Metaphysical attainment, consisting essentially in the identification by means of knowledge, everything that is not knowledge in itself has the value of only ancillary means; Yoga also takes as its starting point and fundamental means what is called ekâgrya, that is, "concentration." This concentration itself is, as Max Miller confesses (1), something totally foreign to the Western mind, accustomed to throwing all its attention upon external things and to dispersing itself in their indefinitely changing multiplicity; it has itself become almost impossible, and yet it is the first and most important of all the conditions of an effective attainment.