Yoga and Meditation

Lesson VIII

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 (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.) 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 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 Srutis (Hindu Scriptures such as the Upanishads Brahma-Sutras etc.) 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 (read my book “Mind, Its Mysteries and Control.”). 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 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 (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). 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.”