Yogic Flying), enrolls at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa and begins studying Maharishi Vedic Science. At this point in his life the picture of existence begins growing larger and larger becoming more and more interconnected. Adam has the experience of “Support of Nature,” meaning, his desires and needs start becoming fulfilled spontaneously without hard struggles and he’s thinking, “Huh, there must be some relationship between myself and Nature if my thoughts and actions are becoming like Nature’s very thoughts and actions.” And the picture continues to grow.

Adam’s awareness continues to expand as he continues to practice the techniques given to him by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It is “aha!” after “aha!” for Adam, as his physical brain and in turn his awareness becomes more and more coherent, more and more unified. The diverse world in which Adam once solely experienced as an isolated being has become more beautiful, more alive so to speak, and it has certainly not disappeared. He can still see it and hear it, touch it, taste it and smell it; but now, consciousness has tied it all together. Consciousness has become enlivened, awake and established as the very ground upon which he walks. In fact, Adam experiences the connection between his own Self and the ground upon which his walks. Very content, even blissful you could say, Adam feels so incredibly fulfilled in his life at this point, so grateful for the awakening he has been given, no longer feeling lost in a sea of this and that, of doubt, fear, confusion and uncertainty. He can feel his life coming together within Himself and outside of Himself.

But wait. The saga does not end here. Adam continues on by practicing his Transcendental Meditation and advanced techniques while gaining the intellectual understanding offered to him in class, and his world continues to change, to evolve. It is not until one fine morning in class, surrounded by so many evolved souls, that Adam is blessed with Vedanta, with Wholeness, with the End of the Veda, with the Unity that is more than the sum of its own parts.

He realizes that the diverse world and the unity of pure consciousness are in reality, One. In fact, He becomes aware that everything is nothing but unbounded consciousness, and that infinite consciousness is nothing but Himself. He can now know anything because He is everything, because everything is everything and everything is One. Being infinitely dynamic and infinitely silent, this Wholeness of life has infinite organizing power, and is the source and substance of the entirety of creation. This Total Knowledge, the Knowledge of the Self Knowing Itself cannot possibly leave anything out for every thing exists because of the collapse of the infinity of consciousness to its point and in the expansion of any of its points to infinity, the mechanics of transformation, of creation. So much so that every single point is infinity, every single point is complete fulfillment.

And to think just a few short paragraphs ago, Adam was living in an isolated bounded world in which the legs on his table knew not their tabletop; in which no lasting fulfillment could be found, in which fragmented manifest creation was all that there was. Now Adam, capital A, Consciousness Itself, Knows that the manifest is simply the play and display of the Self, knowing Itself. For Him, Who Knows, for Brahman, the all-encompassing Totality of life, only Unified Wholeness is real, what was before, was only the way of the path, the dynamics of Unity as It playfully unfolds Its Wholeness to Its own Self and giggles as It does so.

And so, having attended Maharishi University of Management, purified his physiology, taken part in all Maharishi’s Vedic techniques and technologies, having traversed the mountain-less mountains, having journeyed from diversity to unity arriving at the Wholeness that is diversity and unity simultaneously, having experienced the distinct fundamental three, knower (Rishi), process of knowing (Devata), and known (Chhandas), and the togetherness of the three as one Unity (Samhita), the Totality of the same One expressed as the many, He knew he had arrived where he started only now as his true Self.

Having attained the Ultimate Goal of life, Adam lived happily ever after, eternally free and fulfilled by the waves of Bliss of His own Unified Wholeness, His Self. One dot, without a second, infinitely connected to itself in innumerable ways yet completely undivided within Itself, the Whole, Blissful Nature of Ultimate Reality.

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Adam Delfiner is currently a doctoral student studying Maharishi Vedic Science at Maharishi University of Management. His life is dedicated to sharing the pure Universal Knowledge of life that he has gained both intellectually and experientially through the study of Maharishi Vedic Science and his own practice of the Transcendental Meditation program. All artwork is by Natalie Anne Brown. Check out the rest of her collection at www.natalieannebrown.com.