The Need and Benefit of the Power of Concentration

“By askesis do thou seek to know the Eternal, for concentration in thought is the Eternal.” Thus spoke Varuna to Bhrigu in the Taittiriya Upanishad [Sri Aurobindo’s translation].

Swami Vivekananda’s lectures on Raja Yoga, expounding the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, with an extensive commentary, are a textbook on developing the science of concentration and the benefits of such development. For those who eventually recognise the chaotic and undisciplined state of the mental space, the practice of Raja Yoga can be a tremendous benefit.

It is interesting that we are always seeking new, exotic powers while we overlook the enormous capabilities and potential of the powers we already have, which simply need to be focused, trained and developed. Concentration is perhaps the foremost of these powers and the benefits of concentration can be seen wherever we turn.

If you want to succeed in the world, if you want to excel in science, mathematics, sports, art or music, concentration is essential. What most people do not seem to appreciate is that we not only need to learn how to utilize the power of concentration, but that it can also be trained, enhanced, focused and developed through various methods, practices and repetition.

We tend to live a life of distraction, particularly with all of the forces in the modern world seeking to pull our attention in one direction or another. Our fixation with modern technology certainly has proven to be a major force of distraction. Even when we try to sit for meditation, we find that all kinds of chaotic thoughts, feelings, emotions, sensations are competing for attention in our minds, and for the most part, we wind up jumping from one to another without any clear method of control or focus.

The Mother writes: “… whatever you may want to do in life, one thing is absolutely indispensable and at the basis of everything, the capacity of concentrating the attention. If you are able to gather together the rays of attention and consciousness on one point and can maintain this concentration with a persistent will, nothing can resist it — whatever it may be, from the most material physical development to the highest spiritual one. But this discipline must be followed in a constant and, it may be said, imperturbable way; not that you should always be concentrated on the same thing — that’s not what I mean, I mean learning to concentrate.”

“And materially, for studies, sports, all physical or mental development, it is absolutely indispensable. And the value of an individual is proportionate to the value of his attention.”

“And from the spiritual point of view it is still more important. There is no spiritual obstacle which can resist a penetrating power of concentration. For instance, the discovery of the psychic being, union with the inner Divine, opening to the higher spheres, all can be obtained by an intense and obstinate power of concentration — but one must learn how to do it.”

“There is nothing in the human or even in the superhuman field, to which the power of concentration is not the key.”

“You can be the best athlete, you can be the best student, you can be an artistic, literary or scientific genius, you can be the greatest saint with that faculty. And everyone has in himself a tiny little beginning of it — it is given to everybody, but people do not cultivate it.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Powers Within, Chapter IV Concentration, pp. 38-39