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Trataka
A. Preparations
i) Get candles, candle stand and match box.
ii) Wash your eyes with cool and clean water (with eye cup if available) before starting the practice for good result.
iii) When you practice in a group, sit around the candle stand, making a circle at sufficient distance from the candle stand (1.5 to 2 meters). The maximum number of participants in a group around could be about ten. Keep the candle at the same level as the eyes.
iv) Arrange a few chairs for those who are not able to sit on the ground.
Instructions:
Sit in any comfortable meditative posture, if necessary you may sit in a chair.
Remove your glasses and wristwatches.
Keep your spine, neck and head in a line. Collapse your shoulders.
Close the eyes and adopt Namaskara mudra.
Maintain a smile on your face through out the practice. Calm down your mind. Observe your body & breath.
Begin the session by chanting the verse from the Upanishads praying for the welfare of the teacher and the student.
B. Preparatory Eye Exercises
1. Up And Down Or Vertical Movements
Open your eyes with a few blinks.
Gently move your eyeballs up-down, up-down, up-down, continue another seven rounds (counting mentally). Move your eyeballs smoothly and continuously. Try to avoid jerky movements and keep your head steady. Practice at your own pace.
2. Right and left or horizontal movement of eyeballs.
Gently open your eyes with a few blinks.
Gently move your eyeballs right-left, right-left, right-left, continue seven more rounds. Move your eyeballs smoothly and continuously. Try to avoid jerky movements and keep your head steady. Practice at your own pace.
After completing ten rounds gently stop the practice and close your eyes.
Rub your palms against each other, form a cup of your palms and cover your eyes.
Practice simple palming. Do not touch the eyelids with your palms directly. Relax your eye muscles completely. Relax for a while.
Feel the warmth and darkness in your eyes. Make sure that your eyes are totally in dark.
After sufficient relaxation, gently drop your hands down.
Feel the cool sensation around the eyeballs. Relax for a few seconds. Do not open your eyes immediately.
3. Diagonal movement of eyeballs (two directions).
Open your eyes with a few blinks.
Gently move your eyeballs to extreme right-up, extreme left-down; right-up, left-down; right-up, left-down; continue another seven rounds. As you move the eyeball smoothly and continuously to extreme right-up and extreme left-down positions, try to avoid jerky movements and keep your head steady. Practice at your own peace.
After completing ten rounds gently stop the practice and close your eyes.
Rub your palms against each other, form a cup of your palms and cover your eyes.
Give press and release palming. As you inhale deeply, press the palms around the eyes. As you exhale completely, release the pressure, continue four more rounds, count mentally. Do not press the eyeballs with your palms directly. Relax your eye muscles completely.
After completing five rounds, gently drop your hands down.
Feel the cool sensation around the eyeballs. Relax for a few seconds. Do not open your eyes immediately.
Diagonal movement in the opposite direction
Open your eyes with a few blinks.
Gently move your eyeballs left-up, right-down; left-up, right-down; left-up, right-down; continue another seven rounds as you move the eyeballs smoothly and continuously to extreme left up and extreme right-down. Try to avoid jerky movements and keep your head steady. Practice at your own pace.
After completing ten rounds gently stop the practice and close your eyes.
Rub your palms against each other, form a cup of your palms and cover your eyes.
Give press and release palming.
After completing five rounds, gently drop your hands down.
Feel the cool sensation around the eyeballs. Relax for a few seconds. Do not open your eyes immediately.
4. Rotational movement of the eyeballs
(clockwise and anti-clockwise)
Clockwise movement
Now, let us proceed to rotational movement of the eyeballs.
Open your eyes with a few blinks.
Gently move your eyeballs to the left, up, right, down; left, up, right,down; left,up, right,down; continue another seven rounds count mentally. Move your eyeballs smoothly and continuously according to your own pace in clockwise. Try to avoid jerky, sudden movements and keep the head steady.
After completing ten rounds gently stop practice and close your eyes.
Rub your palms against each other, form a cup of your palms and cover your eyes.
Here give constant pressure palming. Press constantly around the eyeballs with your palms. Inhale deeply and exhale completely. Do not press on the eyeballs. Relax your eye muscles completely.
After completing five rounds of deep slow breathing, gently drop your hands down.
Feel the cool sensation around the eyeballs. Relax for a few seconds. Do not open your eyes immediately.
Anti-clockwise movement
Now, proceed to anti-clockwise rotation of the eyeballs.
Open your eyes with a few blinks.
Gently move your eyeballs in anti-clockwise direction - right,up; left,down; righ,-up; left,down; right,;up, left,down; continue to move your eyeball smoothly and continuously at your own pace anti-clockwise. Try to avoid jerky sudden movements and keep your head steady.
After completing ten rounds gently stop practice and close your eyes.
Rub your palms against each other, form a cup of your palms and cover your eyes.
Give constant pressure palming.
If you feel like changing your position, you may do so. Take rest for some times before you start Jyoti Trátaka.
JYOTI TRÁTAKA (in three stages)
Step I: Effortless Gazing or Focusing at flame
Let us start Stage-I of Jyoti Trátaka i.e., “Effortless gazing or Focussing”.
Gently open your eyes with a few blinks and look at the floor. Do not look at the flame directly.
Slowly shift your vision to the base of the candle stand, then move to top of the stand, then to the candle and then slowly look at flame of the candle. Now, start gazing at the whole flame without any effort. Do not blink your eyes. There may be a few irritating sensations, but use your will power and gaze in a relaxed way. If tears appear, allow it to flow freely. This is a sign of good practice. Let the tears wash out the impurities from the eyes. Learn to ignore the irritation and watering from the eyes.
