Sutra 3.1

देशबन्धश्चित्तस्य धारणा॥१॥

deśa-bandhaḥ cittasya dhāraṇā ॥1॥

desha = place; location; bandhah = binding; chittasya = of the mind; dhaaraNaa = concentration;

Sw. Satchidananda

"Dharana is the binding of the mind to one place, object or idea."

Bryant

"Concentration is the fixing of the mind in one place."

Taimni

"Concentration is the confining of the mind within a limited mental area (0bject of concentration)."

Discussion

Patanjali now shifts his focus to the three stages of meditation – dharana, dhyana and samadhi. In sutra 3.4, he defines “samyama” as the combination of all these three practices. In the later part of chapter 3, he describes a large number of practices involving samyama on different objects to attain various kinds of “siddhis” (supernormal powers).

Dharana is the initial stage of meditation to develop initial focus that can lead to deeper states of meditation. Vyasa suggests the following as objects for focusing the mind – naval chakra, the lotus of the heart center, the bright center in the head, tip of the nose or the tongue or any other external object. Some commentators recommend the use of the image of your personal chosen deity – for example, image of Shiva, Vishnu or any other god or goddess. During dharana, the mind stays focused for a short duration of time and then may drift off. However, dharana helps in sharpening mental images and improving alertness and power of attention.

The ancient Tantric text “Vijnana Bhairava Tantra” is fully devoted to the practices of dharana. In this text, 112 different dharana practices are described.

Some common techniques of dharana that I use in my own practice as well as in the meditation classes that I teach include:

• so-hum meditation
• trataka (candle gazing)
• reverse breath counting
• sense withdrawal (pratyahara) meditation
• udgitha pranayama (continuous OM chanting)
• many of the pranayama techniques including staircase breathing, square wave breathing, bhramari (humming bee) etc.

Please visit my blog here and search for any of these dharana practices to get detailed instructions.