Tratak
If we observe the above passages closely, it
becomes clear at once that they were invoking a yogic practice called Tratak.
The Hathayog Pradipika mentions six types (shatkarma) of hathayoga: dhauti,
vasti, neti, nauli, tratak and kapalbhati, that impart physical, mental and
spiritual power. The first four, i.e., dhauti, vasti, neti and nauli are more
concerned with purification of the body, while the last two, tratak and
kapalbhati, correspond to spiritual achievements.
Tratak sadhana is defined as focusing
your attention with concentration on a point in the flame of a lamp
continuously, without blinking. It improves memory, concentration, mental efficiency
and bestows great energy, foresight, clairvoyance, hypnotic and spiritual powers.
Inner tratak sadhana involves focusing
your attention on the middle of your eyebrows or heart, which are the seats of Agni
and Ishta Devata.
Tri gunas
So
far, we have been discussing in depth, the pancha tattvas or the 5 primordial
elements. Now, we need to introduce the factor of tri-guna, which through its
matrix of interaction with the five elements causes the creation. Guna reflects
the evolution and attitude of an individual and is the main cause of
subjectivity and transmigration.
It is well known
that the three gunas corresponding to creation (Rajas), sustenance
(Sattwa), and enlightening; rajas as passion – motivates us to create, desire, acquire
and enjoy and tamas as ignorance – dirty, degrading, deluding, and destructive,
yet all gunas.., as components of Maya, co-exist in creation and in every one. During Dissolution the gunas remain in
balance. Their imbalance ensues with the
beginning of creation.
According to Bhagavadgita, it is said
that based on the soul's samskara or preference for a particular mode, it takes
on a corresponding body. A person influenced mainly by goodness will be
elevated to the heavenly planets at death. Those largely in passion stay in
human society, and those infected with ignorance enter into the lower species.
Only pure souls, transcending even sattva ,
attain liberation and escape the entanglement of matter.
The
much misunderstood system of varnashrama-dharma actually allows us to understand how matter conditions the soul. As stated by
Sri Krishna in
According to the three modes of material nature and the work
associated with them, the four divisions of human society are created by Me.
And although I am the creator of this system, you should know that I am yet the
nondoer, being unchangeable.
As
apparent from the very words uttered by Sri Krishna, this system was based not so
much on birth but on personal character and inclination for a particular type of
work. The Brahmanas (priests, teachers and intellectuals)
represented Sattwa, the kshatriyas represented rajas, the Vaishyas symbolized a
mixture of Rajas and Tamas, while the Shudras stood for Tamas, but as already
clarified these were not water tight compartments, but enabled mobility between
the varnas based on individual evolution.
Sattwa Guna
The sattva guna is
said to be in full strength when ‘every gate (meaning sense perception) of the
body is illumined and receives Knowledge of the Absolute’, thus the sattva is
considered to be illuminating, a
‘revealer’ of Consciousness (prakashakam) that is without sorrow (anamayam).
Among the navagrahas,
Sun, Moon and Jupiter are considered to be the Sattwa planets.
Rajo Guna
The guna rajas is operative in the sphere of action
and ambition. Rajas is characterized by desire and passion,
thus leading to attachment. This attitude binds
the soul and consciousness firmly to the temporary illusion called samsara.
Sage Parashara categorized Venus and Mercury as rajasic
planets.
Tamo Guna
The tamas guna deludes all embodied beings (sarvadehinam),
is born of ignorance (ajnanam) and has no capacity for discrimination. This guna is
characterized by laziness, sleep and distraction. Because Light of wisdom is veiled
by ignorance, this guna leads us to neglect our spiritual practices.
Saturn, Mars, Rahu and Ketu are said to be the Tamasic planets among
the navagrahas.
The Matrix of
Gunas
The gunas are basically part of maya, which is
unreal and our attachment to their effects
will eventually lead us back into delusion. But, all the three gunas do have their function in
the creation. Rajas guna
with its sheer energy that can overcome the inertia of tamas and can cause Creation,
which neither the sattva nor the
tamas can do.
