CONCENTRATION

Hari Om! My speech is rooted in my mind,

My mind is rooted in my speech;

Brahman, reveal Thyself to me;

Ye mind and speech enable me

To grasp the truth the scriptures teach.

Let what I have heard slip not from me;

I join day with night in study,

I think the truth, I speak the truth;

May That protect me,

May That protect the teacher,

Protect me, protect the teacher, protect the teacher.

Om Peace! Om Peace! Om Peace!

 

Desa-bandhas-chittasya dharana—Concentration is fixing the mind on an external object

or an internal point. Once a Sanskrit scholar approached Kabir** and asked him: “O Kabir! What are

you doing now?” Kabir replied: “O Pandit! I am detaching the mind from worldly objects and

attaching it to the Lotus Feet of the Lord.” This is concentration. Right conduct, posture, Pranayama

and abstraction from sensual objects will pave a long way in achieving rapid success in

 

* For further details refer to my book “Science of Pranayama.”

** Kabir, a weaver saint of the holy city of Kasi is said to have lived during the reign of Sikandar Lodhi and died in

the year 1519 A.D. He was a distinguished disciple of the great religious reformer, Ramananda, and had

marvellous psychic powers.

 

concentration. There can be no concentration without something upon which the mind may rest.

Concentration is the sixth step in the Yogic ladder.

 

You must evince good interest in the practice of concentration. Then only your whole

attention will be directed towards the object upon which you wish to concentrate. There can be

really no concentration without a remarkable degree of interest and attention shown by the

practitioner. You must therefore, know what these two words mean.

 

Attention is steady application of the mind. It is focussing of consciousness on some chosen

object. Through attention you can develop your mental faculties and capacities. Where there is

attention, there is also concentration. Attention should be cultivated gradually. It is not a special

process. It is the whole mental process in one of its aspects.

 

Perception always involves attention. To perceive is to attend. Through attention you get a

clear and distinct knowledge of objects. The entire energy is focussed on the object towards which

attention is directed. Full and complete information is gained. During attention all the dissipated

rays of the mind are collected. There is effort or struggle in attention. Through attention a deeper

impression of anything is made in the mind. If you have good attention, you can attend to the matter

in hand exclusively. An attentive man has very good memory. He is very vigilant and circumspect.

He is nimble and alert.

 

If you analyse carefully the mental functions or operations, no one process can be singled

out and called attention to. It is not possible to separate attention as a distinct function. You observe

something; therefore you are attentive.

 

Attention belongs to every state of consciousness and is present in every field of

consciousness. An attentive student in the spiritual path can do hearing (Sravana) of the Srutis22 in

an efficient manner. The military officer says: “ATTENTION” and the soldier is ready with his gun

to carry out his behests. An attentive soldier alone can hit the mark. No one can get success either in

temporal or spiritual pursuits without attention.

 

There are Yogins who can do eight or ten or even hundred things at a time.23 This is not

strange. The whole secret lies in the fact that they have developed their attention to a remarkable

degree. All the great men of the world do possess this faculty in varying degrees.

 

Attention is of two kinds viz., external attention and internal attention. When the attention is

directed towards external objects, it is called external attention. When it is directed internally within

the mind upon mental objects and ideas, it is known as internal attention.

 

There are again two other kinds of attention viz, voluntary attention and involuntary

attention. When the attention is directed towards some external object by an effort, of the will, it is

called voluntary attention. When you have an express volition to attend to this or that, it is called

 

22 Hindu Scriptures such as the Upanishads Brahma-Sutras etc.

23 Read my book “Mind, Its Mysteries and Control.”

 

involuntary attention. The man understands why he perceives. Some deliberate intention, incentive,

goal or purpose is definitely involved. Voluntary attention needs effort, will, determination and

some mental training. This is cultivated by practice and perseverance. The benefits derived by the

practice of attention are incalculable. Involuntary attention is quite common. This does not demand

any practice. There is no effort of the will. The attention is induced by the beauty and attractive

nature of the object. Individuals perceive without knowing why and without observed instruction.

Young children possess this power of involuntary attention to a greater degree than grown-up

people.

