A spiritual key to freedom from stress

Knowledge and meditation & work and rest are the twin wheels of the chariot of life. If one is missing, the journey halts. – Lalit Garg

Everywhere we look today, people are burdened with stress. Stress grips those who are constantly absorbed in the restless activity of mind, speech, and body—those who do not pause for rest. In modern terms, such people are always “busy”. But the habit of being perpetually busy has generated countless tensions in life. To live well, it is not enough to be busy; one must also learn to be easy. For, a chariot cannot move with only one wheel—it requires two. Knowledge and meditation, and work and rest—these are the twin wheels of the chariot of life. If one is missing, the journey halts.

This imbalance is the crisis of our age. Life has become one-dimensional. Great effort is being made to feed the mind’s restlessness, yet little is done to cultivate its stillness. The problem does not lie in stability but in restlessness. The outer shell of life may appear strong, but unless the inner knots are dissolved, the turmoil does not cease. These inner knots eventually entangle us, no matter how strong the façade may seem. The mystic Rumi once said, “Knots cannot be undone merely by hearing fairy tales. You must work within yourself. Better than the roaring floods of external knowledge is a single small spring of self-knowledge within.” His words point toward the truth that true resolution comes not from outer accumulation but from the quiet wellspring of the inner self.

The practice of concentration and stillness of the mind is therefore essential. In other words, stillness of thought, stillness of speech, and stillness of the body are indispensable for freedom from stress. Today, people pay great attention to “balanced diet”. We prepare charts of vitamins and nutrients, carefully ensuring that the body receives what it needs. Yet, as balance in food is necessary for health, so too is balance in all functions of life. When body, speech, and mind move in extremes, disorder arises. Many times, our troubles are not as severe as our reaction to them. We suffer not only because of circumstances but also because of our own imbalance.

We attempt to control others, yet fail to control ourselves. Again, Rumi whispers wisdom: “Do not try to calm the storm. Calm yourself; the storm will pass.” This is the great secret we often forget: after every activity, a return to stillness is essential. Just as inhalation must be followed by exhalation, work must be followed by rest, speaking by silence, and movement by stillness. Why has humanity failed to learn this? Or, knowing it, why has it ignored the lesson? The great philosopher-saint Acharya Mahapragya gave a profound answer. For the stability of the mind, there is mental meditation. For the stability of speech, there is verbal meditation. And for the stability of the body, there is physical meditation. These three forms of meditation—mental, verbal, and physical—are the pathways by which our scattered life can be brought into harmony. They are the antidote to inner chaos.

When we practise them, restlessness loosens its grip. Otherwise, in states of agitation, we see everything and everyone through the lens of suspicion. Restlessness makes us victims of our own gaze. It whispers that we are weak, it drives us toward wrong paths, and it causes us to condemn ourselves even for actions we never performed. The American thinker Hallie Maggi observed, “Restlessness never comes without reason. But its reason is revealed only when we give ourselves the time to become calm.” This means that to conquer anxiety, we must not only learn how to remove stress but, more wisely, how not to create it in the first place. Stress is not a permanent condition; it is a by-product of imbalance.

The world today is intoxicated with activity, knowledge, entertainment, and constant noise. Yet silence, stillness, and rest are treated as luxuries rather than necessities. The truth is that inner silence is not a luxury; it is the very foundation of peace. Without it, no outer success can grant us joy. To be “busy” is not a fault, provided it is balanced by being “easy”. A life of one-sided activity is like a chariot with a missing wheel—it cannot carry us far. But when we unite the wheel of action with the wheel of contemplation, when we balance work with rest and knowledge with meditation, we discover the art of living. The solution, therefore, is not to escape from life but to reshape it. Stillness must be woven into our daily rhythm. A few moments of conscious breathing, a few minutes of silent reflection, a pause between words, a rest between labours—these are not trivial. They are the very breath of the soul. Stress is a signal not of outer failure but of inner forgetfulness. When we return to balance, stress dissolves like mist in the morning sun. Life then moves not as a burden but as a celebration.

(The author can be reached at lalitgarg11@gmail.com)