There is a legend that once two warring brothers Bharata and Bahubali engaged themselves in a ‘staring war’!. They were two princes who ruled India more than 2000 years ago. They wanted to settle a succession dispute among themselves by engaging in a ‘war of staring’ or DrShti Yuddha. They did not want to indulge in bloodshed. They kept staring at each other without batting an eye lid. Whoever winked first, is the loser. A completely nonviolent way of settling a dispute!
I am sure you too would have played this staring game in your younger days. The fact is that it is very difficult to keep the eyes open for long. Sooner or later, you need to close the eyes even momentarily. That is a natural body movement which is almost automatic just like our breathing for example.
In a previous episode we saw how controlling our breathing can be used to train our attention system. How about using our winking reflex to do the same?
When you intentionally withhold from winking, your attention is focused on overcoming the natural urge to wink the eyes once in a while. You cannot possibly keep the eyes open forever, but you can prolong it to the extent possible, just like you hold your breath in Pranayama. When you reach the limit, just give up for a moment and try once again.
This is the idea behind Trataka – a Hatayoga technique to focus your mind.
In Trataka, you keep staring at any small object without batting your eyelids. Obviously, after sometime, the eyes get tired and you have to close your eyes.
After a brief pause, start all over again. And keep repeating this process. During that period, your mind will be well focused. No other thoughts would enter your mind.
Instead of focusing on any object, more effective way would be to focus on a burning flame – say that of a candle or an oil lamp. I personally feel that an oil lamp is better.There are certain things you need to keep in mind.
1. It is better to do it in a dark place with no lights around, other than the burning candle or lamp. This would minimize distractions.
2. The place has to be free of any strong breeze. A breeze can waver the flame and again distract your attention.
3. The flame should be at least 5 to 6 feet from you. This is to ensure that you stare it with eyes narrowly open. So, you feel relaxed.
4. Do the practice in a seated position. You can choose any of the seated postures, that you are comfortable with. You can sit in Padmasana, Vajrasana, Sukhasa and so on. The image on the screen shows the person sitting in Vajrasana. But you can sit in any other posture. But make sure that the back is straight, head and neck are aligned with the torso. This is to prevent you from feeling sleepy.
5. The height of the flame should be approximately in line with the eyesight, so that you neither have to raise your eyes nor lower them. This eliminates strain on eyes.
Keep staring as long as you comfortably can without batting the eye lids. In the beginning, you may find it difficult to hold it for long. Don’t strain yourself too much. Close it for a moment if you need to, and give some rest to the eyes.
Open the eyes and start the exercise all over again.
You can do this exercise for say, few minutes and gradually increase it to 10 or twenty minutes a day. But don’t overdo it.
Some Hatayoga texts suggest that you keep your focus fixed on the internally generated image of the flame when you momentarily close the eyes. This is called ‘Antar Tratak’ as against staring the external flame which is called ‘Bahir tratak’.
That way, you continue to keep your focus on the flame, either externally or internally, with eyes open or eyes closed.
Hatayogis make lot of claims about what can be achieved with this staring exercise – freedom from all eye related ailments, correction of eyesight problems, postponement of age-related eyesight problems, attainment of psychic powers and so on.
The fact is that, this exercise if done properly definitely strengthens the eye muscles and surely is one of the most effective ways of improving mental focus. As far as psychic powers are concerned, they have more to do with a focused mind than to a specific technique used.
I have explained my own early childhood experiences doing Trataka in one of my books namely, “Mysterious experiences – A peek beyond the confines of the Mind”. It is a different matter though, at that time I was too small to understand what I was doing and I was doing it almost instinctively😉
Let us not get into psychic powers part and continue with our focusing techniques in the next episode.
A series revolving around Mind – Science of Mind, Philosophy of Mind, Notions of reality, Mind modulation, Domains beyond Mind, and so on. © Dr. King 2019-2020
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