 

If a man is not observant, he is not attentive. If he observes something, he is said to be

attentive. Intention, purpose, hope, expectation, desire, belief, wish, knowledge, aim, goal and

needs serve to determine attention. You will have to note carefully the degree, duration, range,

forms, fluctuations and conflicts of attention.

 

There is great attention, if the object is very pleasing. You will have to create interest. Then

there will be attention. If the attention gets diminished, change your attention to another pleasant

object. By patient training you can direct the mind to attend to an unpleasant object also by creating

interest. Then your will will grow strong.

 

If you closely watch, you will note that you observe different objects at different times. This

perception of now one object and now another when the physical conditions are constant, is known

as fluctuation of attention. Attention is changing. The objects themselves change or fluctuate but

there is no fluctuation in the observing individual himself. The mind has not been trained to bear

prolonged voluntary attention. It gets disgusted through monotony and wants to run towards some

other pleasing object. You may say: “I am going to attend to one thing only,” but you will soon find

that even though you attend very hard, you suddenly perceive something else. The attention wavers.

 

Interest develops attention. It is difficult to fix the mind on an uninteresting object. When a

professor is lecturing, when the subject is abstract and metaphysical, many people leave the hall

quietly because they cannot attend to a subject which is not interesting. But if the same professor

sings and tells some interesting and thrilling stories, all people hear him with rapt attention. There is

pindrop silence. Lecturers should know the art of attracting the minds of the hearers. They will have

to change the tone to talk with force and emphasis. They will have to watch the audience and see

whether they are attentive or not. They will have to change the subject-matter for a short while and

bring in some nice stories and suitable illustrations. They will have to look at the hearers directly in

their eyes. So many things are necessary if one wants to become a successful lecturer, if one wants

to make the hearers attentive.

 

Napoleon, Gladstone, Arjuna and Jnanadeva had all wonderful powers of attention. They

could fix their minds on any object. All scientists and occultists possess attention to a remarkable

degree. They cultivate it by patience, regular and systematic practice. A judge and a surgeon can get

positive success in their respective professions only if they are endowed with the power of attention

to a high degree.

 

When you do any work, plunge yourself in it. Forget yourself. Lose the self. Concentrate

upon the work. Shut out all other thoughts. When you do one thing, do not think of any other thing.

When you study one book, do not think of any other book. Fix the mind there steadily like the

arrow-maker+ who had no consciousness of his surroundings. Eminent scientists are so busy and

attentive in their experiments and researches in their laboratories that they forget to take food even

for days together. Once a scientist was very busy at his work. His wife who was living in another

district had a serious calamity. She came running up to him to the laboratory with profuse tears in

her eyes. Strange to say, the scientist was not a bit agitated. He was so very attentive in his work that

he even forgot that she was his own wife. He replied: “Madam!Weep for some more time. Let me

make chemical analysis of your tears.”

 

Once some gentleman invited Sir Isaac Newton for dinner. Newton repaired to his host’s

bungalow and took his seat in the drawing room. The gentleman forgot all about Newton, took his

dinner and proceeded to his office. Newton was amusing within himself very absorbedly on some

important point of science. He did not stir from his seat. He forgot all about his dinner and remained

in the same chair like a statue for over thirty-six hours! The next morning the host saw Newton in

the drawing room and then only remembered of having invited him for dinner. He really felt sorry

for his forgetfulness and apologised to Sir Isaac in a meek voice. What a wonderful power of

attention Sir Isaac Newton had! All geniuses possess this power to an infinite degree.

According to Prof. James we attend to things because they are very interesting. But Prof.

Pillsbury is of the opinion that things are interesting because we attend to them, or because we are

likely to attend to them. We do not attend to them because they are interesting.

By the constant practice and ever-renewed effort of attention, a subject that in the beginning

was dry and uninteresting may become full of interest when you master it and learn its meaning and

its issues. The power of concentrating your attention on the subject may become stronger.

When a great misfortune has befallen you, or when you pass in review a certain course of

conduct in order to find out the cause of failure, it may take possession of your mind to such a

degree that no effort of the will can make you cease from thinking over it. An article has to be

written, a book is in the process of preparation; the work is carried on to the loss of sleep and you are

unable to tear yourself away from it; the attention which began voluntarily has taken entire hold of

the field of consciousness.

