Concentration

Wednesday December 22 2004 08:59 IST

By Karmayogi

When someone is doing a work like writing, we find he does not notice our coming and standing by his side for some time. He may not respond to a few words of ours calling his attention.

Later we are surprised at his surprise when we mention how oblivious he was of our visit. That is concentration. In yoga, concentration is defined as Being dwelling on itself. The index of dwelling on itself is to be oblivious or forgetful of the outside.

At the time of such a concentration, Mind cannot think of the future. Thinking of the future is expectation. Nor can it think of the past, which is the source of worry. We call it brooding over the past.

Withdrawing from the past and future, one concentrates on the Present. That way, the present becomes the Ever Present. Put philosophically, one overcomes Time. Philosophy tells us that Time creates Mind. Yoga is to conquer Time or Mind or both.

Mind thinks, lives in the Idea. It is the surface mind. The life of the surface mind is for us who run a family, a householder. The Spirit is Truth. The Spiritual Truth lies behind the Idea. The Idea is in the Mind, not outside in the external world.

All yoga is an inward activity. It has nothing to do with the mundane, humdrum world outside called the outer objective existence. To us, it is the external as against the internal or Inner. Yoga belongs to the Inner world.

There is an inner world of Thought, a world of Ideas, another inner world of emotions. Behind it lies an inner world of actions. Far behind the inner worlds of idea, emotion, and action lies the inner world of Existence, called Sat in Sanskrit.

The Purusha of Sat is called Sat Purusha.

Yogic concentration demands the yogi withdraw from the world of senses, the external world. This is the first stage of concentration. It means the Mind withdraws from hearing outer sounds, seeing outer sights, etc.

Having withdrawn from the outer world, the Mind is in its own inner world. Mind can see now without opening the eyes. It can hear, smell, touch, taste all by itself. Dhyana becomes a success at this stage. Few householders can reach this state.

As one withdrew from the external consciousness, he must now withdraw from the inner consciousness. The Truth of the Spirit lies in the inner consciousness. The Truth of the one is behind the inner consciousness where the yogi expands inwardly into the consciousness of the Idea.

Then he becomes a Muni. Durvasa was such a Muni. He was able to give Krishna, an Avatar, the boon that his body would be invulnerable to attacks from any weapon. Concentration behind an idea gives power to grant a boon to an Avatar.

This is the tool of Jnana Yoga. Raja yoga is the consummation of Jnana yoga. There are several such yogas.