Concentration Sutra (Patanjali)

DHARANA, CONCENTRATION, IS CONFINING THE MIND
TO THE OBJECT BEING MEDITATED UPON.

The object, the subject, and the beyond -- these three have to be remembered.  You look at me I am the object; the one who is looking at me is the subject. And if you become a little more perceptive, you can see yourself looking at me that is the beyond. You can see yourself looking at me. Just try. I am the object, you are looking at me. You are the subject who is looking at me. You can stand by the side within yourself. You can see that you are looking at me. That is the beyond. First, one has to concentrate on the object. Concentration means narrowing of the mind.

Ordinarily, mind is in a constant traffic -- a thousand and one thoughts go on  moving, like a crowd, a mob. With so many objects, you are confused, split. With  so many objects you are moving in all directions simultaneously. With so many  objects you are always, almost, in a state of insanity, as if you are being pulled  from every direction and everything is incomplete. You go to the left, and  something pulls you to the right; you go to the south, and something pulls you to  the north. You are never going anywhere, just a muddled energy, a whirlpool,  constant turmoil, anxiety.

This is the state of ordinary mind -- so many objects that the subjectivity is almost  covered by them. You cannot have a feel who you are, because you are so much  concerned with so many things you don't have a gap to look into yourself. You  don't have that stillness, that aloneness. You are always in the crowd. You cannot  find a space, a corner, where you can slip into yourself. And the objects continuously asking for attention, every thought asking for attention, forcing  exactly that the attention should be given to it. This is the ordinary state. This is almost insanity

Look deep down. You are in a misery because you have been missing yourself,  you have not yet met yourself. And the first thing to be done is dharana. Too  many objects are there in the mind; the mind is much too overcrowded. Drop  those objects by and by; narrow down your mind; bring it to a point where only  one object remains.

Have you ever concentrated on anything? Concentration means your whole mind is focused on one thing. On a rose flower. You have looked at a rose so  many times, but you have never concentrated on a rose. If you concentrate on a  rose, the rose becomes the whole world. Your mind becomes narrowed down,  focused like a torchlight, and the rose becomes bigger and bigger and bigger. The  rose was one in a million objects, then it was a very small thing. Now it is the all,  the whole.

If you can concentrate on a rose, the rose will reveal qualities that you have never  seen before. It will reveal colors that you have been missing always. It will reveal  to you fragrances that were always there but you were not sensitive enough to  recognize. If you concentrate totally then your nose is only filled with the fragrance of the rose -- all else is excluded, only the rose is included in your  consciousness, is allowed in. Everything excluded, the whole world drops out,  only the rose becomes your world.

Concentration reveals to you things which are not ordinarily revealed.  Ordinarily, you live in a very indifferent, mood. You simply go on living as if  half asleep -- looking, and not looking at all; seeing and not seeing at all; hearing,  and not hearing at all. Concentration brings energy to your eyes. If you look at a  thing with a concentrated mind, everything excluded, suddenly that small thing 

reveals much that was always there waiting.

"Dharana, concentration, is confining the mind to the object being meditated 

upon."