The difference between a genius and an ordinary man is the concentration that the genius brings to his work, whatever he may be doing. The genius does not waste time. With his power of concentration he learns a lesson, does a work which an ordinary man with a dispersed mind would take far longer to do. In this way, that is to say, by developing your power of concentration you can shorten the time of learning or working and thereby gain more time to increase your power of expression and your capacity for work. There are many methods of developing your concentration, but as far as I know the best method is to concentrate with all your mind and heart and body on the work you are doing at the instant, on the lesson you are learning at the moment with an insatiable thirst for perfecting what you have already learnt, what you already know, what you can already accomplish. Your creative abilities and your efficiency in work are your true invaluable assets.

Alongside this concentration on your external being there must be the concentration of the development of the divine being in us. We should concentrate in a prayer for a purification of our being, rejection of all that is undivine, most of all, rejection of violence from every part of our being. Our thoughts must be truly benevolent, the heart large and wide which has no enemy, the body full of peace and harmony where the least manifestation of anger, jealousy, envy, hatred, greed, ambition, lust and violence must be gradually eliminated till there is only a joyful peace in the body. This is the best condition for the growth of the Divine Being in us. Violence and hatred must be at all cost eliminated from every part of the being, however long that work might take. It is when the violence and hatred are practically eliminated from our consciousness by the inflow of the Divine Force in our entire being that the true Divine Life can begin. It may take a lifetime or the work may be spread out over a number of lives but as long as the violence is not totally eliminated from the being, the instrument cannot be satisfactorily used for the greater Divine purpose.

Niranjan Guha Roy