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This discipline, in brief, consists in setting up: (a) some center within the body , say at the plexus of the heart of the region of the vital airs, where the mano –mai center –atman dwells. (b)
Some
center outside the body. (c)
One
has to work at both the centers within and with- out and to do pranayam in
between the two centers. Out and to do pranayam in between the two centers. (d) The practice of tratak or the discipline of the vision (sight), by gradually bringing the attention from with out to within, and keeping it fixed on one of these inner centers for some time. In setting up centers outside the body one has to sit in solitude and make a yellow spot on a white are, which is to be placed on the table or hung on the wall on a level with the eyes. Tratak or the fixing of the gaze is then done on that spot while the pingala nadi is in action. The attention is also to be fixed on and gradually absorbed within the Anahat Sound. After practicing this for afew days, the outer spot is to be changed to blue, to red, to bluish white, and lastly into a brilliantly white color, after some days of practice (spot –gazing) is to have a clear vision of the elemental colors which are representative of the colors of earth, water, fire air and ether, respectively. For quicker resuts, this is to be done for at least two or three hours every day. It improves eyesight and serves as a great aid in influencing others. Again, one has to take care of the distance between the spot and the organ of sight. To begin with , the spot is to be located at a distance of about two feet; after practicing for a few days, the distance of about two feet; after practicing for a few days, the distanceis to be reduced to one and three- fourths feet, to one foot and then to half a foot. When this tratak develops ino a kind of exhilarating absorption, it may be brought still nearer to the tip of the nose .Then begins the root of the nose between the two eyebrows. The importance of this practice is that the scattered vritis are to be controlled from wandering without, collected at the still- point in the body or the seat of the mind, and inverted within to bring about, of itself, rhythm in the pranas, and both the viritis and the pranas simultaneously get aadjusted of themselves By the process of tratak, the mind and the pranas become harmonized, and the soul escapes through the mano-mai and pran – mai koshas, or the covering sheaths. |