The Nature of the Mind & Body
In this excerpt, Maharishi beautifully describes the natural mechanics of Vedic meditation—a process guided by the inherent tendencies of both the mind and the body. The inward stroke of the mind is driven by its instinct to seek greater happiness, drawing it toward the unbounded field of transcendence. Meanwhile, the outward stroke reflects the body’s innate capacity to release stress, allowing deep purification to take place. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi explains:
“The reason for the inward stroke of the mind is its own nature to know more, to be more, to enjoy more. This is a natural instinct of the mind, and drawn by this natural instinct it goes to the source and it finds that unboundedness, finds that infinite value of life which is the goal of all seeking. Having gained that, what can tempt a man in the mind to come out? If the nature of the mind is to go to a field of greater happiness, inward march of the mind is based on this nature of the mind.”
“All makes the mind come out. Every activity of the mind has a corresponding activity in the nervous system. Mental activity has a corresponding activity in the nervous system. The mental state in dreaming consciousness has a particular corresponding state of nervous system. Waking state of the mind has a particular level of activity on the nervous system. So the mental activity has a corresponding activity of the nervous system.”
“We have seen in our own experience the finer state of the mantra. As the mind experiences finer state of the mantra, mental activity obviously becomes minimized. As a result of that, dreaming becomes shallower. Metabolic rate becomes less. As a result of this, the system receives deep rest, much deeper than deep sleep. When the system receives deep rest, then deep rooted stresses start to be neutralized. And this stress is unstressed. Some physical activity starts to take place because stress is physical. Some nerve here, some nerve here, some here, something. It gets twisted. This is stress. And then when it untwists itself, this is relief of stress. Stress is twisting and turning of the nerve and veins and cells and whatnot inside.”
“The disturbance that is caused in the specific concerned areas of nervous system, which are responsible for giving experiences. Quite a lot of computing going on inside the mechanism of the ears for every voice to be heard properly. We are talking like that in a normal way and it suddenly becomes a great sound and everyone is shaken. That produces a contrast of experience of great load of sound, very loud sound. The mechanism is unduly loaded due to that great contrasting experience of sound. And this has disturbed the mechanism of the nerve and veins, some twisted like that, some twisted like that, something else. So these twists and turns due to the extraordinary experiences, contrasting experiences, they produce this abnormality of functioning of the nervous system.”
“And these turns and twists, they are called stresses. We are seeing and some photo flash and the eye of the old. The mechanism pertaining to the vision is twisted and turned. So this twist has been due to extra load on the experiencing mechanism, extra load. In order to release this stress, that much extra intensity of rest would be needed, extra load stresses, extra rest of the same magnitude would release that stress. Very automatic. So these are termed as stresses. They are all due to extra load on the machinery of experience and when extra rest is provided, all we use is to unstress automatically automatically. Like that.”
“So when the mind is experiencing finer state of the thought, the activity of the nervous system becomes less and less, with this the nervous system starts to get deep rest. With this, deep rooted stresses start to unstress. This unstressing is a physical activity. This physical activity must have a corresponding mental activity, the mind comes into a thought. Mind experiencing finer state of the thought, mental activity, becoming minimized, becoming minimized, correspondingly physical activity becomes minimized. So that in the unstressing of some stress, this unstressing of the stress, being a physical activity, it must have a corresponding mental activity and this is what is found as a thought. The mind comes out of the transcendence, it comes into the field of activity. So now you see the role of a thought during meditation.”
“What is a thought during meditation? It is born of the process of a release of stress brought about by increase in the intensity of rest the nervous system gets. And this increased degree of rest on the part of nervous system is brought about by the increasing lead refined activity of the mind in experiencing finer state of a thought. The mind experiences finer state of thought spontaneously without any doing. The role of thought is just flashing of a green light signaling to go ahead. That’s all. A thought is a signal for another dive. A thought green light comes, finds all the traffic which will stop, simply marches ahead. Signal to go ahead on a second dive, that’s all that it is. A thought is a signal for the mind to go ahead on a second round. You have taken a dive. Coming out of water is just a signal to dive once again. It’s readiness for a second dive.”
“It is not that a thought unstresses this, it’s not. The unstressing of this stress is expressed by a thought. We are meditating, meditating, the mind is going different, different, different, different, and then pure awareness, transcendental, and then the mind comes out. This coming out of the mind is an indication that some purification has taken place. That’s all. Some purification has taken place. With that indication, we come back on the mantra and we come back on the mantra so that the mantra could become finer and finer once again and we couldn’t go deeper, going deeper, we could give rest to this system again and it will unstress some deeper stress again.”
This theme is central to what we dive into on the third day of the Vedic meditation course. Understanding the natural balance between the inward and outward strokes of the mind helps clarify why thoughts arise during meditation—they signal the release of stress from the nervous system. Regular practice supports this ongoing cycle of stress release, creating space within and stabilizing the expanded awareness of Being. By stepping back into activity after meditation, we integrate this steadiness and clarity, enhancing our ability to engage effectively with the world.