 

If you possess strong power of attention, anything that the mind receives will be deeply

impressed. An attentive man only can develop his will. A mixture of attention, application and

interest can work wonders. There is no doubt of this. A man of ordinary intellect with highly

developed attention can turn out more work than a highly intellectual man who has a poor attention.

Failure in anything is mainly due to lack of attention. If you attend to one thing at a time, you will

get profound knowledge of that subject in its various aspects. The ordinary untrained man of the

world generally attends to several things at a time. He allows many things to enter the gates of his

 

+ There was a workman who used to manufacture arrows. Once he was very busy at his work. He was so much

engrossed in his work that he did not notice a Raja and his retinue passing in front of his work-shop. Such must be

the nature of your concentration, when you fix your mind on God. You must have the one idea of God and God

alone.

 

mental factory. That is the reason why he has a clouded or turbid mind. There is no clarity of

thought. He cannot do the process of analysis and synthesis. He is bewildered. He cannot express

his ideas clearly, whereas the disciplined man can attend to a subject exclusively as long as he likes.

He extracts full and detailed information about one subject or object and then takes up another.

Attention is an important faculty of a Yogi.

 

You cannot attend to two different objects at a time. Mind can do only one thing at a time.

Because it moves with such tremendous velocity backwards and forwards, you think that the mind

can attend to several objects or things at a time. You can only see or hear at a time. You cannot see

and hear at the same time. But this law is not applicable to a developed Yogi. A developed Yogi can

do several things at a time because his will is not separate from the Cosmic Will which is

all-powerful. Psychology is only a product of the Cosmic Will, and as such it has not got the

strength to dominate over it.

 

Before you begin the practice of concentration, you will do well to know something about

the subconscious mind and its functions. In the Vedanta philosophy the subconscious mind is called

Chitta. When the Chitta is confined and fixed to a certain point or object, this is called

concentration. A great deal of your subconsciousness is but bundles of submerged experiences

which can be brought to the surface of the conscious mind by means of concentration.

 

It is an admitted psychological fact that the mental processes by which you obtain

knowledge are not merely confined to the field of consciousness but also cover the field of

subconsciousness. If you know the technique of speaking to your subconscious mind and the art or

science of extracting work from it just as you would speak to your servant or a dear old friend, then

all knowledge will be yours. Yes, it is a question of practice, and practice will make you perfect.

 

When you are unable to solve some puzzle in metaphysics, science or philosophy, ask your

subconscious mind to do the bit of work for you with the full trust and confidence that you are

bound to get the right solution from it. Command your subconscious mind in the following manner:

“Look here, you subconscious mind; I want the solution to this puzzle or problem very urgently

tomorrow morning. Kindly do it quickly.” Let your command be given in very clear terms, and let

there be no ambiguity about it. You will positively get the answer from your subconscious mind the

next morning. But sometimes the subconscious mind may be busy otherwise and in such cases you

will have to wait for some days. You will have to repeat the command regularly every day at a fixed

time.

 

All that you have inherited, all that you have brought with you through innumerable crores

of births in the past, all that you have seen, heard, enjoyed, tasted, read or known either in this life or

in past lives are hidden in your subconscious mind. Why don’t you master the technique of

concentration and the way of commanding your subconscious mind and make full and free use of

all that knowledge?

 

The subconscious mind is, as you have already known, your faithful servant. When at night

you retire to bed with the thought that you should get up positively at 4 a.m., to either catch a train or

practice meditation, it is your subconscious mind that wakes you up at the exact hour. Even while

you are fast asleep, your subconscious mind is at work. It has no rest at all. It arranges, analyses,

compares, sorts all facts and figures, and finally carries out your commands.

 

Every action, every enjoyment or suffering and, in fact, all experiences leave in the

camera-plate of your subconscious mind subtle impressions or residual potencies which are the root

cause of future births, experiences of pleasure and pain, and death again. Revival or repetition of

any action done in this life induces memory. But in the case of a developed Yogi memory of

previous lives also is brought about. He dives deep within and comes in actual contact with the

Samskaras (subtle impressions) of past lives. He directly perceives them through his Yogic Vision.

