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New perspectives on ancient heritage of Greece
by Global Good News staff writer

Global Good News    Translate This Article
26 September 2012

During the visit of Dr Bevan Morris to Greece earlier this year, Dr Ken Chandler arrived from the United States to promote his new book, Veda and Greece: Foundations of Knowledge in the Experience of Higher States of Consciousness. Dr Chandler, an adjunct professor of philosophy at Maharishi University of Management, gave well-attended public lectures in Athens and Thessaloniki and appeared on national television.

The main theme of Dr Chandler's book is that the knowledge of the Veda and that of the ancient Greek teachings is essentially the same. Dr Chandler's talks stimulated a lot of thought among his Greek audiences as he explained in detail that the pre-Socratics, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were offering a fundamental, eternal wisdom that was parallel to the teaching of the Veda and Vedic literature.

Describing the significance of Dr Chandler's tour and his research, Dr Morris, who is president of Maharishi University of Management, mentioned one of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's salient comments with respect to this theme, that in the very ancient times there was one world culture and that the same fundamental wisdom permeated every culture on earth.

At one of the public lectures Dr Morris met a member of the medical faculty from the University of Athens, a woman who has been organizing to bring world-renowned quantum physicist Dr John Hagelin to the University of Athens Medical School each year to speak to the students. At the same lecture Dr Morris also met and honoured the first teacher of Transcendental Meditation in Greece.

In one meeting Dr Morris read out the text of a document from 5 July 1973, when Mayor Johannes Koumblis, representing the municipal council of Delphi, presented to Maharishi 'the Golden Medal of the city of Delphi, honoris causa, because the goals of the science of creative intelligence of which he is the founder, and of the technique of Transcendental Meditation which brings to light and actualizes all the latent potentialities of man, are found to be synonymous with the ideal of the Delphic Amphictyons* and the Delphic ordinances'.

At that time, in 1973, officials of Delphi offered Maharishi land on the hillside above Delphi to build an academy. Traditionally Delphi, which sits on a ledge on the side of snow-packed Mt Parnassus, has been considered by Greeks to be 'the navel of the earth'—the centre of the world. In ancient times, when people first came to Delphi there was a place they would bathe and purify before coming to the environment of the Oracle of Delphi in the temple of Apollo. Written above the gate at entry to the great temple are words that have guided the wise throughout the ages—'Know thyself and you will know everything.' It was in this temple that Roman emperors and kings of many nations came to ask questions and take the advice of the Oracle, Dr Morris said.

At the end of Dr Morris's visit, in a facility near Delphi, a number of people who practise Transcendental Meditation held a weekend gathering and heard inspiring talks that brought out ideas and plans for future developments in Greece. The assembly culminated with a beautiful Maharishi Gandharva Veda concert.

* Delphic Amphictyons were the ancient assemblies of all Greeks which aimed at achieving the highest ideal for all mankind.

See related article:
Greece: Dr Bevan Morris visits land planned for Peace Palace

© Copyright 2012 Global Good News®



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