Concentration
Prof. Dr. Umesh Chandra Patra
It is essential for us to cognise the distinctiveness that characterises a human being. In order to acquire these qualities, we have to develop concentration, a spirit of sacrifice and faith in God. The wisdom, thus attained, shines like the sun. In our state of ignorance, however, the illumination of the wisdom is covered by the cloud of selfishness. So long as man is not able to push away the clouds of selfishness, he cannot look at the sun of wisdom.
The tree which radiates cool shade does not even think of the benefit it imparts upon the travellers. On the other hand, when man thinks of his body, he thinks of his wealth, his family, his belongings, his wife and his children and gets attached to these belongings. We must make an enquiry and find out who the “I” is when an individual says, “this is my house, this is my money, this is my father” and “this is my body.” We should find out who the individual is who is making such a claim. We should find out whether it is the body which is claiming all these things or whether it is “I” the self, residing in that body which is claiming all these things. If it is the body which is claiming these things, then what is the meaning of saying, “this is my body”. So the body is not he and it is separated from him. The body by itself is lifeless. The life in him is what is claiming all these things.
Everything that we see and experience in this material world must be regarded as vritthi or some kind of work. Even listening to someone is also a process and may be called a vritthi. But listening to God’s name or uttering God’s name for producing sacred sounds, will not be called a worldly occupation.
How do we practice this meditation and what is its inner meaning? We have to develop faith in the various paths that lead to meditation. Then only is it possible to reach the object of meditation or understand the purpose of meditation. The word dhyana is being interpreted by many people in many different ways. They are also prescribing different kinds of meditation and causing some amount of confusion in the minds of aspirants.
The process and significance of dhyana these days is being misinterpreted and is being equated with concentration or single-mindedness. For acquiring concentration, we do not have to meditate. In fact we are concentrating all the time. If we have to walk on the road, we have to watch for the traffic and we have to note if there are any obstacles or pits or snakes or scorpions. Similarly, when we drive a car, an enormous amount of concentration is required. Therefore, this kind of concentration with which we are familiar in everyday life cannot be called dhyana or meditation.
To have the divine as our objective, to rise above our senses and keep our mind well above our sensory organs will be called meditation. Meditation is thus superior to our sensory organs and concentration is subservient to our sensory organs. We will take this flower and offer it to God. After we have offered the flower to God, the tree, the branches, our hand and even the flower do not exist at all. This offering, where others have disappeared and God alone exists, is called meditation.
Our life is like a rose plant. All our relationships are branches in this rose plant. Our qualities or gunas are the leaves and our attachments and desires constitute the thorns. Our prema is the flower of the plant. The exercise of keeping the flower of our prema away from the thorns of attachments and the branches of relationships is contemplation.
We should consider our intellect as a mirror and try to keep it clean. The true nature of ourself as a man can be seen only in the mirror of our intellect. It is only when we regard this entire world as our own house and regard everything in our house as our own that we can give a shape to our prema so as to make it an expanding prema.
There are three types of sadhanas. The first type is a sadhana which the monkeys practise and is called the Markata sadhana. The second is called Vihanga sadhana and is typical of sadhana practised by birds. The third is called the Pipeelika sadhana or the sadhana practised by the ants. So far as the monkey is concerned, it goes to a tree, plucks a fruit but does not eat it then and there. It then jumps from one branch to another. In this process it loses this fruit altogether! This is a kind of sadhana where we want quick results. We want to see God quickly and in this process we go on changing the objective of our sadhana every day and change from place to place like a monkey. The second kind of sadhana can be compared with the behaviour of a bird. A bird swoops down on a fruit and hits it so sharply that the fruit drops on the ground. In the process. the bird loses its objective. The third type of sadhana is typical of what an ant does and is called pipeelika sadhana. As is well known, an ant breaks up all items it wants to eat, into very small bits, carries each bit slowly and steadily and brings them to its own location. It is always successful in acquiring its food. Even in sadhana, we have to be slow and steady, and that will enable we to attain our objective. Just as these ants cut their food into small pieces, bring them back home and eat them at leisure and fearlessly, so also we must not swerve from our path, we must keep the object in our mind and we should not let our vision flutter. Thus, for our spiritual progress we should maintain discipline and keep the mind under control. We should do everything in the name of God.
(The writer HOD-cum-Prof., Hepatology Deptt., SCBM, Cuttack).
