| The second step in Raja Yoga is what is known as Dharana, or Concentration.This is a most wonderful idea in the direction of focusing the mental forces, andmay be cultivated to an almost incredible degree, but all this requires work, time,and patience. But the student will be well repaid for it. Concentration consists inthe mind focusing upon a certain subject, or object, and being held there for atime. This, at first thought seems very easy, but a little practice will show howdifficult it is to firmly fix the attention and hold it there. It will have a tendency towaver, and move to some other object or subject, and much practice will beneeded in order to hold it at the desired point. But practice will accomplishwonders, as one may see by observing people who have acquired this faculty,and who use it in their everyday life. But the following point should beremembered. Many persons have acquired the faculty of concentrating theirattention, but have allowed it to become almost involuntary, and they become aslave to it, forgetting themselves and everything else, and often neglectingnecessary affairs. This is the ignorant way of concentrating, and those addictedto it become slaves to their habits, instead of masters of their minds. Theybecome daydreamers,and absentmindedpeople, instead of Masters. They areto be pitied as much as those who cannot concentrate at all. The secret is in amastery of the mind. The Yogis can concentrate at will, and completely burythemselves in the subject before them, and extract from it every item of interest,and can then pass the mind from the thing at will, the same control being used inboth cases. They do not allow fits of abstraction, or "absentmindedness"tocome upon them, nor are they daydreamers.On the contrary they are very wideawake individuals; close observers; clear thinkers; correct reasoners. They aremasters of their minds, not slaves to their moods. The ignorant concentratorburies himself in the object or subject, and allows it to master and absorb himself,while the trained Yogi thinker asserts the "I," and then directs his mind toconcentrate upon the subject or object, keeping it well under control and in viewall the time. Do you see the difference? Then heed the lesson. |
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