Why do people not pay attention to anything at all. Unless and until you are forced to do that. Just like in the theaters. You have a dark room and the screen is lit up with beautiful pictures, you are completely engrossed in it. You are not aware of anything happening outside the walls.
People call it ADS or attention deficit syndrome. So almost everyone has it. Do you really think you can read this article without your mind wandering all over the place? Never can you just focus on the subject completely.
Even in life we are never there in that moment in time. Either we are reminiscing the past and getting nostalgic or worried, or we are anxious and full of tension about the future. We can never live in the present. Always roaming all over the place. Never in the here and the now.
The attention span of any human being is just a few seconds. If I can tell you something that will keep you focused for even one minute, then I must have really sold you the idea. If you were to stay for still a longer time, then I am a genius.
No one can remember the entire set of movies from the previous year. Even those that you saw last month are forgotten. Hardly a few are retained by your memory. Even those have an ingrained defect. These are never remembered in systematic manner. You will mix up one with another.
So then let’s see what are the things that you can remember and recollect when you are probed? Your mind creates a level of importance to each and every object in nature. When it applies the rules to the said objects, then it remembers in various states. Even if your best friend has been instrumental in getting you a job in a firm, you will only remember how good you were at the interview and how you could answer all the questions perfectly. So all your praises are to your own self and not a word about the one who actually brought you the opportunity.
We only remember the good things about our own self and it is rarely that you will remember the person who gave you the boost. So let me not give you more examples here. You know it very well that you will never pay more attention to anyone or anything, except, of course, for selfish interests.
So what do we do in the spiritual world? We stop taking credit for anything at all. We attribute everything to The Lord. He does everything, we believe so we attribute all to Him. But that is not the real case. Even though we are the physical doers in this world, yet we attribute it to The Lord.
When we take away the credit from our own little self and put it at the feet of The Lord, we are eliminating the karma associated with it. Even though physically performing the acts ourselves, yet not taking credit for it and thanking the Good Lord for it, we throw all the associated karma at The Lord.
Surrendering at the feet of The Lord, we become just a tool in the hands of The Lord. Thereby, doing our material worldly duties perfectly and being a plan of The Lord’s will. We serve His purpose well.
So even if your attention span is just a few seconds and making your mind wander all over, it’s better to surrender the same slippery mind at the feet of The Lord, thereby avoiding sin or karma. That way you will reduce your futuristic accumulation of karma and attain release sooner from the bondage of material life.
I know you were waiting for the solution for your ADH? We call it sadhana or religious practice. Here religious means to be disciplined and follow routines. We use mantra jaap or repetition of the mantra or spiritual word given by your Guru. Numerous repetition bring you back into focus. Doing reading of spiritual texts single-mindedly. Doing meditation at a quiet place. Serving the Guru whole heartedly, without leaving His lotus feet. There are other methods like tratak, etc,. But at this moment what I mentioned are enough. These are some methods of drawing back the wandering mind for a spiritual aspirant. Follow one of them and you can decimate your wandering mind and being and focus back.
Image Courtesy by Rio
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