Tamas is necessary to destroy the redundant and obsolete, and the other two
gunas do not possess the necessary ruthlessness. Sattva guna equips us with
wisdom and enlightens our consciousness.
Tamas and Rajas conclusively weigh the soul down
with ignorance and desire. Sattva guna allows us a reprieve by allowing the
Divine Light to pierce through the darkness. But it is to be understood that
all the three bind us in the webs of illusion ...including the sattva guna. The
sattwa guna can result in an attachment to knowledge and wisdom, resulting in a
sort of spiritual / intellectual pride, which also can damage our chances of
emancipation. Thus Tamas, Rajas and Sattwa gunas indicate progressively higher
levels of buoyancy.
These
3 gunas manifest in astrology not only through the planets mentioned above, but
also through the signs which are divided into movable (rajas), dual (sattva), and fixed (tamas)
signs and a predominance / strength of planets/signs pertaining to a particular
guna in the natal chart can indicate the dominant guna of a person.
In astrology, all the signs have been divided into 3
categories, based on the gunas. Movable signs like Aries, Cancer, Libra and
Capricorn are categorized as Rajas and are ruled by Brahma, Fixed signs,
Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius are Tamas and are ruled by Shiva, while the
dual signs are Sattwa and are ruled by Vishnu.
We have all also come across
the term Rasi drishti, which is permanent. In Rasi drishti, all movable signs
aspect fixed signs except the one adjacent to them, while all fixed signs
aspect movable signs, except the one next to them, indicating that Tamas and
Rajas gunas have a lot in common and can easily influence each other,
periodically elevating or pulling down each other, whereas the dual signs,
indicating Sattwa guna, only aspect one other, of a similar nature. Thus when
one gets into the sattwik mode after a lot of introspection and struggle, there
is a greater probability that he would only look for similar environment and
usually does not get attracted to the baser gunas.
Tretagni : Drishti
Drishti / sight
is the attribute of agni. Any food offered to a deity is said to be consumed by
the deity through drishti. Since we have been talking about agni so much, it is
only natural we should veer towards a discussion on drishti. We all know that
agni is worshipped in 3 forms, called tretagni
or a triad of fire; in
Hindu religious ritual the three sacred fires taken
collectively -- the Ahavaniya agni or
sacrificial fire, the Garhapatya agni or the household fire, and the Dakshina
agni or the southern fire. It is obvious that
the above three fires are representative of the 3 sandhyas and the three
mystical rivers, Yamuna, Ganga and Saraswati, These three
sacred fires are obtained by the attrition of sticks commonly made of
the wood of the Asvattha tree, mystically called the Tree of Wisdom and
Knowledge.
Agni is the significator tattva for both Creation and
drishti and is said to be of three kinds… indicative of the trigunas that
influence creation.
The Garhapatya agni is
circular in shape and is situated in the west of the offering ground. Fire is
taken from the Garhapatya and kindled in the remaining two fires. The
Dakshinagni is semi-circular, situated in the south and used for certain
rituals, mainly for offerings to the forefathers. The Ahavaniya is square,
situated in the east, and is used as the main offering fire of most Srauta
sacrifices.
Fig 1.1 : Tretagni
Tretagni
East- Ahavaniya Agni-Mars
Morning-Rajas-Brahma-1st house
South- Dakshiniya Agni-Sun
Noon- Sattwa-Vishnu-10th
house
West- Garhapatya Agni– Moon
Evening-Tamas- Shiva-7th House
As there are 3 agnis, so there are 3 drishtis, be
it Rasi drishti or Graha drishti. Drishti or sight can be there only when there
is light / agni, i.e., during the day. Thus the fourth direction, representing
midnight is missing here.
Graha Drishti
All planets
hasve a full drhti on the 7th house, which is directly opposite to
their station. That is the house most bathed in that planet’s light. The outer
planets, viz., Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are empowered with special full
aspects, because being far above the earth they are equipped with the ability
to have a more comprehensive / objective view.
Ahavaniya
Agni & Chaturasra Drishti: The East symbolizes Sunrise and the
creation, thus its guna is Rajas. The East is also ruled by Agni and Brahma and
the 4th & 8th aspect of Mars, is symbolic of the 4
heads of Brahma, as is apparent from the “Chaturasra” or the Square shape of
the sacrificial pit.
