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CONCENTRATION

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PRACTICAL LESSONS
IN
YOGA
By
SRI SWAMI SIVANANDA

CONCENTRATION

CONCENTRATION 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 Kabir21 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
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PRACTICAL LESSONS IN YOGA
20 For further details refer to my book “Science of Pranayama.”
21 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
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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.
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PRACTICAL LESSONS IN YOGA
When you study one book, do not think of any other book. Fix the mind there steadily like the
arrow-maker24 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
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24 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
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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,
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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
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poem “Tejomayanandam” has written a beautiful verse on the difficulty of controlling the mind.25
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.
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25 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.
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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
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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
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(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
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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.
Some people feel intense pain and agony when they suffer from some disease in some part
of the body. The reason is not far to seek. They always think of the disease and do not know how to
take the mind away from the affected part of the body by the practice of abstraction and fixing the
mind on some other object. Some people feel less pain than others. Such people know how to divert
the mind from the seat of disease. Whenever there is pain in the body, practice concentration on
your tutelary deity or study some philosophical books. The pain will vanish.
Concentration is purely a mental process.26 It needs an inward turning of the mind. It is not a
muscular exercise. There should be no undue strain on the brain. You should not fight and wrestle
with the mind violently.
Sit in a comfortable pose. Relax all the muscles of the body. There should neither be
muscular nor emotional nor nervous nor mental strain. Keep a tight hold on the mental faculties.
Still the mind. Silence the bubbling thoughts. Calm the emotions. Put a brake on the
thought-process. Do not pay any attention to the intruding thoughts. Give the suggestion to the
mind: “I do not care whether they are there or not.” In other words, be indifferent. The intruding
thoughts will quit the mental factory soon. They will not cause any trouble. This is the secret of
mental discipline. Improvement in concentration will be visible only little by little. Do not be
discouraged on any account. Be regular in your practice. Stop not the practice even for a single day.
Lord Jesus says: “Empty thyself; I will fill thee.” This process of emptying all thoughts should be
attempted after you have attained some power of concentration. Keep yourself in a positive state
always. When you wish to concentrate on a piece of work to be done with care, you can use all your
will and imagination also. Imagination helps even concentration.
If you find it difficult to concentrate on the heart, on the tip of the nose, on the space between
the eyebrows, or on the crown of the head, you can select any external object for the purpose. You
can, for instance, concentrate on the blue sky, the light of the sun, the all-pervading air, ether, sun,
moon, stars. If you experience any headache or pain in the skull or any part of the body due to the
strain of concentration on a particular place or object, shift the centre of concentration or change the
object.
A Raja-Yogi concentrates on the space between the eyebrows (Ajna Chakra or Trikuti)
which is the seat of the mind in the waking state. You can easily control the mind, if you concentrate
on this region. Light is seen during concentration on this region very quickly. He who wants to
meditate on the macrocosm (Virat) and he who wants to help the world should select this region for
concentration. A Bhakta or devotee should select the heart, the seat of emotion and feeling. He who
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26 For full particulars vide my book “Sure Ways for success in Life and God-realisation”.
concentrates on the heart gets immense happiness. He who wants to get something for himself
should concentrate on the heart.
A scientist concentrates his mind and invents many things. Through concentration he opens
the layers of the gross mind and penetrates deeply into higher regions of the mind and gets deeper
knowledge. He concentrates all his energies into one focus and throws them upon the materials he is
analysing and so finds out their secrets. When there is faith, the mind can be easily concentrated on
the subject to be understood; and then the understanding quickly follows. As mind evolves, you
come into conscious relation with the mental currents, with the minds of others near and distant,
living and dead. He who has learnt to manipulate the mind will get the whole nature under his
control.
Too much physical exertion, too much talking, too much eating, too much mixing with
ladies and undesirable persons, too much walking will cause distraction of mind. Those who
practice concentration must abandon these things. Whatever work you do, do it with perfect
concentration. Never leave the work without finishing it completely.
Celibacy, Pranayama, reduction of wants and activities, renunciation of objects, solitude,
silence, discipline of the senses, annihilation of lust and greed, control of anger, non-mixing with
undesirable persons, giving up of newspaper-reading-habit and visiting cinemas—all these pave a
long way in increasing the power of concentration.
Even if the mind runs out during concentration, do not bother. Let it run. Slowly bring it to
your object of concentration. In the beginning the mind may run 50 times, two years of practice will
reduce the number to 20; another three years of continued and persistent practice will reduce the
number to nil. The mind then will be completely fixed in the Divine consciousness. Then it will not
run out even if you try to bring it out. This is the practical experience of those who have gained
complete mastery over their minds.
Arjuna had wonderful concentration. He learnt the science of archery from Dronacharya. A
dead bird was tied to a post in such a way that its reflection was cast in a basin of water right beneath
on the ground. Arjuna saw the reflection of the bird in the basin of water and aimed successfully in
hitting at the right eye of the actual bird tied to the post above.
Napoleon also had remarkable power of concentration. It is said that he had full control over
his thoughts. He could draw one thought from a pigeon hole of his brain, dwell on that single
thought as long as he liked and then shove that thought back into that pigeon-hole. He had a peculiar
brain with peculiar pigeon-holes!
When you study a book with profound interest, you do not hear or see a man shouting or
calling you by your name. You do not smell the sweet fragrance of flowers kept on the table by your
side. This is concentration. This is one-pointedness of mind (Chitta-Ekagrata). The mind is fixed
firmly on one thing and one thing only. Such must be the depth and intensity of your concentration,
when you think of God or Atman. It is easy to concentrate the mind on worldly objects because the
mind takes interest in it very naturally through force of habit. The grooves are already cut in the
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brain. You will have to create new grooves by fixing the mind again and again on God. After
sometime the mind will not move to external objects, for it experiences joy and bliss within.
Some Western psychologists hold: “The mind that wanders aimlessly can be made to move
in a small limited circle only, by the practice of concentration. It cannot be fixed on one point only.
If it is fixed on one point only, then inhibition of the mind will take place. There is death for the
mind. Nothing can be achieved when there is inhibition of the mind. So there is no use of inhibiting
the mind.” This is not right. Complete control of the mind can be attained, when all the
thought-waves are extirpated thoroughly. The Yogi works wonders by his one-pointedness of
mind. He knows the hidden treasures of the Soul with the help of the mighty all-penetrating
search-light generated by the one-pointedness of mind. After one-pointedness (Ekagrata) is
attained, you have to achieve full restraint (Nirodha). In this state all modifications subside
completely. The mind becomes quite blank. Then the Yogi destroys this blank mind also by
identifying himself with the Supreme Purusha or Soul or Being from whom the mind borrows its
light. Then he obtains Omniscience and final emancipation (Kaivalya). These are matters that are
Greek and Latin to our Western psychologists. Hence they grope in darkness. They have no idea of
the Purusha who witnesses the activities of the mind.
Man is a complex social animal. He is a biological organism and so he is definitely
characterised by the possession of certain physiological functions such as circulation of blood,
digestion, respiration, excretion, etc. He is also definitely characterised by the possession of certain
psychological functions such as thinking, perception, memory, imagination, etc. He sees, thinks,
tastes, smells and feels. Philosophically speaking, he is the image of God, nay he is God himself. He
lost his divine glory by tasting the fruit of the forbidden tree. He can regain his lost divinity by
mental discipline and the practice of concentration.
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.
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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.
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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