November 2021
Editorial
The Vedanta Kesari
10
T
Attention
he value of our life is generally evaluated by our wealth, achievements, health, people in our lives, etc. But Swami Vivekananda tells us that the only value of life is in the striving to achieve a high ideal. What this ideal can be, depends upon our capacity. It can be the highest ideal of Self-realisation / God-realisation, or any of the other innumerable intermediary ideals. Whichever be the ideal, one factor that determines success is the power of our attention.
Once, Sukadeva approached King Janaka seeking spiritual knowledge. Before accepting him, Janaka asked him to undergo a test. He placed on Sukadeva’s palm a lighted oil lamp filled to the brim. Then he asked him to walk through every room in the palace, observe all the details and report them to him on return. And in doing all this, he was to take care not to spill a single drop of oil and also keep the lamp burning! The significance of the test is that while going through the different experiences and challenges of samsara, and striving to perfectly discharge his duties, a sadhaka should keep his attention focused on the lamp of God burning in his heart.
Attention is a faculty of mind which like a searchlight reveals whatever it is focused upon. Our mind takes the shape of the object that is in the field of our attention and thus experiences it. Attention is called concentration when it is focused continuously on an idea or a thing for a stretch of time. Ordinarily, our attention is repeatedly captured by our vishaya samskaras and the body, and tossed around. The challenge
is to disengage attention from such distractions and focus it on the task at hand.
By doing whatever we do with full attention, we gradually gain the strength to accomplish our worldly tasks with just a small part our attention, and keep the rest focused on God. Swami Brahmananda’s advice to sadhakas was: “Keep at least three-fourths of your mind in God. It is enough if you give one-fourth to service.” Discharging our duties thus, our mind becomes pure and then the world instead of being an obstacle, becomes the ‘house of God’ and every least thing in it reminds us of God. Once, when Guru Nanak worked as the government storekeeper, he was measuring out grain: ‘one, two, three….’ But when he came to ‘thirteen’ he could not count further and just went on repeating ‘thirteen’ or ‘tera, tera, tera’. ‘Tera’ also means ‘Thine’. So the word ‘tera’ filled his mind with the thought ‘Not I and mine, O Lord, but Thee and Thine’, and he became absorbed in that idea. Guru Nanak, whose jayanti is celebrated this month, repeatedly reminded his followers about the importance of surti, or attention / conscious awareness. We know that Swami Vivekananda exhorted us to “pay as much attention to the means as to the end.” It will do us good if we begin by paying attention to the importance of ‘attention’ itself. Let us, just as a mother checks on her child, once in a while check where our attention is flowing. This Deepavali may the Lord help us to turn our attention within, and may we with the oil of love keep His light shining bright in our heart.
