Man moves towards success. In order for him to progress he or she must have no doubt to be aware of the people around him or her but also know his or her inner self. Man must understand his own soul and the journey of his inner being thoroughly for him to progress or achieve more. In the words of The Mother “Whatever you may want to do in life, one thing is absolutely indispensable and at the basis of everything, the capacity of concentrating the attention. If you are able to gather together the rays of attention and consciousness on one point and can maintain this concentration with a persistent will, nothing can resist it - whatever it maybe, from the most material physical development to the highest spiritual one. But this discipline must be followed in a constant and, it may be said, imperturbable way; not that you should always be concentrated on the same thing- that's not what I mean, I mean learning to concentrate.

And materially, for studies, sports, all physical or mental development, it is absolutely indispensable. And the value of an individual is proportionate to the value of his attention.

And from the spiritual point of view it is still more important. There is no spiritual obstacle which can resist a penetrating power of concentration. For instance, the discovery of the psychic being, union with the inner Divine, opening to the higher spheres, all can be obtained by an intense and obstinate power of concentration - but one must learn how to do it.

There is nothing in the human or even in the superhuman field, to which the power of concentration is not the key.

You can be the best athlete, you can be the best student, you can be an artistic, literary or scientific genius, you can be the greatest saint with that faculty. And everyone has in himself a tiny little beginning of it -it is given to everybody, but people do not cultivate it”.

Well, the questions arises now what is concentration and how to do it? For a Being to know its inner self he or she must find a way to interact with the soul and understand it. Concentration is very vividly explained by the Mother “It is to bring back all the scattered threads of consciousness to a single point, a single idea. Those who can attain perfect attention succeed in everything they undertake; they will always make a rapid progress. And this kind of concentration can be developed exactly like the muscles; one may follow different systems, different methods of training. Today we know that the most pitiful weakling, for example, can with discipline become as strong as anyone else. One should not have a will which flickers out like a candle.

The will, the concentration must be cultivated; it is a question of method, of regular exercise. If you will, you can.

But the thought "What's the use?" must not come in to weaken the will. The idea that one is born with a certain character and can do nothing about it is a stupidity”.

        Inner Chamber at Matrimandir

Concentration is often used for the development of the self and spiritual growth. Many people believe in Concentration and many even practice it on daily basis but their practice is often inefficient and unhelpful. The reason behind it is very often the lack of sustained will. 

Now, personally I believe we require a perfect environment, a naturally silent atmosphere for the concentration where we can communicate easily with our Self and understand the true purpose of our birth. Where peace flows spontaneously by the virtue of the atmosphere. We all know that peace definitely cannot be found inside rock or pop music playing at high volumes, peace is only found at calm places or silent places. Now it cannot be expected of a common man to move up to the highest altitudes of the Himalaya Mountain Range or to the deepest depths of the Pacific Ocean for concentration. However it is found deep inside the Self and we need to learn the art of communicating.

        Matrimandir

This is the experience I had while visiting the Matrimandir at Auroville in Pondicherry, India. The atmosphere was so silent that one can even hear the air passing through the lungs and gradually one goes deep within to learn the art of communicating with Self.