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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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PRACTICAL LESSONS IN YOGA
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.
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