Concentration is essential for all. It is the foundation of all successful endeavour. It is needed not only for Dhyana, but even for worldly affairs and ordinary living. Whatever be the task one is engaged in, if one does it with concentration, one will develop both self-confidence and self-respect; for they are the result of the attitude of one's own mind. The mind may lean on either the bad or the good. Concentrated attention must be employed to keep the mind attached only to good promptings. Success or failure in the good task depends upon one-pointedness.

One-pointedness will increase power and skill; it cannot be won without conquering the worldly cravings that distract the mind. This one-pointedness, this conquest of the mind, is acquired by the exercise of Dhyana.

There are two types of men: one set accusing themselves as sinners and another flattering themselves as great. Both types of men are being worried by their own mental aberrations! What they both need is mental satisfaction and this can be got by Dhyana; for through Dhyana, understanding will increase and wisdom will grow.

From this, a person should develop interest in Dhyana and a taste for Dhyana. That is to say, a yearning which admits of no other step and which will not tolerate any obstacle. Of course, one may yearn to hear music and derive joy therefrom; or see the bodies of near relatives who have died and derive sorrow therefrom! Yearning may thus have pleasant or even unpleasant consequences! Yearning must have the strength to inspire endeavour; in fact, yearning is but dormant endeavour; endeavour is yearning in action. When yearning is weak, endeavour declines; when one is strong the other too is active. Dhyana gives concentration and success in all tasks.

It is through Dhyana alone that great personages and Rishis have controlled their mental activities and directed them towards the sathwik path and establised themselves at all times in the contemplation of the Lord and finally succeeded in achieving union with the Godhead. First, the yearning; then the selection of the goal; then the concentration and through the discipline, the conquest of the mind...

Man must give up the craving for material control and the attachment to sense-objects. He must discard the false fears, the absurd desires, the sorrows, the worries and the artificial pleasures that now fill his mind. That is to say, he must discriminate and train himself to realise that everything is as illusory as the ghost in the well! Every one needs this self-education. The pathetic condition of every man is due to its absence. Dhyana is the remedy for this state of mind.