In short
Trataka is steady gazing at a single point — usually a candle flame — until the eyes water, then closing them and holding the afterimage in the mind. It belongs to the shatkarmas, the six cleansing practices, and it is traditionally used to train concentration before sitting for meditation.
Trataka comes from a root meaning to gaze or to look steadily. It sits among the six shatkarmas, the cleansing practices, which is a strange home for something so contemplative until you notice what it cleans: not the body but the attention.
What trataka is
You fix your gaze on one small thing and keep it there. When the eyes water, you close them and watch the image the flame has left behind, until that fades too. Then you either stop or begin again.
What makes it interesting is the second half. The open-eyed part trains the eyes; the closed-eyed part trains the mind to hold an object that is no longer there. That is very close to what concentration means in the Yoga Sutras, and it is why trataka is so often taught immediately before meditation rather than as a practice of its own.
Setting it up
- A candle at roughly arm’s length, with the flame at eye level when you are seated.
- A room without draughts. A flickering flame defeats the whole exercise — you end up following movement instead of resting on stillness.
- Dim light, not darkness. Total darkness makes the contrast harsher than it needs to be.
- A seat you can hold without fidgeting for five minutes.
If a flame is impractical, a black dot the size of a coin on a white sheet at the same distance does the same job.
How to practise
Sit, settle the breath, and let the eyes rest on the flame — on the brightest part just above the wick. Do not stare in the aggressive sense. The face stays soft; only the gaze is steady.
Blink as little as you comfortably can, but do not turn it into a contest. When the eyes water, that is the signal, not a failure. Close them.
The afterimage
With the eyes closed you will see the flame again, usually as a bright shape that drifts and slowly dissolves. Rest your attention on it. When it moves, follow it without chasing. When it fades, let it go.
Students often ask what it means when the afterimage is blue, or splits, or moves left. It means your retina is doing what retinas do. The content is not the point; staying with it is.
How long, and how often
One round — gaze until watering, then hold the afterimage — is enough to begin. Two or three rounds is a full practice, and ten minutes in total is more than most people need.
Evening suits it better than morning, and it sits well immediately before sitting practice. Done daily for a fortnight it noticeably steadies concentration; done for an hour once, it mostly makes your eyes ache.
Who should skip it
This is the one part worth reading twice. Trataka is not for everyone, and the exclusions are real rather than ritual.
Anyone with glaucoma, retinal disease, recent eye surgery or serious astigmatism should not practise candle gazing without asking their doctor first. Anyone with epilepsy should avoid gazing at a flame altogether, and the same caution applies to people who get migraine with visual aura.
If you wear glasses, take them off. If your eyes are tired, sore or infected, practise something else that day. And if you find the practice leaves you with headaches rather than clarity, stop — a dot on paper is gentler, and for some people the flame is simply too much.
Used sensibly it is one of the most direct concentration practices in the tradition, and unlike most of the shatkarmas, you can begin it tonight.
Common questions
What is trataka?
A concentration practice in which you gaze steadily at a single point, most often a candle flame, without blinking until the eyes water, then close them and watch the afterimage. It is one of the six shatkarmas of Hatha Yoga.
How long should you gaze at the candle?
Begin with whatever is comfortable, often under a minute, and let it extend naturally as the eyes adapt. One to three minutes of open gazing is a reasonable practice. Forcing the eyes to stay open longer is not the point and is not useful.
Is candle gazing bad for your eyes?
For healthy eyes, practised briefly with a steady flame at arm’s length, it is not considered harmful. Anyone with glaucoma, epilepsy, recent eye surgery, retinal problems or a history of migraine with visual aura should not practise it without medical advice.
Can you do trataka without a candle?
Yes. A black dot on white paper, a small symbol, or a fixed point on a wall all work and avoid the questions a flame raises. The flame is traditional because it is steady and self-illuminating, not because it is required.
Known to his students as Achu, Aksharanand trained in the Sivananda tradition and holds an Advanced Teacher Training Certificate. He has taught Hatha Yoga, pranayama, meditation and Vedanta philosophy in Fort Kochi for over fifteen years, across more than 5,000 group classes and seventy international teacher training batches.
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