Concentration & freedom - The Indian Way

''The difference between an ordinary person & a great person lies in the degree of concentration.''

All kinds of information & wisdom that we have, either of the external or internal world, is accumulated through only one process, by the focus of the mind. No knowledge can be had of any science unless we can concentrate our minds upon the subject. The writer concentrates his/her mind through his thoughts, the footballer concentrates his mind through the ball, the astronomer concentrates his mind through his telescope & so on. If you want to study your  mind, it'll be the same process. You will have to concentrate your mind and turn it back upon itself. The difference in this world between mind and mind is simply the fact of concentration. One, more concentrated than the other, gets more knowledge.

In the lives of all great men, past & present, we find this tremendous power of concentration. Those are men of genius, you say. The science of Yoga tells us that we are all geniuses if we try hard to be. Some will come into this life better fitted and will do it quicker perhaps. We can all do the same. The same power is in everyone. Scriptures have laid down certain rules for that.

Concentration, of course, comes from various sources. Through the senses you can get concentration. Some get concentrated by lying upon beds of spikes, sharp pebbles. These are extraordinary cases using the most unscientific procedure. Scientific procedure is gradually training the mind. One gets concentrated by holding this arm up. Torture gives him the concentration he wants. But all these are extraordinary. Universal methods have been organized according to different philosophers. Some say the state we want to attain is super-consciousness of the mind, going beyond the limitations the body has made for us. The value of ethics to the yogi lies in that it makes the mind pure. 

The purer the mind, the easier it is to control it. The mind takes every thought of that mind, the more difficult it is to control it. The immoral man will never be able to concentrate his mind to study psychology. He may get a little control as he begins, get a little power of hearing, and even those powers will go from him. The difficulty is that if you study closely, you see how the extraordinary power arrived at was not attained by regular scientific training. The men who attain any extraordinary powers will in the long run succumb to those powers. There are millions who receive power through all sorts of ways in this world. The vast majority of them die raving lunatics. Quite a number commit suicide, the mind being unbalanced.

Spiritually evaporates when they say, '' This is right, and that is wrong. '' All quarrels are with forms and creeds never in the spirit. The Buddhist offered for years glorious preaching, gradually, the spirituality evaporated, similarly with Christianity. And then began the quarrel whether it is three gods in one or one in three, when nobody wants to go to God Himself and know whether he is three in one or one in three. Now, with this explanation, the posture. Trying to control the mind, a certain posture is necessary. Any posture in which the person can sit easily, that is the posture for that person. As a rule, you will find that the spinal column must be left free. It is not intended to bear the weight of the body. The only thing to remember in which the spine is perfectly free of the weight of the body. The only thing to remember in the sitting posture: use any posture in which the spine is perfectly free of the weight of the body.

Next, Pranayama or the control over breath. A great deal of stress is laid upon breathing. What I am telling you is not something gleaned from some sect in India. It is universally true. Just as in this country you teach your children and give them certain facts etc. Children are not taught any religion in any country except one or two prayers. Then they begin to seek somebody with whom they can get help . They go to different persons and find that "This man is the man for me", and get initiated. If I am married, my wife may possibly get another man teacher & my son will get somebody else, and that is always my secret between me and my teacher.

Next comes Dharana, that is holding the mind in certain spots. First concentrate it and hold it at a certain place, usually at certain parts of the body along the spinal column or upon the nerve centers. By holding the mind at the nerve centers, the yogi gets power over the body. The body is the great cause of disturbance to his peace, is opposite of his highest ideal, so we want control to keep the body as a servant. Then comes meditation. That is the highest state, when the mind is doubtful that is not it's great state. It's great state is meditation. It looks upon things and sees things, not identifying itself with anything else. As long as I feel pain, I have identified myself with the body. When I feel joy or pleasure, I have identified myself with the body. But the high state will look with the same pleasure or blissfulness upon pleasure or upon pain. Every meditation is direct super-consciousness.

In perfect concentration the soul becomes actually free from the bonds of the gross body and knows itself as it is. Whatever one wants, that comes to him. Power and knowledge are already there. The soul identifies itself with that which is powerless matter and thus weeps. It identifies itself with mortal shapes. But if that free soul wants to exercise any power, it will have it. If it does not, it does not come. He who has known God has become God. There is nothing impossible to such a free soul. No more birth and death for him. He is free forever.