Posted on: 04 Mar 2024
Smt. Ramya asked: When I concentrate on God, worldly matters are disturbing me. How to overcome them and concentrate fully on God?
Swami replied:- The basic reason for concentration is the desire or interest or attraction towards an object and its subject. If the concentration on an object A is disturbed by B, it means that your interest on B is more than your interest on A. You must develop the interest on A and try to decrease the interest on B. By such practice, you will reach a stage of concentration on A overcoming the attraction to B. By this practice, your concentration on A will not be disturbed by B. This will take some time. This advice was given by God Krishna to Arjuna, when Arjuna asked the same above question (abhyāsena tu… Gita).
A mango piece from a pickle jar is full of salt and chillies. It has pungent odor and taste. First, you have to wash the piece with water and this is the decreasing interest on B. Then, you have to put this piece in sugar solution so that after considerable time, the piece will become sweet. Attainment of sweetness is the development of interest on A. Similarly, you have to decrease your participation in worldly affairs to the climax minimum since some worldly duties are unavoidable. You must participate in spiritual actions like reading the spiritual knowledge given by Sadguru and this is developing the interest on A. Every soul is eligible to reach God and everything depends on the basic interest or attraction of the soul. Any soul is eligible to develop a spiritual effort at any time to reach God. You need not underestimate yourself by seeing a devotee of higher level. Once a soul accepts the existence of God, such soul becomes a high soul. The higher and highest states can be achieved in course of time by taking the journey in the spiritual path. Journey means constantly putting up the spiritual effort to gain the full grace of God. Today, you are in the high state. The higher devotee was also in a high state like you yesterday. It is a question of putting constant effort and to have patience since any procedure requires time. Under-confidence doubting the self and self-effort is the biggest hurdle in the progress of your journey either in worldly life or in spiritual life.