By means of Yogic Samyama (concentration, meditation and Samadhi practiced at one and the

same time) the Yogi gets full knowledge of past lives. By doing Samyama on the Samskaras of

others, he gets knowledge of the past lives of others also. Wonderful are the powers of

concentration.

 

Mind is a power born of Atman because it is through mind that God manifests Himself as

the differentiated universe of names and forms. Mind is nothing but a bundle of thoughts and habits.

As the “I” thought is the root of all thoughts, mind is only the thought “I”.

 

The brain is the seat of the mind in the waking state, the cerebellum in the dreaming state;

and the heart in the deep sleep state. All objects you see about you, are nothing but mind only in

form and in substance. Mind creates; mind destroys. A higher developed mind influences the lower

minds. Telepathy, mind-reading, hypnotism, mesmerism, distant healing and so many other allied

sciences bear testimony to the fact. Undoubtedly mind is the greatest power on earth. Control of

mind bestows all powers.

 

Just as you take physical exercises, play games such as tennis and cricket in order to

maintain physical health, you will have to maintain mental health also by taking Sattvic food,

mental recreation of innocent and harmless nature, change of thought, relaxation of mind by

entertaining good, ennobling and sublime thoughts and by cultivating the habit of cheerfulness.

 

The nature of the mind is such that it becomes that which it intensely thinks upon. Thus, if

you think of the vices and defects of another man, your mind will be charged with those defects and

vices at least for the time being. He who knows this psychological law will never indulge in

censuring others or in finding fault in the conduct of others. He will always praise others. He will

only see the good in others. That is the way to grow in concentration, Yoga and spirituality.

 

Mind is atomic according to the Indian school of logic; all-pervading according to the Raja

Yoga philosophy; and is of the same size as that of the body according to the Vedantic school.

 

Deep sleep is not a state of inactivity. In this state the causal body (Karana Sarira) functions

vigorously. The associated consciousness Prajna, is also present. The Jiva (individual soul) is

almost in close contact with the Absolute. Just as a thin layer of muslin veils the face of a lady and

renders it invisible to the eyes of her husband, so also a thin layer of ignorance separates the

individual soul and the Supreme Soul. Students of Vedanta study this state deeply. It has deep

philosophical significance. It gives the clue to trace the existence of the Atman. You rest in the

warm bosom of the Mother of the world, Rajesvari, who lovingly bestows upon you peace,

refreshing vigour and strength to face the ensuing battle of daily life. But for this incomparable love

and kindness of the merciful Mother during deep sleep, life would be well nigh impossible on this

physical plane, where so many miseries, diseases, cares, worries, anxieties and fears of all sorts

torture and torment you every moment. How miserable gloomy and depressed you feel, if you do

not enjoy sound sleep even for one night, if you happen to forgo your sleep for three or four hours by

attending a night’s theatrical entertainment!

 

Great Yogins like Jnanadeva, Bhartrihari and Patanjali used to send and receive messages to

and from distant persons through mind-telepathy (mental radio) and thought-transference.

Telepathy was the first wireless telegraph and telephone service ever known to the world. Thought

travels with tremendous velocity through space. Thought moves. It has weight, shape, size, form

and colour. It is a dynamic force.

 

What is this world after all? It is nothing but the materialisation of the thoughtforms of

Hiranyagarbha or God. You have got waves of heat, and light and electricity in science. There are

also thought-waves in Yoga. Thought has tremendous power. Everybody is experiencing the power

of thought unconsciously to a greater or lesser degree. If you have a comprehensive understanding

of the working of thought-vibrations, if you know the technique of controlling the thoughts, if you

know the method of transmitting beneficial thoughts to others at a distance by forming clearcut,

well-defined powerful thought-waves, you can use this thought-power a thousandfold more

effectively. Thought works wonders. A wrong thought binds. A right thought liberates. Therefore

think rightly and attain freedom.

 

Dear child! Unfold the occult powers hidden within you by understanding and realising the

powers of the mind. Close your eyes. Slowly concentrate. You can see distant objects, hear distant

sounds, send messages to any part of, not only, this world but to other planets as well, heal persons

thousands of miles off from you, and move about to distant places in no time. Believe in the powers

of the mind. Interest, attention, will, faith and concentration will bring the desired fruit. Remember

that mind is born of the Atman through His Maya (illusory Power).

