BED TIME STORY J K SIVAN
The children were playing under the neem tree as Thatha was doing his Sandhya Vandhana japam. He could hear the children talking amidst themselves.
What is Japam? asked Raji.
' talking to god'' replied the 9 year old Bala, but Babu intervened saying ''No. It is concentration to chant the names of god''.
''Why should we concentrate to talk to God or chant His name? asked Meena for which there was no answer from anyone.
Sankar said ''Concentration is what we need to remember anything which is taught to us by the teachers''
''We will ask Thatha to tell us about this'' said Rangu as he was keen in Thatha telling a story for the day.
The children ended their games when Siva Thatha turned up for seating himself under the neem tree on his easy chair. The evening breeze was pleasant and he relaxed himself and answered the questions of the children on various topics.
Bala asked ''Thatha, please tell us what is concentration.?..."
''I am glad Bala you asked me this. It is very important for you all children to know that Concentration is the ability to direct your full attention to what ever you want to tell, do and observe without any diversion. Your mind should be strong to do this. It means the power of control of your attention on the object, target and the ability to focus your mind on one subject, object or thought. To explain further, it means, your ability to remove all other thoughts which may distract your attention. This is concentration to do one thing at a time with focussed attention. Mind control is very important for this.
Is it possible and will it help? Can you tell a story about this ? asked Rangu who was keen to have a story for the day from Thatha as told earlier.
Rangu you are an ardent lover of stories and I will tell you now a story about concentration. Some of you might have already heard this story. It is from Maha Bharatham.
One of the five Pandavas , Arjuna was well known and reputed for his archery skill. His excellent battle adventures and successful warfare because of his mastery of archery is still a legend. His Guru (teacher) was Dronacharya, the expert in martial arts especially in handlding bow and arrows. He was teaching the yong Pandavas and the 100 Kouravas the warfare. But Duryodhana the eldest of the 100 Kouravas was always blaming the Acharya, the Guru that he was favouring Arjuna. Dronacharya knew Arjuna was a gifted student and naturally appreciated him. Dronacharya once wanted to convince Duryodhana that Arjuna was exceptioal and was appreciated because of his skill and efforts.
He planned accordingly ad took all the 100 Kouravas and 5 Pandavas one morning to a forest.
In front of every on Dronacharya placed a wooden parrot brought by him on the top branch of a tall tree in the woods.
He called all the 105 students and said He will ask everyone to aim an arrow which should strike the eye of the wooden parrot on the top branch of the tall tree. Drona told them it was a test for them to show their skill learnt from him. All the 105 students were ready for the test and stood in a line. Drona placed a bow and arrow before them. Every student will be given a single chance only to use the bow and arrow and must shoot the parrot on the eye..
Dronacharya called Yudhishtra first, and showing the wooden parrot on the tree, asked him '' What do you see there?''
Yudhishthir replied, "I see a wooden bird, the branch and the tree, the leaves moving and other birds."
Dronacharya asked everyone the same question and most of them replied similar to what Yudhishtra replied. Dronacharya asked them to go and sit leaving the bow and arrow.
When it came to Arjuna's turn the Acharya asked him the same question.
"Arjuna, do you see the top of the tree ?
""no''
''any of the branch there?''
''no''
''The bird seated there?''
''no''
''the bird's eye?
''yes''I can see only the eye of the bird."
Dronacharya smiled for he had been proven right. Everyone else had set their eyes on everything but Arjuna had set his eyes on his goal, the eye of the bird. He was then allowed to use the bow and an arrow only once. He shot up the the arrow, straight at the eye of the wooden parrot and brought it down.
Dear children, Arjuna's reply is reflective of his abilities to focus his attention to focus completely on the target his Concentration being 100% on the object he was aiming to hit. He alone out of the 105 was able to control his mind to concentrate on his goal without any distraction.
While others failed to separate their goal from the distractions in their path, Arjuna was able to ignore everything else and have his eyes only on the prize. In life, there are so many irrelevant things that consume our energy on a day-to-day basis. We should always put the chaos aside and concentrate on things that matter. concentration greatly helps to grasp and act rightly on anything handled and attended, and achieve the goal. Will power without distraction brings determination followed by success.
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