The following story is from the book Healing Stories in Yoga by Gandhara Mandlik of Yoga Point,
India.
Concentration of Swami Vivekananda.
Yoga perspective.
Yoga is harmony between body and mind.
Yoga is strengthening the link between thoughts and actions,
Working closely with mental,
Emotional energies and physical energies.
A perfect balance of body and mind is the key to the joy,
Success and satisfaction in life.
Here is the story.
Swami Vivekananda was one of the great yoga masters who promoted yoga in its true form to the whole of the world.
He was a true yoga master.
This is his story while he was in the US in the 1890s.
He was visiting a city and had some lectures scheduled.
One day in the morning,
He was taking a walk on the beach.
He saw some young boys trying to shoot at some objects which were floating on the water.
He was curious and had never seen a gun before.
So he approached the boys and asked them about the game.
The boys informed him that they are trying to aim at the object and shoot it.
They claimed that this game needs great concentration and is very difficult to master.
Swami Vivekananda asked if they could teach him and the boys responded positively.
One of the boys gave the gun to Swamiji and asked him to aim at the object while aligning the gun.
Swamiji did the exact thing and without moving the gun fired the bullet.
To the surprise of everyone,
The object was hit by the bullet.
The boys thought that it was a good hit by chance.
So they asked Swamiji,
Would you like to try another one?
And Swamiji replied,
Sure.
Swami Vivekananda fired 10 bullets in a row and all hit the target without fail.
The boys were surprised and said to him,
You are an expert shooter.
Where did you learn this skill?
Swamiji smiled and replied,
I have never held a gun in my hand before this and you boys have taught me this skill so you are my teachers.
The boys requested him to teach them how he could manage this performance.
Swamiji replied,
When you try and shoot you tell your mind to concentrate but your mind is already cluttered with so many other things that it has little space for your new wish.
You have little power to remove these unwanted things from your mind.
Then because your body is not completely in tune with your mind,
It does not listen to your mind completely.
But when I tell my mind to focus,
My mind listens completely.
When I tell my body,
My body responds completely.
This body-mind harmony is the purpose of yoga.
This concentration,
This peace and harmony is the achievement of yoga.
