Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (1917-2008) made the practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique popular all over the globe.
Here’s a video where Maharishi uses simple yet profound words to answer the question: What is Transcendental Meditation, and how does it work?
Transcript of the video
Suffering is dominating life everywhere. Tension and stress and strain are increasing in every country. Whether it’s an affluent society or a developing nation – suffering is everywhere.
It is possible for every man to go deep within and saturate his conscious mind with inner happiness, with that unlimited energy and intelligence that dwells at the source of thought.
The principle of Transcendental Meditation is simple – being is bliss in its nature, it is infinite happiness. Mind is always moving in the direction of greater happiness. It is the experience of everyone – wherever the mind goes, it goes in the direction of greater happiness.
And because the nature of inner being is bliss, infinite happiness, therefore the mind, during Transcendental Meditation, takes that inward course in a more spontaneous manner.
In this meditation, we do not concentrate or control the mind. We let the mind follow its natural instinct towards greater happiness and it goes within and gains bliss consciousness in being.
The technique is – we take a specific thought which suits us, which is called a mantra, or a suitable sound for us which we receive from a trained teacher of Transcendental Meditation. These teachers are found everywhere in the world, I have trained them properly. They give a suitable word and the man experiences the thought of that sound and starts minimizing that thought to experience the finer states of that thought – until the source of thought is fathomed and the conscious mind reaches the transcendental area of being.
So, from gross thought to the subtle state of thought to the subtlest state of thought – this is the path of Transcendental Meditation. Till the conscious mind reaches the bliss consciousness or transcendental consciousness or pure consciousness of being.
Here, in this state of being, the mind becomes soaked with energy, intelligence and great happiness. It comes out and experiences the world much better than before.