In plain words
He would fix his gaze on a single star. He would keep looking at that very star like that for twelve seconds. Then this mind of his did not waver this way or that. It is not a long time. Twelve seconds. If we keep practising twelve seconds in this way, twelve such dhāraṇās themselves become one dhyāna. That is, a hundred and forty-four seconds only. Two minutes and twenty-four seconds only. Don't we keep a thermometer in for two minutes? Why shouldn't we hold this gaze for that long? If we go on practising and practising, training and training in this way, true samādhi comes to us. What is the inner meaning of this samādhi? People take it to be unconscious, or some other kind of superconscious, some conscious or other; it is no conscious at all. Samādhi means hysteria. What is true samādhi? The dhī that attains equality: that is what they called samādhi. To hold equality in pleasure and pain, in gain and loss, in blame and praise, in cold and heat: that is samādhi. That is the fruit gained through true dhyāna.
So, children, today is a sacred day. All of you, do this kind of practice. Through it you will gain a fine, keen power in what you study and in any other thinking you do. I too have not told this to anyone until now. In this sādhana there are still certain steps. For the mind to hold its one-pointedness on the object for twelve seconds, there are certain ways of sitting and certain ways of doing it. I will tell that separately to those who wish it and to the students who want to do it. Dhyāna is very easy. Samādhi is easier still. But because they cannot learn its order, people fall into many kinds of trouble. You take dhyāna to be only sitting well in padmāsana. That is not true dhyāna. They sit. They sit without moving. Where their mind is wandering, they themselves do not know, poor things. If a little mosquito lands on the nose, this dhyāna is shaken at once. Whenever a man sits without moving, these mosquitoes get all the more of a wish to bite. That is just where they begin. When we drive them off, they come and land right there again. We drive them off once. The second time we drive them off a little faster. The third time anger comes. People try to kill it with both hands. This is what is special about today's dhyāna. None of this is dhyāna.
Dhyāna has a subtle skill to it. That itself is the power. That itself is yoga. That boy spoke of this principle called samādhi: that one must be calm, without agitation. It is in just this way that we must earn patience. This patience comes to us only through dhāraṇā.