Concentration and Remembrance of the Divine

In order to be most effective in its action, the external nature must have the capacity of concentration of its efforts. Whether this is a mental concentration, or a vital or physical concentration, the focus must be total, without distraction, or it will yield less than the optimal result.

We then come to the question of remembrance of the Divine in relation to the need for external concentration of effort. The effective remembrance is not some form of mental idea or thought, but an orientation or attitude of the being, centered in the soul, or psychic being. If the mind tries to remember, it necessarily divides its attention from its focused action. Mental remembrance may be a useful step in the long-term process of bringing the psychic being forward, but it is at best a faint echo of the true remembrance of the psychic being.

A disciple asks: “It sometimes happen that when one is playing one does not remember the Divine, then suddenly one remembers and has the feeling that something breaks and one no longer plays well. Why?”

The Mother writes: “Because everything is upset. That’s the problem! So you think that when you are playing and do not remember, you play well! No! It is not quite that. It is that you do something with a certain concentration — work or play — and you are concentrated, but you have not developed the habit of mixing the remembrance of the Divine with the concentration (which is not difficult, but anyway, you do not have the habit) and then, suddenly the remembrance comes; then two things may happen: either the concentration is broken because you make an abrupt movement to seize the new attitude entering the consciousness, or else you feel a little remorse, a regret, a disquiet: ‘Oh! I did not remember’; that suffices, it upsets all you have done. For you change conditions completely. It is not the fact of remembering which makes you no longer play well, it is the fact of having disturbed your concentration. If you could remember without disturbing the concentration (which is not difficult), you would not only play well but would play better.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Powers Within, Chapter VII Attitude, pp. 75-76