PURAN CHAND SHARMA
Man being a special creation of GOD has been blessed with multiple types of faculties coupled with tremendous power to improve and gain required competence and capability to reign supreme in this mortal world. But it is not a cake walk for one and all as it requires constant hard work, single minded devotion and uninterrupted penance. Leaving aside spiritual domain, Power of concentration is substantially significant and essential for achieving and relishing success in life. The worldly man whose mind is comparatively more focussed and concentrated, is found to be making a better use of his skills and wisdom in his journey of life and lives a successful and purposeful life in this transitory world. However, Sometimes such people are considered to be misfits and unsuccessful in life. However, all human beings across the globe do possess this power or divine faculty. It is our hidden treasure lying untapped inside and requires mental awareness plus alertness to make the best use of this phenomenal power. In fact it is a fundamental skill that augments mental clarity, productivity and personal growth, by training the mind to maintain attention without distraction, individuals can achieve greater success in various aspects of life.
SIGNIFICANT BENEFITS OF CONCENTRATION
INCREASES PRODUCTIVITY: Focussed attention becomes instrumental in more efficient task completion resulting into reduction of errors and the need for rework.
LEARNING GETS IMPROVED: Concentration helps in better understanding and retention of information plus it also facilitates effective learning.
EMOTIONAL REGULATION: concentrated mind manages emotions more effectively leading to improved mental well- being.
ACHIEVING GOAL: Sustained focus and power of concentration is very crucial for settling and accomplishing the personal and professional goals. A short story from the Epic of Mahabharata would enable us to properly understand the power of concentration which acts as elixir for all our achievements and success in our life:-
DRONACHARYA’S TEST FOR CONCENTRATION
Both the Pandavas and Kauravas were disciples of Guru Dronachaya and learnt at his feet right from the childhood. He taught them varied subjects such as Statecraft, Sciences, Maths, Use of weapons like the Mace, the Bow and Arrow, the spear together with Cooking, Shlokas and many more things. In those times students were required to learn 64 arts to become a cultured person known as ARYA. Even the girl students had to learn all these subjects. That is how in those days we had princes and queens who were quite adept in the art of warfare and statecraft. The valued readers would be happy to know that BHEEM was very expert in cooking. One day DRONACHARYA wanted to test all his disciples for their concentration. He escorted all the Pandavas and the Kauravas to an orchard wherein there were innumerable parrots. There, he asked his students hold their bows and aim at one parrot as target selected by each of them. All the children were eager to please their teacher. They did it without any loss of time and were ready to shoot. Then first of all Guru Dronacharya asked Duryodhan, “What do you see?”Duryodhan said, ” I see the trees, birds and the sky.” Next Dronacharya asked Bheema, “what do you see?” Bheema replied, “I can see the entire flock of birds on the tree.” Then Dronacharya asked Arjuna, “What do you see?” Arjuna, who had pulled string of the bow, with the arrow on mark, said, ” I can see the eye of the parrot.” Dronacharya said, ” only Arjuna’s arrow will hit the mark.” Do you know why I am saying so?” He then explained to them, ” when you have task to achieve, you should concentrate on that task only. Looking at all other things accompanying the task is a distraction and hindrance. We need to focus on the task at hand having full concentration on the work to be accomplished. This is power of concentration which virtually proves to be a pure elixir for success.
EFFECTIVE MEASURES FOR ENHANCING THE CONCENTRATION
REGULAR PRACTICE OF YOGA:- Overall experience of people who practise Yoga regularly depicts that these people are physically, mentally and emotionally very strong with high power of concentration live a healthy, peaceful and purposeful life. Body is our real vehicle for doing all good deeds in the world. This requires proper maintenance and consistent practice of Yog Asanas take care of physical body, In Yoga there are two Asanas especially beneficially for students to increase their concentration 1. SURYANAMASKAR -This is even more useful if done in an open environment facing the Sun 2. TRATAK KRIYA:-In this process a lit candle is kept in front of the practitioner and he has to gaze at the lit candle for at least two minutes. People using spectacles are advised not to do this kriya . Pranayama(Breathing exercises) keep Mental body in perfect order and the Meditation(chanting of Om, mental recitation of Om, watching of breaths followed by watching of thought process strengthens the Emotional health as well as the power of concentration
MULTITASKING: It plays havoc with our concentration, creates confusions and causes distractions as such say no to Multitasking and adopt the principle of ‘one act at a time’ to stay focussed and fully productive.
SETTING CLEAR GOALS: We need to set clear goals which are manageable and achievable for boosting up our power of concentration for achieving the desired goals.
PRIORITIZING TASKS AT HAND: Just by doing our works priority wise, we shall be capable of having the best of concentration for successfully navigating the journey of life.
TAKING PERIODICAL BREAKS: While engaged in long lasting kind of work it will be worthwhile to take 5 minutes of break after short spells of 30 minutes or so, this technique has been tried by top professionals and found it extremely successful.
GETTING ADEQUATE SLEEP: This is also a very significant step for improvement of concentration. 7-8 hours sound sleep is essentially required to maintain cognitive function of the brain which enhances the power of concentration. If one is not vigilant on this score, he would most likely fall into trap of life style diseases such as unmanageable stress, Hypertension and the diabetes which is spreading like wild fire. Ultimately if we falter in this important segment, the end result is chronic sickness and irretrievable loss of power of concentration and failure ,the disappointment instead of blissfulness.