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 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.
III:Sit on your favourite meditative pose about one foot from a watch. Concentrate on the tik-tik sound slowly. Whenever the mind runs, again and again try to hear the sound. Just see how long the mind can be fixed continuously on the sound.
IV:Sit again on your favourite Asana. Close your eyes. Close the ears with your thumbs or plug the ears with wax or cotton. Try to hear the Anahata sounds (mystic sounds). You will hear various kinds of sounds such as flute, violin, kettledrum, thunder-storm, conch, bells, the humming of a bee, etc. Try to hear the gross sounds first. Hear only one kind of sound. If the mind runs, you can shift it from gross to subtle, or from subtle to gross. Generally you will hear sounds in your right ear. Occasionally you may hear in your left ear also. But try to stick to the sound of one ear. You will get one-pointedness of mind. This is an easy way to capture the mind, because it is enchanted by the sweet sound just as a snake is hypnotised by the note of the snake-charmer.
Keep a candle-flame in front of you and try to concentrate on the flame. When you are tired of doing this, close your eyes and try to visualise the flame. Do it for half a minute and increase the time to five or ten minutes according to your taste, temperament and capacity. You will see Rishis and Devatas, when you enter into deep concentration.
VI:In a lying posture, concentrate on the moon. Whenever the mind runs, again and again bring it back to the image of the moon. This exercise is very beneficial in the case of some persons having an emotional temperament.
VII:In the above manner, you can concentrate on any star you may single out from the millions of stars, shining above your head.
VIII:Sit by the side of a river where you can hear a roaring sound like OM. Concentrate on that sound as long as you like. This is very thrilling and inspiring.
IX:Lie on your bed in the open air and concentrate upon the blue expansive sky above. Your mind will expand immediately. You will be elevated. The blue sky will remind you of the infinite nature of the Self.
Sit in a comfortable posture and concentrate on any one of the numerous abstract virtues such as mercy. Dwell upon this virtue as long as you can.
