The Effect of Dharana or Concentrating the Mind : 1.

Part-1.


At the very commencement of the Vibhuti Pada of this great work, the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali introduces us directly to the quintessential essence of the practice of yoga. In comparison with this attitude which is adopted in the Vibhuti Pada in such right earnest, everything that has been said and explained in the Sadhana Pada should be regarded as preparatory. In fact, this is exactly what the author feels. When we come to the point of concentration of mind, which is the subject with which the Vibhuti Pada begins, we are face to face with a tremendous atmosphere. It looks, as it were, that everything is up in arms against us, and every atom of creation becomes aware of our existence. What actually happens, and what one has to encounter at the time when one is ready for the concentration of the mind according to the techniques prescribed in yoga, is not clear to many people. This is because we have the commonplace notion of the concentration of the mind, such as the type that we have when we are solving a mathematical problem, or building a bridge across a river, or thinking deeply about some issue, and so on. These are types of concentration which are different from the type that we are concerned with in yoga. It is not a particular point in an isolated capacity that we are trying to think in concentration, while this appears to be the case ordinarily in the workaday world.


What actually happens in yogic concentration is that we exert a pressure at a particular point, which immediately communicates a message to everything else with which it is connected. This is very important, a feature which distinguishes yogic concentration from every other type of concentration. It is something like encountering a ringleader directly. When he is faced openly, we can imagine what he will do. He will immediately send a message to all his cronies that he is caught. There are ways and means of doing this, which is a subtle secret of nature. The activity of natural forces is different from the activity that we are accustomed to in the workaday world. Communications do not require any kind of physical medium in the case of the working of natural forces. There is no need for an electric wire or cable, or any such conceivable material medium. A reverberation of forces is automatically created on account of a disturbance felt at a particular point in space. Any pressure intensely felt at the bowels of the ocean will be communicated to the entire ocean. The manner in which it is done, the ocean only knows. We may say, in a sense, that this world is like a reverberating chamber where everything echoes in every corner, and not even the sound of a pin dropping can go unheard. Not only that, sometimes it seems that this pin-drop sound gets magnified in certain corners according to the circumstances of the case; and forces are alerted immediately to do the needful on account of this disturbance that has been created.

Swami Krishnananda

To be continued  ...