What is Tratak Sadhana? Part 2: The Benefits
Tratak is an advanced technique. Seek the help of a Guru before starting its practise.
This post continues from the prior article on Tratak – click here to read.
The benefits are many
The point of tratak is to ultimately still the mind and use the resulting concentration to access soul power within.
Aside from improved focus, mental acuity and memory, other notable benefits are:
- Precognition. One may experience such heightened levels of perception that your observation skills border on precognition. IE – you can almost read someone’s thoughts or know what they are about to say before they say it. This occurs because the mind is usually attempting to process more information from your 5 senses continuously than is usually possible. Most of the time it must ‘delete’ the majority of this information flowing in and just focus on the relevant details. With the practice of tratak, one starts to delete less and absorb more.
- Influence. Your powers of influence improve as you can no only ‘read’ people better, your added awareness and mental acuity give rise to greater levels of confidence. In combination these two factors allow you to improve your oration abilities, stick to the strength of your convictions and therefore much more easily influence others.
- Siddhis. The advanced practitioner of tratak can reach the stage where their cognitive abilities can access the subtle realms of existence and channel divine power to manifest siddhis (when used in conjunction with mantras); the easiest being clairvoyance, remote vision, psychic communication, etc.
Vashikaran Mantras and the Siddhi of Inception (Part 2)
Magnetise your personality to attract friends and influence people through mantra
Ignore the hype, here’s the review
In the first part of the series, we looked at the potential for inception through mantra. You can read the first part by clicking here if you did not have a chance to do so already, or wish to refresh your memory on the debate.
The general conclusion of the post was that having a limited degree of mental control over someone is possible – as clearly demonstrated by the practice of hypnotherapy – but doing so through mantra is highly unlikely, even if you had a ‘genuine’ mantra and attained siddhi (perfected the technique) due to the presence of individuals’ free will.
The Sequel!
A more interesting and plausible idea is that anyone can influence those around them in a positive manner through a personality transformation.
What does this mean? The answer is simple and within everyone’s frame of reference. Haven’t we all met a person in our lives who was so charismatic, who held everyone’s attention perfectly, who spoke beautifully, articulately and intelligently to captivate an audience? I am sure we all know someone like this – be it our favourite school teacher, a great spiritual Master, or great political/military leader. Why can’t we be more like our role models?
A new story: change yourself to change the world
In this regard, the answer is: there is no reason why we cannot. The idea of ‘leading from the front’ – ie by example – is an age-old concept. If you can think of no other, one example is known to all – the great Mahatma Gandhi, who led India out of British Rule by setting a firm and clear example of non-violent protest through his own actions.
The methods of how we can change ourselves through mantra are outlined below.
Mantra transformation
One can affect a great transformation – spiritual and otherwise through the use of mantra. Chanting certain mantras can have a deep conscious and sub-conscious effect on our psyche to enact incremental positive changes which over time build up and transform us completely.
The transformations considered are: character, speech, mental strength and action. These four concepts are the cornerstones of great personalities.
Here are the mantras to gain such benefits:
- Character: Worship Hanuman and Rama to understand and become the ideal personality. Click here to read my prior articles on improving one’s character and another article on writing Rama nama.
- Speech: Worship Saraswathy to master the art of articulation – click hear to see a powerful mantra.
- Mental Strength: Worship Ganesha and Narasimha to improve mental control and increase determination to achieve anything. Click to see Ganesha’s gayatri mantra and here to see the Narasimha Gayatri.
- Action: Thoughts are meaningless within firm action to drive them into reality. Click here to read a post on worshipping Skanda.
Those who are serious and wish to undergo a full effective change in their personalities should attempt at least an anusthan of each mantra to see real differences.
Click here to read the first article in the series on Vashikaran mantras if you missed it.
Follow me on Twitter: @MantraYogi
Navaratri 2011: Fill yourself with Divine Inspiration!
Our lives are blocks of marble waiting to be sculpted into perfection...learn how from Saraswathi!
Navaratri Day 7/8
We are now into the final two/three days/nights of Navaratri, depending on one’s calendar, and our thoughts now turn to Saraswathi, the Goddess of Speech, the Arts and Literature.
It is funny that the most popular poojas and havans or yagnyas within Hindu communities are those to Ganesha (to remove obstacles toward an achievement, goal or event) and Lakshmi (for attracting wealth), yet little thought is given to Saraswathi Devi. Where does the inspiration come from for business? Who guides you through an interview to land that dream job? Where does creative inspiration come from? Nowhere but the great Saraswathi.
Society may have it all wrong…!