 

Cosmic mind is universal mind. Cosmic mind is the sum total of all individual minds.

Cosmic mind is Hiranyagarbha or Isvara or Karya Brahman. Man’s mind is only a fragment of the

universal mind. Learn to merge your little mind in the Cosmic mind and get Omniscience and

experience Cosmic Consciousness.

 

Keep a balanced mind always. This is a very important thing. It is, no doubt, a difficult

practice, but you will have to do it, if you wish to succeed in concentration. Keeping the balance of

mind in pleasure and in pain, in heat and in cold, in gain and in loss, in success and in failure, in

praise and in censure, in respect and in disrespect, is real wisdom. This is very trying indeed, but if

you are able to do this, you are a mighty potentate on earth. You are fit to be adored. You are the

most wealthy man, though you are clad in loin-cloth, though you have nothing to eat. You are very

strong, though you have a dilapidated physical frame. Worldly people lose their balance even for

trifling things. They get irritated and lose their temper quickly. Energy is wasted when one loses his

temper. Those who want to develop balance of mind should develop discrimination and practice

celibacy and concentration. Those who waste their semen get irritated very frequently. Control and

concentration of mind is very difficult of performance, for, Saint Thayumanavar in his inimitable

poem “Tejomayanandam” has written a beautiful verse on the difficulty of controlling the mind.+

This untranslatable piece roughly and freely translated means:

 

“You can control a mad elephant;

You can shut the mouth of the bear and the tiger;

You can ride on a lion;

You can play with the cobra;

By alchemy you can eke out your livelihood;

You can wander through the universe incognito;

You can make vassals of the gods;

You can ever be youthful;

You can walk on water;

You can live in fire;

You can achieve all Siddhis, seated in your home;

But to be restful by control of the mind is rare and difficult.”

 

The senses are your real foes. They draw you out and perturb your peace of mind. Do not

keep company with them. Subdue them. Restrain them. Curb them just as you would curb your

enemies on the battlefield. This is not a day’s work. It demands patient and protracted Sadhana for a

very long time. Control of the senses is really control of the mind. All the ten senses must be

controlled. Starve them to death. Do not give them what they want. Then they will obey your orders

quite implicitly. All worldly-minded persons are slaves of their senses, though they are educated,

though they possess immense wealth, though they hold judicial and executive powers. If you are a

slave of meat-eating, for instance, you will begin to exercise control over your tongue the moment

you give up the meat-eating habit entirely for six months. You will consciously feel that you have

gained a little supremacy over this troublesome sense of taste which began to revolt against you

sometime ago.

 

Be cautious, vigilant and circumspect. Watch your mind and its modifications. Lord Jesus

says: “Watch and pray”. Watching the mind is introspection. One in a million does this beneficial

and soul-elevating practice. People are immersed in worldliness. They madly run after money and

women. They have no time to think of God and higher spiritual things. The sun dawns and the mind

runs again in its old, usual, sensual grooves of eating, drinking, amusing and sleeping. The day has

passed. In this way the whole life passes away. There is neither moral development nor spiritual

progress. He who does daily introspection can find out his own defects and remove them by suitable

methods and can have gradually a perfect control over the mind. He will not allow the

intruders—lust, anger, greed, delusion and pride—to enter the mental factory. He can practise

concentration uninterruptedly.

 

+ Thayumanavar was a poet-saint who lived about 200 years ago in the district of Tanjore, South India. His songs

on Vedanta are soul-inspiring and elevating. All his songs are now available in gramaphone records. They

penetrate deep into the hearts of the hearers. They are very, very popular in South India. They are pregnant with

deep, subtle, philosophical thoughts.

 

Daily self-analysis and self-examination is another indispensable practice. Then only you

can obviate your detects and grow rapidly in concentration. What does a gardener do? He watches

the young plants carefully removes the weeds daily, puts a strong fence round them and waters them

daily at the proper time; and so they grow nicely and yield fruits quickly. Even so you should find

out your defects by introspection and self-analysis and eradicate them through suitable methods. If

one method fails, you should take recourse to another. The practice demands patience,

perseverance, leech-like tenacity, application, iron will, subtle intellect and courage. But the reward

is invaluable. It is Immortality, Supreme Peace and Infinite Bliss!

