The conditions to be fulfilled in the meditator for achieving effective concentration are narrated in these verses in the same order in which they are to be practiced.
Closing all the gates – The sense organs Viz. skin, ear, nose, eyes and the tongue are the five entry points through which the external stimuli reach the mind and cause agitations
in it. To close these five entrances through discrimination and detachment means controlling all the senses.
Confining the mind in the heart – Although external stimuli can be prevented through controlling senses , it is always possible for the mind to get disturbed on account of the accumulation of past impressions gathered from the external world of change and pleasure. It is therefore advised that the mind which is the tool for emotion and feeling should be confined to the heart. Here heart does not mean the physical part of the body but an imaginary centre of the mind from which all positive thoughts like love, kindness, devotion, surrender etc. emanate which means the mind whose functions are checked.
Drawing Prana into the Head and occupied in the practice of concentration – The mental condition wherein the intellect is withdrawn from its identification with all the perceptions and engaging it in the total contemplation of the Self. In this condition of mental and intellectual equipoise the seeker is fit for meditating upon the monosyllable OM.
He who departs, leaving the body – This does not mean `at the time of death’. While chanting and meditating on OM, the seeker gets so much detached from his identification with the world of objects that the ego gets tuned towards a higher objective. This is called death – leaving the body – when he attains the Supreme goal.
WHO CAN EASILY ATTAIN THE LORD?
