Once Swami Vivekananda was sitting on the beach reading. He finished the book soon. Then he started walking on the beach. He saw people had gathered at one place and watching something. A group of men were having a shooting contest. They had thrown big eggshells on the water and each contestant would aim his rifle at the shells and shoot. Every time waves on the water would move the shells and the contestant would miss his aim and the observers would laugh. The group leader would laugh and tell the contestant to improve. Soon it was the group leader’s turn. He steadied the rifle on his shoulder. Everyone looked at him expecting a great shot. Everything was very quiet. The group leader aimed, shot and missed because the eggshell had moved with the wave. People laughed and Swami Vivekananda also laughed lightly. The group leader was angry. He said to Swami, ‘It is easy to laugh at others. Why don’t you shoot and show us?’ He held up his rifle to the Swami. Swami Vivekananda took the rifle from the group leader and steadied it on the shoulder and aimed. One shot and the eggshell was broken into tiny little pieces. Everyone clapped and nodded to him. The leader said,” This could not be true. The eggshell broke by fluke. If you repeat this feat again then I will acknowledge you.” Swami rested the rifle on his shoulder again. This time he broke one shell and while people were clapping he continued to shoot five more times and broke five more eggshells. Everyone was just stupefied. The leader said, “ You are very impressive. You must have spent a lot time at this.” Swami said, “Actually, this is the first time I took the rifle in my hands. It is not spending a lot of time on the shooting practice, but it is the one pointed focus I am good at. My teacher taught me meditation and many years of meditation made me good focusing at anything. I focus at everything I do and I do it well. It helps me keep my balance.”
Swami Vivekananda used to read very fast and would remember everything he read. People would ask him, “Swami, how do you manage to read so much, so fast and remember everything?” Swami would reply, “My Guru taught me to meditate one pointedly. Through meditation for many, many years, I have acquired the art of one pointed focus or sharp focus. With sharp focus I can do anything fast and do it well.”
source: Sanskar Sudha, Geeta Parivar
