"Arjuna's Focus"

Swami Hariharananda -Shambhavi Mudra

Baba Hariharananda often told the story about Arjuna's archery lesson.

The Five Pandava brothers were with their archery teacher Dronacharya.

The teacher ask the first brother what do you see?

'I see a tree in the field, with a bird.'

The second brother said 'I see a bird sitting in a tree.'

The third brother, 'I see a bird sitting on a tree limb.'

The fourth brother, 'I see a bird.'

Last was Arjuna, who was known as the finest archer in the Mahabharata.

'I see the eye of the bird, the exact spot where my arrow will hit.'

Baba taught, it takes this kind of deep concentration and focus for Kriya Yoga practice.

He would often remind students, "100% in the Fontanel, single minded, pinpointed in the atom point, finest attention, every moment in God consciousness."

Patanjali use the word "tapas" meaning intense study.

Many people today have "ADD" or "attention deficit disorder". 

They are having a hard time  keeping the mind focused and are losing the ability to concentrate on one thing at a time. 

We are constantly changing the TV channels, swiping left and right on the cell phone, clicking thru webpages and video games. 

Many are even practicing "mindfulness meditation," but are having extreme difficulty with quieting the mind.

Their mind is like "popcorn", constantly popping one thought after another.

Don Baba with Baba in Suttengasse, Vienna

When I first starting practicing Kriya Yoga, my mind was very active and even more so when I was sitting in the class with Baba. 

I would be upset because my mind was even more active when I was with him and was trying to concentrate. 

It seems that the more I tried to be still, the more active it would be.

At times Baba would be physically hitting me on the top of my head, saying "concentrate, concentrate on the fontanel". 

Baba would often 'knock on students fontanel" to really emphasis this technique of concentrating 100% on the fontanel. 

Sometimes in the back of the room you would hear it and never forget it, certainly the student he was focusing on at the time, would never forget it"

What I started to experience, in Kriya Yoga meditation, is that the more I would concentrate on the "sound, light and vibration" in the fontanel, the more I would become deeply absorbed on those qualities and my mind would become calm. 

Don Baba with Gurudev at Homestead ashram

A favorite experience of mine with Baba, was once when I picked him up in my car at Felix's Kips Bay apartment, on Second Avenue in New York City, to take him to the meditation class. 

When I turned onto Fifth Avenue at 34th street, to go straight downtown to Chuck's Gallery in Soho, Baba is telling me to concentrate in the Fontanel. 

We were running a little late and Baba is sitting in the passenger seat next to me, knocking on top of my head at the fontanel, telling me to "concentrate, concentrate."

As I am driving and staying concentrated in the fontanel, every single traffic light has turned green and we proceeded quickly down Fifth Ave.

At one point, I became excited about what was happening, and my attention came down off the Fontanel and immediately the traffic light turned Red. 

Baba is knocking on my head telling me, "I told you to concentrate, don't come down, stay focused in the fontanel", as we shared a laugh together at the red-light.