"Hocus Focus"

"Hocus Focus"

A well known story about Arjuna exemplifies his powers of concentration. Guru Dronacharya decided to test his students in their skill of archery. He hung a wooden bird from the branch of a tree and then summoned his students. He asked the first one to aim for the bird's eye but not shoot just yet. He then asked the student what the student could see. The student replied that he could see the garden, the tree, flowers, etc. Drona asked him to step aside and not shoot. He repeated the same process with a few other students. When it was Arjuna's turn, Arjuna told his Guru that the only thing he could see was the bird's eye. This satisfied the Guru and he allowed Arjuna to shoot the bird. The lesson here is the power of focus.
(source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arjuna)

From childhood we have been taught to focus on the thing that we want to do. But irony is nobody taught us how to know what we want to achieve. Nobody teaches how to know - what to do. For Arjuna it was easier as Guru Dronacharya asked him to aim the bird's eye. But unfortunately most of us not do not have a Guru like Dronacharya.

Story:
Raju loved all the things which a young boy would love to. With time passing he focused hard on studies and ignored everything else. He excelled in academics but failed in relations, he read a lot about life but never lived it, he read literature's on love and humanity but could never feel it.

This is not a drawback of power of focus; the problem here is of improper understanding/ definition of the area to be focused.

Had Raju understood that education is not just getting good marks in academics which ends with schools but adding value to life through out the life; things would have been different. Raju focused on his role as student but never understood that life itself is a school.

A company focusing only on product forgets customers. A job seeker focusing on a job might ignore the career. If Dhirubhai had focused only on Textiles we would not have seen mobile revolution. If I focus only on thinking I might not ever try to execute. If you focus only on not loosing you might end up with a draw.

Game of chess can help us to understand the game of focus. A chess player's ultimate aim is to win the game. Many a times an amateur chess player would focus only on the kings protection. If you focus only on the protection of your king or on killing the other players king you will loose the game more often than not. For winning the game focus on the game. If you want to be successful/happy in life then one should focus on life. I can not understand how focusing on business or on studies or on sports can assure a successful life. Focusing only on single flower can not help to develop a garden.

Focus causes us to develop a boundary but its on us to define the boundary. A mother focuses on family and so she can define her boundary as- her husband & children. But she can extend her boundaries and include her in laws and play a bigger role. A king may focus on the Raajgaddi or on the rajya, or on the praja or on all of them and a few things more.In Mahabharta, object of focus of different characters made them different. Dhritrashtra focused on his son- Duryodhana, Duryodhana focused on the Raajgaddi, Karna focused on his friendship, Bhishma focused on the possessor of the Raajgaddi; but Arjuna focused on Dharma which was above all these. And Arjuna could understand it only after understanding the Game of Life when he saw the Viraath Roop of God; he got the complete view. Till the time we focus on parts of life we will be ignorant.

Object of focus is more important than the power of focus. Let us spend some time on knowing what to focus on rather than increasing our focus on a less important thing.

We got birth to live a life.
I think it is very logical- Focus on life to live a life.



Note: If you focus on Diwali you might not enjoy Holi. But if you focus on festivals you will enjoy more than both. PJ. Happy Diwali.