Gaze at the flame about 30 seconds.
Slowly close your eyes, rub your palms against each other for a few seconds, form a cup of your palms and cover your eyeballs.
Give press and release palming.
After completing five rounds, gently drop your hands down.
Feel the cool sensation around the eyeballs. Relax for a few seconds. Do not open your eyes immediately.
Step II: Intensive focusing at the tip of the wick of the flame
Pass on to Stage-II of Jyoti Trátaka i.e., “Intensive focussing” (Dháraïa) .
Gently open your eyes with a few blinks and look at the floor. Do not look at the flame directly.
Slowly shift your vision to the base of the candle stand, then move to top of the stand, then to the candle and then slowly look at the flame of the candle. Now, start gazing at the whole flame without any effort.
Slowly gaze at the tip of the wick of candle, the small black cord. Focus your attention at one point. This is a practice of focussing and concentration. Keep on gazing, use your will power. Let the tears come out and try not to blink your eyes. By practice the gaze becomes steady, making the mind one pointed.
Gaze at the flame for about 30 seconds.
Slowly close your eyes, rub your palms against each other for a few seconds then form a cup of your palms and cover your eyeballs.
Give constant pressure palming. Press constantly around the eyeballs with your palms and inhale deeply and exhale completely. Continue four more rounds. Count mentally. Do not touch the eyeballs with your palms directly. Relax your eye muscles completely.
After completing five rounds, gently drop your hands down.
Feel the cool sensation around the eyeballs. Relax for a few seconds. Do not open your eyes immediately.
Note for Stage-I & II
Continuously gaze at the flame, no blinking or winking, smooth and effortless gazing.
Use your will power and ignore watering or irritation in the eyes. Gradually increase the duration of gazing upto 60 seconds over a few weeks of practice.
Step III: De-focussing
Let us proceed to Stage-III of Jyoti Trátaka i.e., “De-focussing”.
Gently open your eyes with a few blinks and look at the floor. Do not look at the flame directly.
Slowly shift your vision to the base of the candle stand then move to the top of the stand, then to the candle and then slowly look at the flame of the candle. First fix your attention at the flame, then gradually widen your vision. Slowly de-focus your attention from the flame and have a de-focussed gaze on the flame. With expansive awareness, collect all the details of the flame such as color of the flame, shape of the flame, and aura around the flame. Then observe the aura expanding more and more and see the small light particles around the flame. Recognize the subtle changes achieved by de-focusing.
After one minute of de-focussing, gaze or focus on the flame. Slowly close your eyes and retain the image in your mind. Visualize the flame between your eyebrows and collect all the details with your eyes closed. When the image disappears go for palming.
This time we combine palming with breathing and Bhramari. First apply constant pressure around your eyes, then inhale and chant Bhramari Mm....; feel the vibrations of Bhramari through out the body; repeat the same. Inhale - chant Mm.... as you exhale, inhale Mm...., inhale Mm.... and the last round inhale Mm....; feel the sound resonance in the entire head region specially round the eye region.
Step IV: Silence
Feel the silence and relax for a while. After sufficient relaxation, gently drop your hands down. Sit quiet for some time and feel the deep comforting effect of the practice. Be aware of the changes taking place inside you. Recognise that the mind has become completely calm, your concentration, will-power and sharpness of eyesight have improved.
Gently bring your hands behind the back, catch hold of the right wrist with your left palm, make a loose fist with the right hand and feel the pulse of the right hand.
As you exhale, gently bend down towards the floor and surrender to the
Almighty.
Come back as you inhale.
Gently give a feather massage around the eye muscles with three fingers (index, middle and ring fingers).
C. Tips For Practitioners
This is to be practiced in the dark preferably in the evening.
Remove glasses, wristwatches, and belts and make yourself comfortable in the posture.
Sit with your head, neck and spine upright. Always open the eyes with a few blinks.
During eye exercises you must not move your head and must carry on eyeball movement only.
During Jyoti Trataka, when you open the eyes, don’t look at the flame right away. Start looking at the floor and then slowly bring your gaze onto the flame.
During palming don’t let the palms touch or press the eyeballs. (Palms & not the fingers cover the eyes).
During palming do very slow & deep breathing with awareness.
Palms are placed in such a way that there is complete darkness to the eyes.
The facial muscles, eyebrows and eyelids should remain totally relaxed with a beautiful smile on the face.
Trátaka should be performed after ásanas and práïáyámas.
Trátaka must be practiced on a steady flame.
The practitioner should always avoid undue strain to the eyes.
BENEFITS
Physical
It keeps away the eyestrain by improving the stamina of eye muscles and by giving deep relaxation to them. It makes the eyes clear, bright and radiant. It cleanses the tear glands and purifies the optical system.
Therapeutic
Errors of refraction get corrected. It strengthens the ability of the lens to adjust better to distances. It balances the nervous system, relieving nervous tension, anxiety, depression and insomnia.
Spiritual
It helps to develop intense concentration and improves memory. It helps to develop a strong will-power. It is an excellent preparation for meditation.
LIMITATIONS
Epileptics should avoid gazing of flickering candle flames . They can, however, choose a totally steady object to gaze on. If you are a sensitive person who has insomnia this practice at night make your mind too widely awakened and difficult to go to sleep. Hence you can practice Trátaka one hour before going to bed. In case of tension headache, one may avoid this practice, as it may tend to aggravate the pain.
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