Michaelangelo: guided by the hand of God
There is a tremendously inspiring story of what happened at the unveiling of the statue of David, by Michaelangelo. For those who aren’t familiar with the statue of David, it is an 17 foot tall sculpture of a scene from the Christian Bible. David is the one who slew Goliath with nothing but his wits and his slingshot.
Michaelangelo carved the statue from a single piece of marble over a period of 4 years. When it was unveiled, the crowd was silent with wonder. Some cried tears of joy at such a profound vision.
They asked him: “How did you carve something so beautiful from just one piece of marble?”
The master sculpture replied: “David was already in there…I just chipped away the excess!”
Mastery of the Creative Spirit
It is difficult to believe something so incredible is the work of a mere man. Some believe Michaelangelo’s work was guided by the hand of God. This is the key to understanding the power of Goddess Saraswathi. Worship her to gain mastery over all studious pursuits, creative arts and skills.
An article with mantras to Saraswathi can be found on a prior post by clicking here.
How to Learn the Divine Art of Speech
Powerful speech is the mark of a true leader
Tongue-tied? Speechless? Inarticulate? On the tip of your tongue?
How is it that some of us are excellent at expression through spoken word, writing, pictures, art, music, drama yet others struggle to string a sentence together?
Simplistically, these frustrating problems are symptomatic of two issues: (1) a lack of confidence; (2) a lack of skill in articulating oneself. Physical ailments may also be present – for which medical advice should be sought, but let’s deal with the former two points here.
Boosting Confidence
I have already covered confidence in a prior post (click here to see the article).
Divine Speech Therapy
If repetition is the mother of skill, it can be said that the Hindus believe the Mother of creative skill is The Goddess Saraswathi. Ancient references to Saraswathi begin in scripture, mostly of the Saraswathi river, which once flowed through the Indus Valley, but then increasingly to Saraswathi as Vaak Devi (The Goddess of Speech).
Oral tradition was the primary method of knowledge transfer and presentation for the Ancient Hindus; hence, before writing, there was speech. To gain proficiency in speech, and the Arts in general, one prayed to Saraswathi.
There are two straightforward mantras I would highlight; the first is below.
Transliteration
“Saraswathi Namasthubyam
Varade Kamaroopini
Vidya Aarambam Karishyami
Siddhir Bhavatume Sada”
Translation
I prostrate myself before Saraswathi,
Invite the form of everything I desire to bless me,
May I attain proficiency as I start my studies.
The second is the Gayatri Mantra – the most popular, powerful and sacred of all Vedic mantras. Chanting the Gayatri specifically gains the blessings of Saraswathi, amongst other deities.
The Gayatri Mantra is an ocean unto itself, and I will leave the reader to find other sources to learn more.
Please feel free to leave comments and feedback or follow me on Twitter @MantraYogi
What is Tratak Sadhana? Part 1: The Method
Tratak is an advanced technique. Seek the help of a Guru before starting its practise.
The Yoga of practicality
Tratak is one of the 6 methods of Hatha Yoga.
The practice of tratak is key to improving one’s concentration during meditation on certain abstract mantras.
In particular, one would practice tratak for bija mantra japa – such as Kleem and Shreem.
Tratak is generally considered an advanced technique and the help of a Guru should be sought by the serious practitioner.
Concetration is vital to manifestation
It is well known that benefits from mantra japa accrue in proportion to effort. Concentration is the underlying measure of effort; the greater the concentration whilst chanting, the more powerful the results.
Tratak helps to focus the mind and dramatically improve concentration. In this way, it is not dissimilar to pranayama.
What is tratak?
Tratak is the concentrated effort of maintaining one’s vision on one particular object or area within.
There are three forms:
- Inner – one focuses on the point between the eyes while they are closed. This is the area where the pituitary gland is located within the brain.
- Middle – focus on an object at an intermediary distance; for example an oil lamp at arm’s length.
- Outer – in this method the aspirant focuses on a distant object such as the moon or stars.
The method
- Freshly shower, wear freshly washed, loose clothes and find a quiet room to practice alone.
- Sit in your usual yogic asana (posture) – such as cross legged with the spine, neck and head straight.
- One calms the mind using pranayama before starting.
- Actively avoid and repel any intense emotional thoughts. Clear the mind.
- Start the tratak method that you find most comfortable (inner, middle, outer etc).
- Keep absolutely still and quiet during practice.
- Start with 15 mins of practice and work up to 1-2hrs.
- Always practice for the same or more time than in your prior practice.
- Try to be regular in practice – at the same time every day or week, depending on frequency.
- It will take at least 3 months of continuous practice to see significant improvement in your mental state.
The Original Mantra: the Pranava - OM
Swami Mantra Yogi 