The connection between the mind and the body is prana. When a thought arises, immediately the prana vibrates, and it produces an impact upon the body. Any kind of thought that is generated in the mind has its force communicated to the body. If one is upset in the mind, this mood of the mind is transmitted to the body immediately, and the liver goes off. There would be no hunger that day. One says, "No, today I don't eat! My son has died; my mother has gone; I have lost all my property; I am in a helpless condition; I have no hunger today; I cannot eat." What has happened to the hunger? The sorrow that has descended upon the mind has been communicated by the prana, as if by an electric wire, and the liver, the stomach, and everything has gone out of order. If anyone is happy, he has a tremendous energy; and even if he has not eaten for four days he will say, "I shall lift bricks!" Man can lift a stone and carry a tree, even if he has not eaten for days, because he is happy for some reason. "Oh! I am so happy, I am full, complete, everything is fine, I can do any work that you give me." But if he is grieved, even if he has just eaten a heavy meal, he cannot get up from his place, let alone lift things. He needs someone else to lift him then. "I am drooping, please lift me," he will say. What power thoughts have! The mind communicates its impressions through the prana to the body, and the body is affected sympathetically. So, this is the relationship between the mind and the body through the prana, which is such a mysterious collection of forces.

It is observed on an analysis that man is constituted of subtle layers of personality within the physical body, and he is more a mind than a body. Though man looks like a body and it appears as if the body is everything, the truth is otherwise. Human life is more mental than physical. The processes of the mind are the processes of human life, rather than the circumstances of the physical body.

Prana is only one aspect of the Subtle Body. There are other more important and vital aspects of it which are mentation, volition, feeling, intellection, etc. This so-called Subtle Body is a great wonder. A lack of sufficient knowledge of its structure is the reason why there are so many schools of thought concerning the theory of knowledge, - how knowledge arises in the mind at all. Centuries of discussion have passed, and even today the controversy is continuing. How does one know anything at all? Philosophers call this science Epistemology. Is knowledge imported from outside and planted in one's heart so that one knows what things are outside, or is knowledge exported from inside? Where is the location of knowledge? Where is it rooted? From where does it rise? It must exist somewhere, in order that it may become manifest in the form of man's experiences. This is the reason why one has to go a little deep into the nature of the Subtle Body. It is subtle because it is superphysical, is incapable of grasp by the sense-organs. It cannot come under the grips of even ordinary thinking, because thinking itself is a part of the way in which it works. The Subtle Body is a totality of man's psychic personality. By "Subtle Body" is not meant merely the mind, or the intellect, or the emotion, etc. It is the total of what man is made of. It is the entire energy reservoir of oneself, or, rather, it is oneself. The individuality, the personality, or the so-called characteristics exhibited in one's daily life are a procession of the stuff of which the Subtle Body is made.

The activities which are psychological are the movements of the Subtle Body. It operates in the dreaming state, and also in the waking state. It does not operate in the deep sleep state. The light of the psyche is flashed forth through the apparatus of the sense-organs, and that is why man is having sensory knowledge, perception of things outside. It is not the eyeballs that see, or the eardrums that hear, but the energy that is pumped out with a great velocity from within that becomes responsible for the externalised intelligence, which is called perception, or knowledge of the world. One is urged forward with a tremendous strength which constitutes the Subtle Body. The word "body" is used here because there is no better word for it in the language. Actually, it is not a solid substance. It is an energy-complex, an electromagnetic field, an energy centre, a pressure point which pulsates with such a force that it never allows man any rest. He is pushed out of his own self, as it were. He is compelled, as it were, to become something different from what he is. That is why man is so eager to see things outside, rather than to look within.

All the thoughts of the mind are concerned with things outside it, and the whole engagement of life, or rather, the business of life, may be said to be man's concern with everything other than his own self. Man is busy with things external, whether these are humans or non-humans, and he is obliged by the very structure of this Subtle Body to engross himself in this business of life, by which what is meant is his connection with things outside him, and the requirements on his part to adjust with these principles outside - persons, things, etc. Man is in an unfortunate condition. He is not healthy, truly speaking, as seen by a deep analysis into the way in which the Subtle Body is working. He is helplessly driven outside his own self, as if a devil is sitting inside him, never allowing him to think of the point from which this energy arises. So, no one thinks of his own self. It is impossible to find time for that, or even to have the capacity to investigate in this manner. The whole activity of life, right from morning till evening, is a pushing out of oneself the whole energy that is within, and pouring it on something else, as if the entire world is made up of everything except one's own self. This happens due to the very nature of the Subtle Body. It is like a pumping engine which releases energy externally, and externalises the whole personality, so that, in a way, man is pushed by someone outwardly, perpetually, day-in and day-out. The whole of man's life may be said to be a helpless movement in some direction which is chalked out by the intentions of the Subtle Body.

The Subtle Body is an inexhaustible source of energy. This pump-house never gets tired of working, and it cannot get exhausted, perhaps, even when one dies. It continues, and it shall continue as long as its purposes are not fulfilled, like a creditor who will pursue the debtor wherever he goes. Even if the debtor is ruined completely, the creditor is not going to leave him, because he feels that the debtor owes something to him. A pitiless and irrepressible activity is going on in the Subtle Body, which is filled with infinite cravings, and the vehemence of its craving is the reason for the velocity of its action.

The power with which the Subtle Body works is proportional to the desires of which it is constituted. And, by another form of definition, it may be said that the Subtle Body is nothing but a heap of desires. This is a view very near to that of the Western psychoanalysts, and, perhaps, there is a great truth in this finding. They hold that the whole personality of the human being is the urge of a desire; it may be a bundle of desires, or it may be said, in a way, to be a single desire.

Here psychologists differ among themselves - whether it is one desire, or two desires, or three or more desires that man has. Researches were made in this line by psychoanalysts like Freud, Adler and Jung. These researchers thought that the human personality is made up of three different structures. Man has various types of urges, and differences in the schools of psychology arise on account of the feeling that the urges are different from one another. But, principally, they are the ramifications of a central impulse, a form of man's whole impulsive nature, which takes different shapes, just as a man puts on different behaviours in his life according to the needs of the time. He appears differently at different hours of the day due to the requirement or the exigency of a particular occasion. But, he is not different persons; he is the same person. Man reveals a fraction of his personality when he behaves in a particular way or puts on a special mood. Likewise, it may be said that these impulses, these desires, these urges, are not necessarily different sections compartmentalised by the psyche, but they are facets, as it were, of a single diamond, each one reflecting the other, and each one contributing to form a single force. A pin-pointed spatio-temporal pressure of a desire is what is known as individuality.

Man is an individual because he is capable of being isolated from others. The segregation of oneself from other similar locations or points of self assertion is maintained by the affirmation of a type of desire. One's desire is constituted in such a way that it cannot get identified with another's desire, for reasons of its own; and, therefore, man maintains his individuality. Otherwise, one would merge into another, and there would be no personalities separated from one another. The intense affirming character of the individual is due to the intensity of the desire.