 

You should try to possess a serene mind. You should practice serenity every moment of

your Yogic career. If your mind is restless, you cannot make an iota of progress in concentration.

Therefore, the first and foremost thing that you should possess by all means is serenity of mind.

Silent meditation in the morning, renunciation of desires, suitable diet, discipline of the senses and

observance of the vow of silence daily for about at least an hour will produce serenity. All vain,

habitual thoughts, wild fancies, wrong feelings, cares, worries, anxieties, confused ideas, and all

kinds of imaginary fears must be done away with in toto. Then and then only you can hope to get a

peaceful mind. The foundation in Yoga can well and truly be laid only if the aspirant possesses

serenity to a maximum degree. Only a calm mind can grasp the truth, can see God or Atman, can

receive the Divine Light. The spiritual experiences will be permanent, if you have a quiet mind.

Otherwise they will come and go.

 

As soon as you wake up in the morning, pray fervently to the Lord, sing His Names, and

meditate upon Him with all your heart from 4 to 6. Then make a firm determination: “I will observe

celibacy today. I will speak the truth today. I will not hurt the feelings of others today. I will not lose

my temper today.” Watch your mind. Be resolute. You will surely succeed that day. Then continue

the vow for the whole week. You will gain strength. Your will-power will develop. Then continue

the vow for the whole month. Even if you commit some mistakes in the beginning; you need not be

unnecessarily alarmed. Mistakes are your best teachers. You will not commit the same mistakes

again. If you are earnest and sincere, the Lord will shower His Grace upon you. The Lord will give

you strength to face the difficulties and troubles in the daily battle of life.

 

He who has controlled his mind is really happy and free. Physical freedom is no freedom at

all. If you are easily carried away by surging emotions and impulses, if you are under the grip of

moods, cravings and passions, how can you be really happy, O sweet beloved child! You are like a

rudderless boat. You are tossed about hither and thither like a piece of straw in the vast expanse of

the ocean. You laugh for five minutes and weep for five hours. What can wife, son, friends, money,

fame and power do for you, when you are under the sway of the impulses of your mind? He is the

true hero who has controlled his mind. There is an adage: “He who has controlled his mind has

controlled the world.” True victory is over the mind. That is real freedom. Thorough rigorous

discipline and self-imposed restrictions will eventually eradicate all desires, thoughts, impulses

cravings and passions. Only then and not until then can you expect to be free from the thraldom of

the mind. You should not give any leniency to the mind. The mind is a mischievous imp. Curb it by

drastic measures. Become a perfect Yogi. Money cannot give you freedom. Freedom is not a

commodity that can be purchased in the Crawford Market. It is a rare hidden treasure guarded by a

five-hooded serpent. Unless you kill or tame this serpent, you cannot have access to this treasure.

 

That treasure is Spiritual Wealth, that is Freedom, that is Bliss. The serpent is your mind. The

five-hoods are the five senses through which the mind-serpent hisses.

 

Rajasic mind always wants new things. It wants variety. It gets disgusted with monotony. It

wants change of place, change of food, change, in short, of everything. But you should train the

mind to stick to one thing. You should not complain of monotony. You should have patience,

adamantine will and untiring persistence. Then only you can succeed in Yoga. He who wants

something new always is quite unfit for Yoga. You should stick to one place, one spiritual

preceptor, one method and one system of Yoga. That is the way to positive success.

 

You should have real and intense thirst for God-realisation. Then all obstacles will be

obviated. Concentration will be quite easy for you then. Mere emotional bubbling for the time being

out of sheer curiosity or for attaining psychic powers cannot bring any tangible result.

 

If you are careless, if you are irregular in concentration, if your dispassion (Vairagva)

wanes, if you give up the practice for some days on account of laziness, the adverse forces will take

you away from the true path of Yoga. You will be stranded. It will be difficult for you to rise up

again to the original height. Therefore be regular in concentration.

