24/11/2012
Pic: Cute GOLDEN Laddu Gopal with a wonderful dressing! Wow.
I am unable to control senses. I am unable to meditate. I am unable to concentrate in studies. What to do?
COUNSELLING:
“Kirti Nagpal” asked like this:
“Sir, i am a regular readr of ur articles bt i dnt comment due to some reasons... I m a student, preparing for competitive exams away from hme.... I wannna to increase mae concentration... Earlier i used to meditate bt left for 1-2 yrs...affectng my concentration... Nw i dnt feel lyk meditating.... I waanna to bt i am nt able to.... Pls pls help me bcz i wanna to buck up in my studies.... Also i am nt able to control mae senses..... Pls help me....Thanx”
REPLY:
There should be no reason to avoid commenting for you, as these articles are written sacreficing lots of our valuable time (about 1-2 hours) and attention with a purpose of manipulating technologies to guide today’s youth in a right direction of Self Realisation and Krishna Consciousness as advised by Srila Prabhupada.
FIRST: Your failure in meditation. If you meditate thinking of some empty Soonya space, you can not enhance yr concentration. Because, everyone of us will naturally have dusts in our consciousness. If you like to clear the dust you need a powerful cleaner, not any empty soonya. So, target Krishna who is such a powerful cleaner of material dusts. So, give up such untargetted meditational practices. If you like to meditate, chant Hare Krishna SINGLE MINDEDLY. This is the TARGETTED MEDITATION targetting the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. So, Chanting Hare Krishna will definitely help you to clear your anarthas and thereby purify your consciousness. When your consciousnesss is purified, you will not have any distortions in mind and hence you will be able to concentrate well in studies.
NEXT: You are unable to control your senses. No one can control his/ her senses through artificial or material means. Because, if you MATERIALLY CONTROL YOUR SENSES, they will explode in a big offence one day. So, do not fight for controlling yr senses materially. Instead regulate your senses in a particular direction. In which direction?
Involve all yr senses in the service of Krishna.
How can one involve all his senses in the service of Krishna?
1. Eyes can be used to see the deities of Krishna and read about Him and to have a darshan of great vaishnavas.
2. Ears can be used to hear the glories about Krishna and kirtans on Him.
3. Tongue can be used to taste Krishna Prasadam alone and to convey and sing the glories of Krishna.
4. Ge****ls can be used to get good children and cultivate them as devotees of Lord Krishna. Thus, you can divert your agitating senses towards Krishna and hence bring them under control. You need not try hard to control them artificially. For example, if you get agitated on seeing opposite s*x, marry a devotee boy and continue your saadhanas while keeping your senses under the control with the help of your husband. When you get a child, you must make him a devotee; Otherwise, it is not a service to Lord and misuse of the ashram of marriage.
NEXT: IMPROVING CONCENTRATION IN STUDIES:
I have already given a detailed reply to such a question in near past. However, I have reproduced some parts of it here with some new additions:
Consider an young boy. If his mother asks him to buy and bring some vegetables from market, hewill say: “Don’t disturb me maa. You go yourself”. Whereas, if he gets married and his new wife asks him the she is having head ache, he will run to the medical shop to buy some tablets even before she asks for a tablet.
Why??
Because, he considers his new wife as very important and she is giving something special in his life.
If his father advices him, he will not hear. But, if his favourite cine star gives some advice in media, it attracts him. Why? Because, that star is special for him.
So, Only when you give importance for some thing, that will cause an impact in your mind.
Similarly, if you consider your text books also as very important and special in life that will give something special such as all comforts in life, you will start to give importance for your studies and hence those text books will create deep impacts in mind.
The following realisations will help you to do well in studies and concentration:
1. If you utilise these ten years in learning and developing your skills, your remaining 80 years will be problem free. If you waste these ten years, you have to suffer in the remaining 80 years.
2. Studies are going to shape your standing in the society. Now the world is becoming highly competitive. Only those who can give the best performance can survive in this world. If we give a pause, others will overtake us and will not bother where we have haulted. So, act now.
3. You have to follow repeated revision for improving memory! Thus, if all the important points, formulae, theorems, etc that have to be stored in constant memory, are read in regular intervals, they will get stored in the constant memory. Therefore, read and revise every chapter in regular intervals.
4 You should show SINGLE MINDED concentration in studies to enhance yr memory. If you see the movie of your favourite star, you won’t move even a bit and watch it with ABSOLUTE INTEREST. So, you can remember that every scene of that movie throughout your life. Similarly, if you show the same attention in studies, the contents will not be forgotten by you for
years.
5. Any student can score high IF: (i) he is aware of exam pattern and plan their schedule of preparation accordingly; (ii) he utilises every minute in preparation & practice; (iii) he understands word by word before memorising; (iv) he prepare all the chapters word by word without selective study. ( don’t say “ this is important; that is not”); (v) he revises every chapter again and again; (vi) he practise to the maximum level.
6. If you see the text books as a burden, you won’t get interest to learn. See your text books as ATM Machines that contain lakhs of money. How? Yes, it is true. If you like to earn lakhs of money in future, you have to get suitable qualification. To get suitable qualification, you have to study these books. So, these books are going to give you lakhs of money every month. So, these are not just books. But, future ATM machines.
Now, see your text books. Not as books. As ATM machines. You will automatically get interest to read them.
7. Don’t think of any other things while studying. If you focus your entire attention in the syllabus alone, you can inncrease your learning skill. For example, if you keep a piece of paper in the sun light even for years, it will not burn, because the sunlight is scattered and has lost its power of burning. But, if you focus the same sun light using a lens on that paper, the paper will burn within seconds. Because, the scattered light have been focussed at the same point and hence, the original burning power of the sun is applied on the paper and hence the paper burns into ashes.
Similarly, if you allow your mind to scatter, you lose the power of memory. If you focus your attention on a single point, memory power inccreases.
All the best!
