Want to become a CA? - You need to be a Good Human First.

"The whole point is to discipline the mind."

                                                                                        —Swami Vivekananda

The phrase 'Be a good human being' sounds good enough to read occasionally on walls of temples or a facebook post. But what does this phrase mean? Aren't we doing good enough to ourselves?

Since childhood I used to think I was a good human being as I never used to lie, nor cheat or beat anyone. Time passed quickly adding few inches to my height and a little more sense to my humor and wisdom, only to make me realize that the definition of a so called 'Good Human' is far beyond the dictionary meaning. Even half a decade has not passed since I began researching upon this trait what is meant to be the mother root of a plant where all the fruits (results) we grow using seeds (deeds) we sow. I searched everywhere I could like libraries, religious manuscripts, within my family, my friends, around the nature only to realize that answer was always within me.

And I can proudly summarize all my efforts of reading hundreds of pages (online and offline), talking to various people, listening keenly to long lectures into One single word using thirteen letters commonly known as 'Concentration'.

"To me the very essence of education is concentration of mind, not the collecting of facts. If I had to do my education over again, and had any voice in the matter, I would not study facts at all. I would develop the power of concentration and detachment, and then with a perfect instrument I could collect facts at will. Side by side, in the child, should be developed the power of concentration and detachment."

                                                                                               - Swami Vivekananda.

All the great teachers like Krishna, Buddha, Jesus Christ, Guru Nanak dev had one thing in common. They talked less and meditated more. They not only meditated upon their thoughts, but could meditate upon everything, whether tangible or intangible. 

I recall my childhood days when I used to watch 'The great battle of Mahabharata' and 'Ramayana' on old colour television with my grandmother. The things that made me curious every time was how can a person kill hundreds like him shooting a single arrow. Like a curious child I asked similar questions to many teachers I met all through my life to get an answer which won by majority of 7/10 : 'The Power of Concentration'.

Did you ever notice a magnifying glass burning a paper when brought under direct contact of sunlight? That is the classic and most basic example of concentration we have been practicing as a science experiment in school. 

How history emerged through concentration

• The Chinese practiced kung-fu (a form of martial arts) to develop their concentration. They were so focused in developing their powers that they could fight standing on a single leg for hours and at the same time their fist would turn into nothing less than a hammer.
• All supernatural powers were and still are being developed through the practice of concentration.
• Great warriors of all time have meditated on strength to win great battles
• All great yogis and gurus attained enlightenment because their thoughts were concentrated
• People could walk over fire without focusing on their pain
  

  

  Are we doing even 1% of this?

How will this help me?

When we focus our mind, we conserve our energies and do not dissipate them on irrelevant thoughts. This is why, developing concentration is very important for anyone aspiring to be more efficient and take charge of his life or let's say becoming a CA. This is a skill which needs to be practiced, practiced and practiced. Without it the efforts are simple scattered.

Let's not get into any classroom theory session and go back to our childhood. Did we loose our control over our mind while playing a video game? (Though we don't loose that even today) The answer is a big NO. Did we loose our focus while studying?- The answer now is YES. 

But the point of difference in losing our focus at studies during our childhood is merely the difference in 'Positive' and 'Negative'. We were distracted by positive things but today the situation is such that we are getting distracted by negative ones. I don't tell you to leave everything and begin meditating in a deep state for years and years. Do get distracted, but use the distraction in being grateful, making plans, visualizing your future and reading the success stories.

But where are we going wrong?

"when nothing goes right, Go left!!"

We never lost our control, nor we lost our powers to concentrate. We just forgot where to concentrate. We still use the same hardware (Body), The same software (Brain) and the same cables (Nerves). Nothing has changed within us. What really has changed over centuries and will continue to be so is the 'Change happening outside'. If Guru Nanak dev or Buddha could meditate focusing on a tree, we cannot. Because there aren't many left. If Krishna could meditate while preaching, we cannot because no one wishes to listen to us, And if Jesus Christ could meditate upon a vision of world turning to a blissful heavenly place, we cannot do the same because the prospects are decreasing day after day.