 

Be cheerful and happy. Away with depression and gloom. There is nothing more infectious

than depression. A depressed and gloomy man can radiate only unpleasant and morbid vibrations

all around; he cannot radiate joy, peace and love. Therefore never come out of your room, if you are

depressed and gloomy lest you should spread the contagion all around you. Live only to be a

blessing to others. Radiate joy, love and peace. Depression eats the very core of your being and

havocs like a canker. It is verily a deadly plague. Depression manifests on account of some

disappointment or failure, severe dyspepsia or heated debates, wrong thinking or wrong feeling.

Separate yourself from this negative feeling and identify yourself with the Supreme Being. Then no

external influence can affect you. You will be invulnerable. Drive the feeling of depression and

bloom at once by enquiry, singing divine songs, prayers, chanting of OM, Pranayama a brisk walk

in the open air, thinking of the opposite quality viz., the feeling of joy. Try to be happy in all states

and radiate joy only towards all around you.

 

Why do you weep, my child? Remove the bandage from your eyes and see now. You are

surrounded by truth and truth alone. All is Light and Bliss only. The cataract of ignorance has

blurred your vision. Extract the cataract immediately. Put on a new pair of glasses by developing

the inner eye of wisdom through regular practice of concentration.

 

It is not thought alone that determines action. There are some intelligent people who think

reasonably on the pros and cons of a thing but when the time comes they are led astray by

temptations. They do wrong actions and repent later on. It is the feeling that really goads man to

action. Some psychologists lay special stress on imagination and say that it is imagination that

really determines action. They bring the following illustration in support of their view. Suppose a

long plank 1 foot broad is placed between two turrets each 20 feet high. When you begin to walk on

this plank, you imagine that you will fall down and so you actually fall down. Whereas you are able

to walk on the same plank when placed on the ground. Suppose you go on a bicycle along a narrow

lane. You see a big stone on the way. You imagine that you will hit the cycle against the stone; and

so you actually run the cycle against the stone. Some other psychologists say that it is the will that

determines an action. Will can do everything. Will is soul-force. Vedantins are of this latter

opinion.

 

Now to come back to the subject of concentration proper: The waves in the mind caused by

thought-forms are called Vrittis. These waves must be stilled or stopped. Then only you can realise

the Soul. A well-trained mind can be fixed at will upon any object either inside or outside to the

exclusion of all else. The practice of concentration is a bit disgusting in the beginning but it will

give you immense happiness after sometime. Patience and perseverance are essential. Regularity is

also necessary. The mind is compared in the Hindu Sastras to a lake or ocean. The thoughts arising

from the mind are compared to the waves of the ocean. You can see your reflection clearly on the

waters of the ocean only when all the waves on the surface subside completely and become still. So

also you can realise the Soul, the Light of lights, only when all the thought-waves in the mind-lake

are stilled.

 

If you take interest in the practice of concentration, and if you have a definite purpose, you

will have remarkable progress in concentration. Some medical students leave the medical college

soon after joining as they find it disgusting to wash the pus in ulcers and wounds and dissect dead

bodies. Is it not a serious blunder? In the beginning, no doubt, it is loathsome; but after studying

pathology, medicine, operative surgery, morbid anatomy, bacteriology and so on, the course

becomes very interesting in the final year. When they begin to get some knowledge of medicine,

diagnosis and treatment, and when they begin to think of the prospects of earning much money after

qualifying themselves as doctors, they begin to evince great interest in the line.

 

Many spiritual aspirants leave off the practice of concentration after sometime as they find it

difficult to practice it. In this they commit a grave blunder like the medical students. In the

beginning of the practice, when you struggle hard to get over body-consciousness, it will be

disgusting and troublesome. But in the third year of the practice the mind will become cool, pure

and strong. The neophyte will find great interest in the practice, when he gets some psychic

experiences such as brilliant lights, hearing of celestial sounds, smelling of rare scents, and so on,

and when he begins to think of the prospects of becoming a fully developed Yogi.

 

Some people can concentrate on pleasant or interesting objects only. If they can create

interest in unpleasant things also they can do good concentration on uninteresting things as well.

When the rays of the mind are gathered and collected by practice, the mind becomes concentrated

and you get Ananda from within. When you meet an old friend of yours after six years, the

happiness you get is not, as is generally supposed from the friend, but from within yourself. The

mind becomes concentrated for the time being and you get happiness from within your own self.

