TRATKA

 

Hatha Yoga Pradipika contains six tasks in it i.e. Vasti, Dhauti, Nauli, Neti, Kapalbhati and tratka to purify the body for success and perfection in life in a unique way. Tratka is the important task of all to attain Dharana (concentration).

Tratka, chanting of mantra or reciting Bani or prayer etc. are some ways of boosting up concentration. Some people take to the practice of playing on rosary beads to attain the state of concentration. However, Tratka is by far the best practice at the preliminary stage for the purpose of acquiring concentration.

Tratka is an exercise of focusing your vision on a point at a stretch without any distraction in order to augment concentration. It makes the mind peaceful, devoid of any idea and free of tension. It is practised either outside the physical body at a thing located in the environment or inside the body at any chakra. It has mainly three forms i.e. Nikat Tratka, Door Tratka and Antar Tratka.

Near Focus (Nikat Tratka) is the process of focusing the vision on a thing located in the environment near the physical body of the practitioner. Nikat Tratka is very important to develop concentration. It produces mesmerizing qualities in the practitioner.

Remote Focus (Door Tratka) is the process of focusing the vision on a thing located in the surroundings at some distance from the physical body of the practitioner. It is fundamental in the practice of telepathy.

Inner Focus (Antar Tratka) is the process of fixing the eyes on a chakra usually brow chakra located inside the physical body of the practitioner in order to enhance the peace of mind through meditation. Antar Tratka is highly important in awakening the Kundalini.

Tratka means gazing or not allowing your consciousness to move. The technique of gazing is actually not connected with the object. It is connected with gazing itself for the reason that when you look attentively without blinking your eyes, you become focused. The disposition of the mind is to be persistently moving from one object to another and when you are not allowing the mind to move, it struggles hard in the beginning. But the mind loses struggling after a while if you go on practising gazing. The mind stops for moments. And when it happens, there is no mind, because mind can exist only in movement. In simple words, thinking can exist only in movement. Thinking disappears, when there is no movement. The movement of the mind discontinues if you are gazing in reality. Since if the mind continues moving, your gaze will be absent; you miss the object. You will forget what you were looking at when the mind has moved somewhere else. The object will be present bodily, but it will have gone for you because you have moved in thought. Gazing means your eyes as well as your entire mind are focused through the eyes. You are just looking at, doing nothing. That deep looking will revolutionize you from top to bottom. It will turn out to be a meditation. Both your eyes and your consciousness should get together in the focusing. You must be really looking through the eyes; you must not be absent from there. However, your presence is needed.  Initially, the difficulty will be that you will be looking at, but you will not be present.  Your eyes will be fixed, your mind will be moving. There will be no meeting of the eyes and the mind. If you win over it, the second difficulty will be that gazing with no movement, you will fall asleep. You may become unconscious, you may fall asleep. Even with open eyes, it is possible that you may fall asleep. You will be hypnotized by yourself. That is natural, because our mind knows only two states: either the constant movement or falling into sleep and meditation is a third state. The third state of meditation means your mind is as silent as a deep sleep, and as alert and aware as in thinking. Both silence and alertness must be present. You must be fully alert but silent as if deep in sleep.

One of the benefits of the Tratka is that it improves eye-sight and heals ordinary eye problems. Moreover, it does away with laziness and makes the mind peaceful. In fact, it is the base of meditation. In course of regular practice of Tratka, hypnotic and telepathic qualities are automatically acquired by the practitioner on account of concentration.

 Tratka should be practised in the normal health conditions. Time devoted to Tratka should be enhanced slowly and steadily. Do not wink during the practice. Stop the practice when eyes start watering and then wash the eyes with cold water. Restart the practice after getting normal and refreshing the eyes. Keep in mind, all kind of emotions should be in control at the time of the practice of Tratka. Therefore, try to make the mind free of all the ideas. There should be optimum light and fresh air in the room where the Tratka is to be practised. The environment should be peaceful. There should be no disturbance like noise, foul smell, insects, smoke and dust etc.