Maharishi on Modern Science and Vedic Science

Vedic Science is the science of Veda. “Veda” means pure knowledge and the infinite organizing power that is inherent in the structure of pure knowledge. Pure knowledge is the state of awareness in which consciousness knows itself alone, when awareness is completely self-referral, when awareness has nothing other than itself in its structure. This state of pure knowledge, when knower, known, and process of knowing are in the self-referral state, is that all-powerful, immortal, infinite dynamism at the unmanifest basis of creation. This is Vedic Science— all about the knower, the known, and the process of knowing; all about consciousness, both in its self-referral, self-interacting state, and as it expresses itself in the infinite variety of the whole creation, that performance of nature which goes on and on eternally in all spheres of time, past, present, and future. The knowledge of this most basic principle of life — the self-interacting dynamics of consciousness is the science of pure knowledge, the science of Veda.
Human awareness can identify itself with this most basic, self-referral value of consciousness in the state of samadhi, or transcendental consciousness. This state is easily gained and most naturally enjoyed through Transcendental Meditation®. The functioning of transcendental pure consciousness is the functioning of natural law in its most settled state. The conscious human mind, identifying itself with this level of nature’s functioning, gains the ability to perform in the style with which nature performs its activity at its most fundamental level. Completely identified in transcendental consciousness with the full potential of natural law, the human mind is a field of all possibilities spontaneously functioning in harmony with all the laws of nature, and able to accomplish anything. This is how human life will be cultured through Vedic Science.
What is the difference between Vedic Science and modern science? Through its objective approach, modern science reveals that which is perceived, the object. The subject, the perceiver, remains separate from it. Modern science investigates the field of the known, but it does not touch at all the field of the knower and the spontaneous process of knowing.
Vedic Science is a complete science, which extends and fulfills the objective approach of modern science by incorporating the knower and the process of knowing into the field of investigation. It provides a complete and comprehensive knowledge of the unified field of all the laws of nature, which can be described as the unified state of the knower, the known, and the process of knowing. Vedic Science also describes the sequential mechanics through which this three-in-one structure of the unified field gives rise to the infinite range and diversity of natural law displayed in the universe.
The knowledge of the unified field has been discovered by modern science during just the last few years, but complete knowledge of the unified field has always been available in the Vedic literature. Today quantum physics has glimpsed the details of the unified field and is locating its three-in-one structure. This is precisely the three-in-one structure of the self-referral state of consciousness.
Credit must be given to modern science because its objective approach has now uncovered the reality of pure subjectivity. The world of scientists should know, however, that the objective approach comes to an end there. Many more discoveries may be made on the surface, relative levels of existence, but the goal of physics has been reached.
Today the most advanced level of modern science needs a complete approach to investigation, which includes the two other values of knowledge-the value of the knower and the value of the process of knowing. All three values are uncovered in their totality in Vedic Science.
If progress is to continue, a shift is required from the science of only one category to a total science. Vedic Science is that total science. It uncovers the knowledge of the total potential of natural law in its completeness and brings human awareness in tune with those fine creative impulses that are engaged in transforming the field of intelligence into the field of matter.
The approach of Vedic Science is such that the knowledge gained enlivens that most fundamental value of consciousness from where all thoughts and actions emerge. Therefore, the very methodology of gaining knowledge through Vedic Science is such that as one gains the knowledge of natural law on the intellectual level, one begins to live that natural law in daily life in a most spontaneous way. This is the basis of the practical application of Vedic Science.
Vedic Science is applied through the Technology of the Unified Field. We speak of the unified field in connection with Vedic Science because of the similarity between what has been discovered by physics and what exists in the self-referral state of human consciousness. The Technology of the Unified Field is a purely scientific procedure for the total development of the human psyche, the total development of the human race. This is the time when objective, science-based progress in the world is being enriched by the possibility of total development of human life on earth, and that is the reason why we anticipate the creation of a unified field based ideal civilization.
From a lecture on Vedic Science
by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi