Fixing the Attention

Sahaja Library

The quality of attention changes according to the state of yourcondition. So where is the attention placed in the human being? It is not a fixed point. You can say attention is the surface or the edge of awareness. Wherever we are made aware, the attention gets diverted to that point. If you can find some analogy, all the files of iron have got a power to be attracted towards the magnet. Where is that power, you can not locate it; it is all over. Wherever the magnet is placed the files are attracted. Our attention is also like that. That wherever we are attracted, our attention goes there. It is existing in the whole body, in the sense that it can be diverted anywhere outside the body. Also inside the body, in case if there is any pain or there is any trouble. It floats over the nerves. It floats over the whole nervous system. But there is a controlling center in the brain. If it is hit then we can remain conscious, but without any attention. Also if somebody is hit on the Vishuddhi Chakra, it can happen. It can happen even in the lower chakras if somebody is hit. That portion will lose its attention because you can not feel in that part.

The difference is this, that you can pay attention to those points, if you want to, even if they are numbed. For example, if my hand is numb I can pay attention to that, means I can look at it, I can think of it, but there is a point in our being, if that is hit then we can not even think, we are just lying unconscious they say, but eyes are open, hands are moving, legs are moving. That point is at the point of Vishuddhi Chakra here and if you can draw a line from here to the point where is the peetha of Vishuddhi Chakra is inside, inside the brain; along that line if you are hit anywhere you become attention-less, you cannot pay attention anywhere. This line passes through also Agnya Chakra. Because when this point is connected with Vishuddhi Chakra at the back, then here, and at the peetha inside, a kind of a triangle is formed and all this line, or this area can affect your attention.

Your heart is moving, your limbs are moving but you are not paying attention anywhere. So when you pay attention to something, actually you pay attention, normally – when you are not realized – through your brain centers. After realization, you can pay attention through your other centers also. You do pay. This is a very big difference between a person who is realized and who is not realized. Or you can say that you can become effective through your other centers by paying attention to them. You can feel the centers which are obstructed in your body, which you never felt before. Not only that, but you can feel the centers of other people. That means your central nervous system is being blessed by a new awareness by which it can convey to you, communicate to you, the attention paid by your centers and also it can take your attention in a subtler way into the centers of others.

So first thing that happens to you is that your attention becomes subtler. Attention becoming subtler means you start understanding deeper things. For example, a bird can see a flower but cannot feel the beauty of a flower. And a unrealized person can see the beauty of a flower, but cannot see the vibrations of the flower. So you become subtler; your attention becomes subtler. You definitely are at a higher evolutionary stage than the other people are.

Now we have to see how we use our attention. You have seen even when you were not realized, that supposing you start developing an art in your hand from your very childhood, then you develop the deftness of that particular art, because a kind of a myelin sheath grows on the nerves. In the same way, when you are realized, I would say when you are a newly born person, if you start respecting your attention then gradually you develop a deftness for Sahaja Yoga. But so many people, when they get realized, they hardly come second time. Even if they come second time they do not develop the feeling of vibrations more. They still go on being busy with their day-to-day work, wasting their attention on things which do not give you the subtler feelings. So the subtleness, the deftness of the art of Sahaja does not develop itself. ...

Nothing can be all right unless and until you develop the subtleties of your attention. And, they develop, by receding your attention from all that is gross. Recede your attention whenever it goes too much into any thought like that, “Oh! Forget it.” But into vibrations you pay full attention. Seeing vibrations, you pay full attention; seeing your own vibrations, pay full attention. Other things you need not worry, they will be all looked after. That is how your attention is subtler in the Kingdom of God. The style is different. When the lotus is in the mud and it has to come out. It finds its way through many crevices and many holes in that mud. But when it is out, out in the open, absolutely liberated, free, then it does not go on dashing here and there, but just opens out and receives the beautiful dew. And the dew melts the fragrance in the lotus; automatically the fragrance starts flowing. It’s a different style altogether, its different method; it’s a different way of life – that is being Sahaja. Just whether you are sleeping or you are awake, keep your attention.

H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, Talk to yogis, Bordi, India, 27/1/77