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to move in the direction of dhyana, one must be thoroughly acquainted with its nature. Dhyana means concentration. But concentration alone is not the object of meditation. "What kind of concentration?", is an important question.
There is the marksman's concentration. When a hunter aims at his prey, how intent he is! In the the absence of concentration, no arrow can pierce its object. The heron is notorious for its hypocrisy. With a view to deceiving its prey, it pretends to be absorbed in meditation; it lifts one foot and stands like an ascetic. Impressed by the heron's concentration, the great idealist, Sri Rama, addressed Laxman thus:
Laxman! Look at that heron living in this lake. How religious it is! How carefully it steps, for fear of killing a living creature!
Laxman kept silent. But a fish living in the same lake smarted to hear what Sri Rama said. Gathering courage, it spoke :
Rama! How dare you talk about the religiousness of that heron! Can a creature that has destroyed the whole of my family, be religious? O Rama, you are not acquainted with its duplicity. Because only a person living in close contact can come to know his companion's real character.
In this context, it may be said that we are concerned here not with concentration alone, but with the object of concentration. That concentration alone which creates curiosity about one's existence, is valuable from the point of view of sadhana, and this, in itself, constitutes the starting point of sadhana. Until a man's curiosity is aroused about the nature of his being, he does not display any eagerness to know himself. As long as he feels no urge to confront the question, "Who am I?", the funda
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