A disciple once asked Swami Vivekananda,
“Swamiji, when I sit down to meditate, my mind is constantly distracted by sounds — a barking dog, people talking, the clock ticking.
How can I shut all this out and focus?”
Vivekananda smiled and told him a story.
The Yogi’s Secret
There once lived an advanced Yogi near a temple.
He was known for his deep powers of concentration.
Every morning and evening, a large temple bell rang loudly — so loudly that it could be heard across the village.
But the Yogi never seemed disturbed by it.
He meditated peacefully, day after day.
One day, a visitor finally asked him,
“Master, how do you meditate so deeply with that loud bell ringing all the time? Don’t you hear it?”
The Yogi replied calmly,
“Yes, I hear it every time it rings.
But I have taught my mind one simple thing — to recognize only the sound of the bell, and not the silence in between.”
The Lesson: Focus on the Gaps
Vivekananda explained the real secret behind the Yogi’s method.
You cannot stop the sounds around you.
The world will not become silent just because you sit to meditate.
But you can train your mind to decide what it gives attention to.
The true distraction isn’t the sound itself —
it’s the mind’s habit of wandering during the gaps between those sounds.
By focusing only on the “ring” — and refusing to let the mind drift in the silence that follows —
the Yogi turned even a noisy bell into a tool for perfect concentration.
The Goal of Dharana
This, Vivekananda said, is the essence of Dharana — true concentration.
It’s not about shutting out the world, but mastering the art of holding the mind steady on one point,
until it no longer slips into distraction.
When the mind learns to hold that focus —
even a ringing bell can become the gateway to peace. 🔔
Vedik Mind 