19 Honouring and Preserving the Vedic Tradition of Nepal Jai Raj Acharya – Former Ambassador to the United Nations for Nepal “I ’m a retired professor and diplomat. I also studied Sanskrit first for 15 years, including the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Puranas, and all Sanskrit texts. What is most interesting to me at that time I met Maharishi in 1974, was that he had gone to the west and explained the philosophy and practice of Yoga to the western world. The great physicists and scholars in the west studied and researched what Maharishi had told them. They in turn proved the practicality and importance of Yoga from a scientific point of view—that was something very new for us to see here in Nepal. Maharishi emphasized the importance of Yagyas—everything comes out from the Yagyas. Maharishi pinned his hope on Nepal and asked the people to continue their tradition of Yagya and recitation of the Vedas—I remember how much he appreciated the pronunciation of Vedic mantras by the Nepalese scholars and Brahmins which he said was clear, authentic, and powerful. “The Vedic tradition and its great Knowledge should be taught everywhere, in every town and every village of the world, and every child should have this Knowledge and be protected from the onslaught of materialism, sense-gratification, and violence which leads human beings to only destruction. Everyone will have to come back to the Vedic tradition of peace, transcending, love, and compassion.” Deepak Prakash Baskota Chairman, Nepal Maharishi Foundation for Vedic Culture “I was fortunate to meet Maharishi in 1996 in Vlodrop, Holland. I visited Maharishi every year then after and Maharishi em- phasized so much that only by Yoga and Yagya the country will get rid of the existing problems. Maharishi said, ‘We have a vast amountof scientific research on this.’ Then I started a daily Rudrab- hishek Yagya in my own home with one Pandit—it was for the Na- tion’s peace. Just after this I met Dr. Kingsley Brooks in 2008, and we began to increase all aspects of Maharishi’s programmes in Nepal. We made an agreement with the Pashupati Development Trust in 2010 to start Rudrabhishek Mahayagya for our nation’s peace and for the permanent solutions to the nation’s problems. The Yagya continued for two years and we received very significant and positive results. “Now the Rudrabhishek Yagya has expanded to 40 districts from its inception at my home in 2006 after Maharishi’s guidance. What is important now is to establish a tradition in which we could continue the activities and Vedic performances throughout the Gurukuls for generations to come. This will create a peaceful world led by Nepal, which was Maharishi’s great dream. Now we have created an awareness in society that a Vedic Pandit does not need to go abroad for work just for money, but can go abroad as an expert equipped with Vedic knowledge and technologies in the field of Ayurveda, Yoga (Transcendental Meditation), Vastu, Vedic performances, and so on. This kind of Vedic expert can be created now in Nepal.”