"Let the devotee, restraining his organs of sense, which ever tend to pursue external objects,
"Himself intent on restraint, make them conformable to the mind;
"By this is effected the entire subjugation of the unsteady senses;
"If they are not controlled, the yogin will not accomplish his yoga."[454]
"Attention" (dháraṇá) is the fixing the mind, by withdrawing it from all other objects, on some place, whether connected with the internal self, as the circle of the navel, the lotus of the heart, the top of the sushumṇá artery, &c., or something external, as Prajápati, Vásava, Hiraṇyagarbha, &c. This is declared by the aphorism, "'Attention' is the fixing the mind on a place" [iii. 1]; and so, too, say the followers of the Puráṇas—
"By regulation of breath having controlled the air, and by restraint the senses,
"Let him next make the perfect asylum the dwelling-place of his mind."[455]
The continual flow of thought in this place, resting on the object to be contemplated, and avoiding all incongruous thoughts, is "contemplation" (dhyána); thus it is said, "A course of uniform thought there, is 'contemplation'" [iii. 2]. Others also have said—
"A continued succession of thoughts, intent on objects of that kind and desiring no other,