As I explained, outer consciousness means this: We are dependent on the senses and outward things. That is, when we try to think of inner things, we are held back by our dependence on things external. We are all the time living in these external impressions, and cannot enter into the inner realm of understanding.
And how does concentration help us? Concentration helps us to withdraw our scattered minds from different directions. The mind has been scattered. It wanders among various objects, which are impressions in our minds. The mind has been divided, and thus mental energy is dissipated. Very little energy is left for the accomplishment of the real ideals in life. But gradually we learn by concentration how to withdraw the scattered forces of the mind and how to focus them upon the chosen ideal.
There are many details, but I am only mentioning the most important points.
When, through proper training and daily practice, one is able to learn how to gather up the wandering mind, and withdraw these different powers of the mind from different sources and focus them on one thing, then so much energy has been combined, as it were, and we can accomplish something. Otherwise, so much of our energy has been dissipated.
Regarding the difficulties and dangers of concentration, let me mention that there are difficulties in all paths, in all fields of knowledge. Nothing worth achieving has been accomplished without a little difficulty, without a little sacrifice, without a little sincere and earnest effort. You know, curiosity-seekers never reach anything in life. Those who are sincere and earnest searchers and seekers have gradually unfolded themselves and reached the higher realms of understanding. So there is no real danger in concentration. We must start with that idea, and not be hasty. Many of us try to take things like a pill. We take a pill, and it must accomplish its results. Concentration is not a pill—and we do not know what accumulated experiences and impressions are at our backs. Through different lives and through the present life we have been gathering up so many things. We are performing so many karmas, as we say, and we have to eliminate so many things in our lives. Through proper effort we shall remove many obstacles, many difficulties, and our task will become easier and easier.
Now, the Yogis, in figurative language call this opening up of the inner consciousness the awakening of the Kundalini. You will see—if you analyse your life—that there are a few things which are constantly holding your attention. The mind, as it were, is drawn into certain realms. As I explained in the beginning, sense perceptions are in different forms and include many things—our eating, our drinking, all sorts of habits and many other things. Thus the best of our energies are swallowed up, as it were, by these things. The Yogis claim that the nerve centers—the lower nerve centers—have absorbed these energies and the energies are chained there, or enslaved there, and you have to release them. There are two sides, the physiological and mental. Physiologically, when we begin to practise concentration, this energy is gradually released from the lower centers. It is called the awakening of Kundalini—coiled-up energy—energy in latent form or enslaved form. Simultaneously our mind is released from its impressions and begins to work in a higher realm.
Time will not permit me to enter into the details of this subject, but I just want to touch upon some important points, so that you will think and study and investigate more.
A few points I must try to impress upon your mind. I must repeat that first of all these things should be studied under the guidance of proper teachers, and secondly, that you need not believe anything blindly. I want to impress this upon your mind because these things are established facts and those who have experienced them know these things. They are not the results of mere speculation, or mere imagination, because those teachers who would try to teach you will tell you from the beginning that you have to eliminate all the ideas of imagination. You must give up imagining things. Many of us have a tendency to imagine too much, constantly seeing visions and other things. You must eliminate those notions from the beginning, and must try to live in realities, in facts and true experiences. So you must not accept anything credulously, but try to study and investigate for yourself.
The Yogis declare that there is a hollow canal in the spinal column, and that the base of the spinal column, in the majority of persons, is closed. When these energies are released, they must find a passage and they must be allowed to go through this canal, and as this released energy rises into higher and higher centers, we enter into inner and inner stages of illumination. And when that energy reaches the brain—the highest center, the pineal gland—there the illumination becomes absolute; that is, we reach that pure state of consciousness of which I have spoken.
You will find as you progress that there are physiological experiences and mental experiences. As we have physiological experiences we shall see that the whole nervous system is changing. Our bodies are full of vibrating currents. Our whole life is full of vibrating currents, and we must know how to direct them, how to adjust them. And that is why I said the teachers would ask you to give up that idea of imagining things. We imagine and speculate too much. We must not accept anything unless it is realized, and that is why the student must be properly directed.