Abstract

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi explains that complete spiritual development results from the full development of human consciousness. This paper explains and demonstrates how regular practice of Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation RTM and TM-SidhiRTM programs, and reading Vedic Literature in Sanskrit, promotes spiritual development through growth toward higher states of consciousness. For three academic years, I practiced these technologies for the development of consciousness and recorded my experiences of growth in a journal. In this paper, I present my journal experiences in light of Maharishi's explanation of the role of transcendence and higher states of consciousness in living one's religion and understanding scripture. Specifically, I present my journal experiences in a scripture-experience exercise in which I examine the relationship between my own experiences of spiritual growth, through the development of consciousness, and selected teachings from religious scripture. My scripture-experience exercise utilizes the canonical Christian Gospels, as well as selections from Buddhist and Taoist texts. ;The results of the scripture-experience exercise illustrate that the practice of the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs, along with reading Vedic Literature in Sanskrit, facilitated the growth of my consciousness and deepened my sense of spiritual development, and I was able to make personally meaningful and relevant connections between my experiences of growth and a selection of religious texts. These results suggest that the experience of transcendence and the development of higher states of consciousness through the practice of the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs, and reading Vedic Literature, augment spiritual growth and scriptural understanding