The sum total of pleasures of the whole world is nothing when compared to the bliss derived

through concentration and meditation. Do not give up the practice of concentration at any cost. Plod

on. Have patience, perseverance, cheerfulness, tenacity and application. You will eventually

succeed. Nil desperandum. Sri Sankaracharya writes in his commentary on the Chhandogya

Upanishad: “A man’s duty consists in the control of the senses and concentration of the mind.” (Ch.

VII-x-xii). Find out by serious introspection the various impediments that act as stumbling blocks

in your concentration and remove them with effort one by one. Do not allow new thoughts

 (Sankalpas) and desires (Vasanas) to crop up. Nip them in the bud through discrimination, enquiry,

concentration and meditation.

 

Everybody possesses some ability to concentrate. Everybody does concentrate to a certain

extent when he reads a book, when he writes a letter, when he plays tennis and, in fact, when he does

any kind of work. But for spiritual purposes concentration should be developed to an infinite

degree. The mind is like an unchained monkey. It has the power of attending to one object only at a

time, although it is able to pass from one object to another with tremendous speed, so rapidly, in

fact, that some hold that it could grasp several things at a time. But the best philosophers and seers,

Eastern and Western, hold to the “single idea” theory as being correct. It agrees with one’s daily

experience as well. The mind is ever restless. This is due to the force of Rajas or passion.

Concentration is necessary for success in material affairs. A man with an appreciable degree of

concentration has more earning capacity and turns out more work in less time. Need I say that the

Yogic student will be amply rewarded for his effort in concentration?

 

When you study a book, focus your whole mind on the subject in hand. Do not allow the

mind to see any external object or hear any sound. Collect all the dissipated rays of the mind.

Develop the power of attention. Attention, as I have said somewhere in the beginning, plays no

inconspicuous part in concentration. Concentration is, in fact, the narrowing of the field of

attention. It is one of the signs of trained will. It is found in men of strong personality.

 

Practise attention on unpleasant tasks from which you have been shrinking on account of its

unpleasantness. Throw interest upon uninteresting objects and ideas. Hold them on before your

mind. Interest will slowly manifest. Many mental weaknesses will vanish. The mind will become

stronger and stronger. The force wherewith anything strikes the mind is generally in proportion to

the degree of attention bestowed upon it. Moreover, the great art of memory is attention and

inattentive people have bad memories.

 

There is great concentration, when you play cards or chess, but the mind is not filled with

pure and divine thoughts. The mental contents are of an undesirable nature. You can hardly

experience the Divine Thrill, ecstasy and elevation of mind, when it is filled with impure thoughts.

Every object has its own mental associations. You will have to fill up the mind with sublime

spiritual thoughts. Then only the mind will be expurgated of all worldly thoughts. The picture of

Lord Jesus or Buddha or Krishna is associated with sublime, soulstirring ideas; chess and cards are

associated with ideas of gambling, cheating and so forth.

 

The invocation of shadow gives the objects seen as well as unseen. Undoubtedly a man

becomes pure by its very sight. The shadow can also answer any question you may desire to ask.

The Yogic practitioner who is able to see his own reflection in the sky will be able to know whether

his undertakings will be crowned with success or not. Those Yogins who have realised the benefits

of concentration fully have declared: “In a clear sunlit sky behold with a steady gaze your own

reflection; whenever this is seen for a single second in the sky, you behold God at once in the sky.”

He who daily sees his shadow in the sky will acquire longevity. He will never meet with accidental

death. When the shadow is seen fully reflected, then the Yogic practitioner gets victory and success.

He conquers Prana and goes everywhere. The practice is simple enough. One realise the fruits in a

short time. Some have realised the fruits in one or two weeks. When the sun rises, stand in such a

way that your body casts a shadow upon the ground and you are able to see it without difficulty.

Then steadily fix your gaze on the neck of the shadow for sometime and then look up into the sky. If

you see a full grey shadow in the sky, it is very auspicious. The shadow will answer any question for

you. If you do not get the shadow, continue the practice till you get it. You can practice this in the

moonlight also.

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