Swami Vivekananda on Concentration

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CONCENTRATION (Delivered at the Washington Hall, San Francisco, on March

16,1900), Volume 4, Lectures and Discourses

 

Concentration, of course, comes from various sources. Through the senses you can

get concentration. Some get it when they hear beautiful music, others when they

see beautiful scenery. ... Some get concentrated by lying upon beds of spikes,

sharp iron spikes, others by sitting upon sharp pebbles. These are extraordinary

cases [using] most unscientific procedure. Scientific procedure is gradually

training the mind.

 

One gets concentrated by holding his arm up. Torture gives him the

concentration he wants. But all these are extraordinary.

 

My old master used to say, " When the lotus of the heart has bloomed, the bees

will come by themselves. " Men like that are there yet. They need not talk. ...

When the man is perfect from his heart, without a thought of hatred, all animals

will give up their hatred [before him]. So with purity. These are necessary for

our dealings with our fellow beings. We must love all. ... We have no business

to look at the faults of others: it does no good We must not even think of them.

Our business is with the good. We are not here to deal with faults. Our business

is to be good.

 

External purity is very easy and all the world rushes towards [it]. If a certain

kind of dress is the kind of morality [to be observed], any fool can do that.

When it is grappling with the mind itself, it is hard work.

 

The people who do external, superficial things are so self-righteous! I

remember, when I was a boy I had great regard for the character of Jesus Christ.

[Then I read about the wedding feast in the Bible.] I closed the book and said,

" He ate meat and drank wine! He cannot be a good man. "

 

We are always losing sight of the real meaning of things. The little eating and

dress! Every fool can see that. Who sees that which is beyond? It is culture of

the heart that we want. ... One mass of people in India we see bathing twenty

times a day sometimes, making themselves very pure. And they do not touch

anyone. ... The coarse facts, the external things! [if by bathing one could be

pure,] fish are the purest beings.

 

Bathing, and dress, and food regulation — all these have their proper value when

they are complementary to the spiritual. ....That first, and these all help. But

without it, no amount of eating grass... is any good at all. They are helps if

properly understood. But improperly understood, they are derogatory. ...

 

Another thing: ... [spirituality] 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, this 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 what He is. We have to go to God Himself to 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 the sitting posture: [use] any posture in which

the spine is perfectly free of the weight of the body.

 

Next [Prânâyâma] ... the breathing exercises. 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 certain prayers, [in India] they get the children and give them certain

facts etc.

 

Next comes Dhâranâ [concentration]. ... Dharana is holding the mind in

certain spots.

 

The Hindu boy or girl ... gets initiation. He gets from his Guru a word. This is

called the root word. This word is given to the Guru [by his Guru], and he gives

it to his disciple. One such word is OM. All these symbols have a great deal of

meaning, and they hold it secret, never write it. They must receive it through

the ear — not through writing — from the teacher, and then hold it as God

himself. Then they meditate on the word. ...

 

Then comes meditation. That is the highest state. ... When [the mind] is

doubtful that is not its great state. Its 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 superconsciousness. 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 for ever.

 

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Om namo Bhagavate Sri Ramanaya

Prashant Jalasutram