FOCUSED THINKING

a single track without any kind of deviation. One who engages in this kind of thinking is bound to achieve great success. You should know the importance of concentration in achieving any goal you choose for yourself. You can understand this from the example of one of the famous thinkers Charles Darwin (1809-1882), who played a major part in the intellectual formation of modern man. Darwin achieved this position of eminence in the modern world by dint of exceptional hard work. The Encyclopaedia Britannica (1984) says of him: All his mental energy was focused on his subject and that was why poetry, pictures and music ceased in his mature life to afford him the pleasure that they had given him in his earlier days. Such intellectual concentration is vital to peak achievement in any field, be it right or wrong. Man has to be so engrossed in his work that everything else pales into insignificance beside it. Unless everything else loses its interest for him, he cannot climb to any great heights of success. If we examine the lives of the truly great, we find that they all worked in the same dedicated way. In any task of some complexity, there are always aspects of it which present problems that appear at first sight to be insoluble. Sometimes innumerable facts have to be marshalled which can be interpreted only with the keenest of insight. Often a mysterious, elusive factor emerges just at a point when one thinks that all questions have been answered. Such difficulties can be overcome and such secrets unveiled only when one’s total intellectual capacity is directed towards the unravelling of the mystery. Without the utmost devotion and one hundred per cent concentration, success will remain forever beyond one’s grasp. It is said that the father of modern science, Isaac Newton, had the special capacity to think in this focused way. Many other great thinkers and super achievers had this ability. Indeed, there is no example in history of anyone achieving great success without having this gift. Focused thinking is the greatest quality in people. When a believer develops focused thinking in terms of his religious belief, it is not possible to confine it to religious matters. Naturally, it widens its sphere to cover all other aspects of the functioning of his mind. So, believers in the one God naturally become believers in a single target. In terms of religion, this is to believe in the oneness of God and, in terms of non-religious matters, it means concentrated thinking. Here, religion and secularism go hand in hand on the road of life. o