Upanishads · Bhāvanā p30
॥
Devanāgarī
तस्य बाह्याभ्यन्तःकरणानामेकरूपविषयग्रहणमासनम्
Transliteration (IAST)
tasya bāhyābhyantaḥkaraṇānāmekarūpaviṣayagrahaṇamāsanam
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
तस्य बाह्य-अभ्यन्तः-करणानाम्tasya bāhya-abhyantaḥ-karaṇānāmof it, the outer and inner instruments'
एक-रूप-विषय-ग्रहणम्eka-rūpa-viṣaya-grahaṇamtaking hold of the object in a single form
आसनम्āsanamis seating
Translation
The taking hold of the object, by its outer and inner instruments, in a single form — this is seating.
Version
34abad459c08 · published Aug 6, 2026, 6:48:41 PM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The second service — āsana, "seating": a seat is offered to the guest. It is reinterpreted as concentration: when all the senses and the mind take the object in a single form, not scattered. This reinterpretation, it must be admitted, is apt and witty. To seat someone is to stop them from moving; and this is what concentration does to the senses, which in their ordinary state each pull in their own direction.
The precision of the observation is remarkable too: it says eka-rūpa-viṣaya-grahaṇa, "taking hold of the object in a single form." Ordinarily the senses give different things: the eye one thing, the ear another, memory a third; and a person, listening, is already thinking of something else. But concentration is that state in which all of them are about one thing.
The Vaiṣṇava side accepts this description entirely and applies it to her own object. Service to an image is good precisely because it occupies the senses with one and the same thing: the eye sees Him, the ear hears His name, the nose His fragrance before Him, the tongue consecrated food. All the senses are then taken by one object, and concentration arises of itself, without effort.
In this, to my mind, lies the whole practical argument for material service over mental service. Holding the mind on the abstract is hard and achieved by few; but before an image, engaged in an act, the mind holds itself — because the act gives it something to catch hold of.