Exercises
I
Ask your friend to show you some playing cards. Immediately after the exposure, describe
the forms you have seen. Give the number, name, etc., such as club king, spade ten, diamond queen,
heart jack, and so on.
II
Read two or three pages of a book. Then close the book. Now attend to what you have read.
Abandon all distracting thoughts. Focus your attention carefully. Allow the mind to associate,
classify, group, combine and compare. You will get now a fund of knowledge and information on
the subject. Mere skipping over the pages inadvertently is of no use. There are students who read a
book within a few hours. If you ask them to reproduce some important points of the book, they will
simply blink. If you attend to the subject on hand very carefully, you will receive clear, strong
impressions. If the impressions are strong, you will have very good memory.
III
Sit on your favourite meditative pose about one foot from a watch. Concentrate on the
tik-tik sound slowly. Whenever the mind runs, again and again try to hear the sound. Just see how
long the mind can be fixed continuously on the sound.
IV
Sit again on your favourite Asana. Close your eyes. Close the ears with your thumbs or plug
the ears with wax or cotton. Try to hear the Anahata sounds (mystic sounds). You will hear various
kinds of sounds such as flute, violin, kettledrum, thunder-storm, conch, bells, the humming of a bee,
etc. Try to hear the gross sounds first. Hear only one kind of sound. If the mind runs, you can shift it
from gross to subtle, or from subtle to gross. Generally you will hear sounds in your right ear.
Occasionally you may hear in your left ear also. But try to stick to the sound of one ear. You will get
one-pointedness of mind. This is an easy way to capture the mind, because it is enchanted by the
sweet sound just as a snake is hypnotised by the note of the snake-charmer.
Keep a candle-flame in front of you and try to concentrate on the flame. When you are tired
of doing this, close your eyes and try to visualise the flame. Do it for half a minute and increase the
time to five or ten minutes according to your taste, temperament and capacity. You will see Rishis
and Devatas, when you enter into deep concentration.
VI
In a lying posture, concentrate on the moon. Whenever the mind runs, again and again bring
it back to the image of the moon. This exercise is very beneficial in the case of some persons having
an emotional temperament.
VII
In the above manner, you can concentrate on any star you may single out from the millions
of stars, shining above your head.
VIII
Sit by the side of a river where you can hear a roaring sound like OM. Concentrate on that
sound as long as you like. This is very thrilling and inspiring.
IX
Lie on your bed in the open air and concentrate upon the blue expansive sky above. Your
mind will expand immediately. You will be elevated. The blue sky will remind you of the infinite
nature of the Self.
Sit in a comfortable posture and concentrate on any one of the numerous abstract virtues
such as mercy. Dwell upon this virtue as long as you can.