Dakshina Agni
& Trinal Aspects
: The South symbolizes Pithris and Noon (Aparahna) is the time when they are
usually invoked. Here, the Sun is at his zenith and no shadows are cast. Thus
the Dakshinagni represents Sattva, and the trinal aspect of Jupiter. It is to
be borne in mind here that Sun rules the trines. The Semicircle sacrificial
altar indicates that half the day is past.
Garhapatya Agni & 3rd/ 10th aspect : The Garhapatya agni is situated in the West and is said to
be always burning…like our Karma…as indicated by the circle. The natural 7th
house, being a vayu tattwa rasi, is symbolic of Moon (significator for manas)
and is also the digbala rasi of Saturn
and Rahu, who represent the circle of desires (3H), death (10H) and unending
lifecycles. Since the 7th house is also the point of sunset, the
starting point of darkness, Tamas is the guna of this direction.
Shadow
houses & Graha Drishti
Since the concept of drishti is totally
based on Light, it is interesting to note that all the dustanas (shadow houses)
have no aspect on them, except Mars’ (Rudra) aspect on the 8th
house. Rahu has another drishti on the
invisible 12th house, because he alone is qualified to represent
Maha Tamas or the Great Darkness. The 11th house, being the
Harasthana, is also like a shadow house. The 3rd and 10th
drishti of Saturn touches the houses, which are immediately adjacent to the
shadow houses.
But we are only going to take into
account the special aspects of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, because Sage Parashara
had mentioned that the other planets also have Tri-pada (Mars), Dwi-pada
(Jupiter) and Eka-pada (Saturn) drishtis, which may lack the impact of full
aspects, but which are nonetheless important. However, the venerable Rishi had
never seemed to have accorded the 12th aspect of Rahu to other
planets in a similar manner, so let us confine ourselves to the 7th
house aspect of all planets and the special aspects of Mars, Jupiter and
Saturn.
From the above, we can also deduce that
all aspects before the 7th house can be classified as Tamasic and
all aspects beyond the 7th house can categorized as Sattwik, while
the 7H aspect itself is Rajasik (because the house where the planet is posited
is like lagna for that planet).
Rasi Drishti
Rasi drishti is the permanent drishti of
signs on one another irrespective of the fact whether planets are placed within
them or not. Since signs are fixed, like houses, they lack the mobility of
grahas (persons) to bend and cast trinal / tetra aspects and can only simply
aspect signs directly opposite to them.
Similar to the 3 kinds of Graha drishti,
discussed above, are the rasi Drishti, which are again inspired by 3 kinds of
agni. Considering the well established fact that Rahu is the north node and Gemini had often been
referred to as the north pole;. Sagittarius represents the South pole and is
the exaltation sign of Ketu; we can accordingly plot the signs onto the
Chaturasra (Mars, who rules Earth / Bhuloka) in the following manner as given
in the diagram, with Isana representing the head.
Fig:
1.2 : Earth / Zodiac
Immediately, what becomes apparent is
that that 5th, 8th
and 11th signs are opposite to the 1st sign, indicating
the rasi drishti of Aries on Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius. Upon doing a similar exercise
with other signs, we observe the following patterns emerge…which are very much
like the co-ordinates of a place…Latitude, Longitude and Altitude!!! These are
the three coordinates mandatory for defining any place on the earth, hence it
becomes increasingly apparent that assessing the rasi drishti is extremely
important to define the tenor / environment of the chart.
Fig 1.3 : Latitude
: Based
on the principle of Tretagni, this drishti represents the Tamasic guna.
Fig 1.4 : Longitude
: Rasi
Drishti can be interpreted as Rajasik here.
Fig 1.5 : Altitude
: Represents
Sattwa drishti.
Three
dimensional Drishti : Fitting all the above aspects into a single diagram
would make it appear like the following lattice-like diagram, revealing
something very akin to the internal
structure of a crystal. Thus when one is empowered with light and vision, every
single happening in the world is transparent to him…perhaps this is the crystal
ball the Rishis were gazing into…Bhuloka !
