Concentration is binding the mind to one place.

The verse

Deśa-bandhaś cittasya dhāraṇā — "concentration is the binding of the mind to a place." This sutra opens the third chapter of the Yoga Sutra and defines dharana, the sixth of the eight limbs. The definition is compact: desha means place or location, bandha means binding or fixing, and cittasya specifies that it is chitta, the mind or mind-stuff, that is being bound. Dharana, then, is the deliberate confining of attention to a single location or object, chosen and held in place by effort.

The place attention is bound to

The "place" in question can be understood broadly within the tradition: it may be an external object placed in front of the eyes, a specific point on or around the body such as the space between the eyebrows or the heart center, the tip of the nose in connection with the breath, or a mental image or concept held steadily in mind. What matters for the definition is not which place is chosen but the act of binding — repeatedly fixing attention there rather than letting it move freely from object to object as it does in ordinary waking awareness.

Dharana's place among the limbs

This verse begins what Patanjali elsewhere groups together as the three more internal limbs — dharana, dhyana, and samadhi — which taken together are called samyama, and which the third chapter goes on to apply to a wide range of subjects. Dharana is presented as the first, most effortful stage of that internal group: the mind is still actively brought back, again and again, each time it wanders from its chosen place. This effortful quality is what distinguishes it from dhyana, defined in the very next sutra as a more sustained, unbroken flow of attention.

A five-limb foundation before this point

It is worth remembering that dharana, in Patanjali's sequence, follows five prior limbs — the ethical restraints and observances (yama and niyama), posture (asana), breath regulation (pranayama), and withdrawal of the senses (pratyahara). The text presents concentration as building on that foundation rather than as a technique that can be picked up independently of the rest of the path.

Choosing a place, and returning to it

This verse underlies one of the most basic and enduring meditation instructions across traditions: choose a single object of attention, and each time you notice the mind has wandered, bring it back to that same object rather than following the wandering thought or switching to a new point of focus. The "place" might be the sensation of breath at the nostrils, a candle flame, a repeated word or mantra, or a specific point in the body. What matters, according to this verse, is consistency of return rather than the particular object chosen.

A short concrete practice

Sit for five minutes and choose one place for attention before you begin — for instance, the physical sensation of the breath at the tip of the nose. Each time you notice that attention has drifted to a thought, sound, or plan, simply note "wandered" without judgment, and deliberately bring attention back to the chosen point. Do not switch to a different object partway through, even if another point seems more interesting or restful in the moment; the practice this verse describes is specifically about binding attention to one place, tolerating the effort of returning it there repeatedly.

Noticing the effort itself

Because dharana is defined as an act of binding, it is expected to feel effortful, at least at first — this is different from later states described in the following sutras. Rather than treating repeated wandering as failure, this verse frames each return to the chosen place as the practice itself. Over time, the tradition holds, this repeated effortful binding becomes the more continuous, less effortful flow described as dhyana in the sutra that follows.

How commentators describe the object

Vyasa's Bhashya lists examples of traditional objects for dharana, including the navel center, the heart, the tip of the nose, and the space between the eyebrows, noting that the choice of place is secondary to the discipline of holding attention there. Translators such as Iyengar and Satchidananda, writing for contemporary practitioners, generally emphasize that any suitable, steady object can serve this function, provided it is used consistently rather than exchanged from session to session, since consistency of object is what allows the binding described in the sutra to develop over time.

A note on the commentarial tradition

Vyasa's Bhashya lists traditional objects for dharana — the navel, the heart, the tip of the nose, the space between the eyebrows — and stresses that the object matters less than sustained consistency in returning to it. Translators including Iyengar and Satchidananda emphasize the same point for contemporary readers: any suitable, steady object will serve, provided it is not exchanged from sitting to sitting, since it is precisely that consistency which allows the binding this verse describes to mature into the more continuous flow defined next, in dhyana.

Loosening the definition too much

Dharana is sometimes used loosely today as a general synonym for "meditation" or "mindfulness," covering almost any contemplative practice without regard to its structure. Patanjali's definition is considerably more specific: dharana names the particular practice of binding attention to one chosen place, distinguished from the more sustained, less effortful states of dhyana and samadhi that follow it in the text. Collapsing all three into a single undifferentiated idea of "meditation" loses the very distinction this chapter is built to make.

Treating it as an isolated technique

A second misreading approaches dharana as a stand-alone technique that can be taken up on its own, detached from the preceding limbs. In Patanjali's structure, dharana follows five earlier limbs, including ethical grounding, posture, breath regulation, and withdrawal of the senses, each preparing the mind for the more concentrated inward work this sutra describes.

The corrective

Presented precisely, this verse defines a specific, effortful stage of binding attention to a single object, the first of three closely related internal limbs, not a general label for meditative practice as a whole.