But if we start meditating upon our own heart, or even a single organ of us, It will be blessed. I repeat and shall be repeating this again and again because our whole focus will be on positive functioning of our that organ. Similarly if we begin to meditate on our own breath we simple kill 100 men with a single arrow (Just similar to what I saw in Mahabharata). One good habit of focusing on our breath (like pranayama) can improve the functioning of all our organs. Similarly if we meditate upon all the positives, the good deeds we were taught, focusing on our own soul, the Almighty and this nature shall bless us.

What really has changed is the 'Change happening outside'. We have a lot of things to focus on and we end up doing on nothing. We eagerly focus on thoughts of others opinion, thoughts of gadgets, thoughts of greed, thoughts of sex and much more that we are getting trapped deeper and this viscous circle sucks us like a black hole which has no end. 

Be silent, Control your breath, Smile and meditate.

In this particular post I am not delivering techniques to concentrate, nor traditional methods. These are widely scattered all over the internet. All I want is that you all should realize that you have the will and the way is paved to acquire the power of concentration. Some may believe it's a myth, but I don't. Concentration is so powerful that you can actually move mountains, forget about small objects.

Not only CA but you can crack any difficult course in this world with so great ease that you haven't even imagined yet. 

Where we are going wrong every time is when we take up multiple tasks at hand. Though I am not against multi-tasking. It is indeed a better way to do things quickly. What I believe to be creating a malware is Multi-Thinking. That is the very moment we stop living in our present. Examine this situation. You need to study something for your exam and you sit comfortably on the sofa with the book in your hands and start reading it. After a while, you feel hungry and go to the kitchen to eat something. You return to the book, but a few moments later you hear people talking outside. You listen to them for several moments and then bring your attention back to the book. After a while, you feel restless and switch to android mode to get updates of this world. You then continue reading a few moments, and then remember an incident that happened yesterday, and start thinking about it. When you look at your watch, you find out that one hour has passed, and you have hardly read anything.

"Don't take meditation as medication."

Let's just skip some unnecessary habits from our routine forever. Let's just start meditating. Meditating on our future, our positives, and the things we are always grateful for. This is the very first lesson on Concentration and a beautiful thing about this supernatural power is that you get the next lesson by itself when you master the first. Start Training your mind just like you train your hands for improving your writing speed during exams, just like you train your body, just like you train your emotions after the breakup of a relationship. The whole idea is to stay in one wavelength of thoughts to be in that moment when you can think of only that thought and nothing else. And when that thought is becoming a CA, it will definitely come to you.

Concentration is the first and only step to any supernatural power in this world. A concentrated thought in a yogi can make him rise high above his pedestal. A concentrated thought can actually create the energy balls (similar to those we saw in the film harry potter). And mind it, A concentrated thought can even charge your mobile phone in emergency. These things are filmed because these things have happened over past and has been considerably reducing over the years. Though I don't suggest you all to practice the super powers of natural resources (which is in any case next to impossible for modern humans) but all the idea was to explain how powers can be concentrated. 

We all are a universe in ourselves, We all have this energy ball within.

But still a technique rarely practiced by students these days I would like to share is - 'Mind Revision'

At the end of the day sit for few minutes (15-20) and recall each and every line of a topic you studied that day. Recall whole of the material you read or practiced that day. This helps retain the content 80% faster and will go to your permanent memory that is your Hard disk and not like RAM which deletes all the stuff once you sleep. A regular practice of this dedinately going to help you in your exams when you forget something. All you would need to do is close your eyes for few seconds and the whole page shall appear in front of you. Now that depends how well you have stored things into your permanent memory at night before sleep.

The science behind is very simple, We meditate upon the words we had studied whole day. We meditate upon them daily and we concentrate those thoughts and memories of those pages in our mind and when the right time comes we just close our eyes for a few seconds and accumulate whole of energy and discharge it into our answer sheets. I hope now you understand the logic why 'Lord Ram' used to close his eyes before shooting an arrow (in case you watched ramayana). It is the accumulation of energy which we use. 

 Power of concentration to destroy roman warships

Syracuse with the help of great scientist Archimedes used this technique of concentrating sunlight through lenses to burn the roman ships coming from the other side in 212 B.C.

There are many great techniques of improving concentration, but as they say, 'Charity begins at Home'. So initially you will have to make yourself committed and begin practicing 'The power of Concentration'. This has to be practiced along with Self control so that you can stay focused.