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The first sutra of the Vibhūti Pāda, Maharishi Patanjali's Yoga Darshana, Patanjali Yoga Sutra is a definition of concentration, the definition of the Dhāraṇā. The sutra is
दे॒शबन्धश्चित्तस्य॑ धार॒णा ॥ ३.१॥
Deśa Bandhaḥ Cittasya Dhāraṇā
Deśa is a place, space, a spot, Bandha is confining, tied up, fixed, Citta is the Citta, not the mind and then Dhāraṇā. Dhāraṇā in general for normal understanding in English is generally translated as concentration. Let us follow that translation. So the definition of concentration, this is the sutra. Deśa Bandhaḥ Cittasya Dhāraṇā. The mind, the Citta is confined to a specific space, confining the mind to a specific spot and that means a lot. The tendency of the mind, the Citta is wavering, moving. But in Dhāraṇā that is removed. It is not allowed to move. It is not allowed to deviate. It is not allowed to change. It is not allowed to flicker. And this not allowing it to flicker, this ability not to allow it to flicker, that capacity to hold on, which we have seen in the second chapter, Yogyatā, that ability and capacity not to allow the Citta to flicker, to waver, to change from one to the other, from one thought to the other thought, from one object to the other object, from one idea to the other idea. There is no more second idea. There is only one idea, one object, one thought. And that ability to fix it on the one, and not allowing it to take a jump, not allowing it to move freely, and that is Dhāraṇā, wonderfully. For normal understanding, just for example. Let us visualize, have an example, that a cow is tied with a rope to a tree. A cow tied with a rope to a tree. Now the cow has a freedom, but the freedom is restricted. The freedom is restricted to the length of the rope. But the rope is tied to a tree or a post or a pole. So the cow is always tied to the post. It cannot free away. It cannot move away. It cannot fly away. It is always connected. But with that connection it keeps on moving around within the space of the post. And that is Deśa. And that is the Bandha. If we take cow as a Citta, it is only for an example to understand it, an imagery. So Deśa is a spot, a place, an imagery or a field in the mind of an object, of a thought. But the mind is moving. Say for example, if Shiva is an object of meditation or an object on which Citta has to be concentrated, Dhāraṇā has to be done. So the Citta is tied with Shiva. Means what? There is an object called Shiva. There is an object called a rose flower. There is an object called a lotus flower. The mind is moving or the mind is filled with ideas connected only with that object, only with that object, only with the qualities of the object. It is bound by that. Though the mind is moving, though the mind is active, but its activity is bound. Its activity is limited. Its activity is confined. Like a water flowing in a river or a water flowing in a canal. Water is flowing, there is a movement, but it is bound by the two edges of the canal. And the mind flowing about one particular object in the thought and the idea, that is Dhāraṇā. A definite circle, whose radius is the length of the chain and the center is the post, that is how it is moving. And this is what is meant by the Deśa Bandha. Binding or confining the region of the movement of the Citta, limiting the conceptual sphere, Deśa, of Citta's movement. It is a very very important dimension to understand what is Dhāraṇā. And we have already seen in the first chapter, the 42nd and the 43rd Sutras under this particular dimension about the Savitarka Samāpatti, that the mind will be moving or the ideas, the qualities and the thinking is confined to a particular object, a particular subject, a particular thought. It can be an object, it can be a subject, or it can be a fear. But the Citta, the activity of the mind is confined, not beyond it.
So the main work in Dhāraṇā consists in keeping the mind continuously engaged in the consideration of the object and to bring it back immediately as soon as the connection is broken. Means, suppose the object of concentration is say Omkāra or say Rāma and the whole mind is engaged, the space of the mind is filled with the thought of Rāma and all the qualities of the Rāma, all the events connected in the life of the Rāma, all the various ideas, thoughts, knowledge of the ideas of the Rāma. But whenever the mind gets deviated from it, we say it is deviation as we say normally because we recognize later on after some time that oh my object of concentration was Rāma but I am somewhere else, some other thoughts are there. This recognizing, realizing that my mind has been jumped from the fixed object to somewhere else, but the passage was not known, passage was not aware. But when we came to know that it has been jumped, bringing it back to the fixed object, taking it back to the object of concentration, retracing back and this is the practice of Dhāraṇā, to bring it back immediately as soon as the connection is broken. And if the mind, if you are so aware, so alert that the change does not happen at all, the moment it happens you are back into the object of concentration. And this objective which the Sādhakas should place before himself is to reduce progressively the frequency of such interruptions and eliminate them completely. Ultimately there can be transitions, there can be changes, jumps, but how many times it is happening, the frequency is reduced. But it is not only the elimination of interruptions, elimination of transitions which has to be aimed, but completely focusing the mind on the object and that is importantly termed as, is known as Dhāraṇā it is. All of us know that it is very completely, it is totally internal. Nothing helps from outside. It is I am handling my own mind. Except we and our mind nothing else is available there. And that mind is handled with the other side of the mind and that is the Dhāraṇā. Deśa Bandhaḥ Cittasya Dhāraṇā — confined activity of the mind to one particular spot, point, object and not allowing it to deviate from that and that is the Dhāraṇā, the first step of the Antaraṅga Yoga.
Let us see further.
Om Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः||
These are transcription of session delivered by Vice-President of Vivekananda Rock Memorial & Vivekananda Kendra, Sri M. Hanumantha Rao Ji.
Audio Link - https://youtu.be/qiottNx-9bM?si=4uDicQoP7XAbFp1o
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मुक्तसंग्ङोऽनहंवादी धृत्युत्साहसमन्वित:।
सिद्धयसिद्धयोर्निर्विकार: कर्ता सात्त्विक उच्यते ॥१८.२६॥
Freed from attachment, non-egoistic, endowed with courage and enthusiasm and unperturbed by success or failure, the worker is known as a pure (Sattvika) one. Four outstanding and essential qualities of a worker. - Bhagwad Gita : XVIII-26
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