F. SVYASA Dissertations

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Yoga Dissertations by Yoga Students at SVYASA. These pages present some efforts of SVYASA at Scientific Validation of Yoga, combining the best of the East with the best of the West

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Subject: search.filters.subject.Yogic Visual Concentration

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    Changes in Heart Rate Variability Following Yogic Visual Concentration (Traoaka)
    (S-VYASA, 2014-06-13) V. Rammurthy
    Yoga is an ancient Indian science and way of life. Sage Patanjali (circa 900 B.C) explains the theoretical aspects yoga in 196 aphorisms called yoga sutras (Taimini, 1999). Patanjali evolved Aṣṭaanga yoga (eight limbed yoga) to reach the ultimate reality. Later around 10th Century CE Sage Svatmarama wrote a text called Haoha Yoga Pradipika which explains the method and benefit of yoga techniques. He prescribes six cleansing techniques (kriyas) viz., dauti, basti, neti, trataka, nauli and kapalabhati to purify the body. The goal of Haoha Yoga is to prepare the body and mind for the practice of Rajayoga or Aṣṭanga Yoga (Muktibodhananda, 1993). The literal meaning of the Sanskrit word traṭaka is “to gaze steadily”. Looking intently with an unwavering gaze at a small point until tears are shed is known as traṭaka (Haoha Yoga Pradipika, Ch:2.31). Haoha Yoga Pradipika mentions that, practice of traṭaka eradicates all the eye diseases, fatigue and lethargy (Haoha Yoga Pradipika, Ch: 2.32). Though traṭaka is considered as cleansing technique, the final stage of traṭaka leads to meditative mental state (Nagaratha & Nagendra, 2000). Recently, a study has been conducted to assess the immediate effect of traṭaka on critical flicker fusion (Mallick & Kulkarni, 2010). The critical flicker fusion (CFF) is defined as the frequency at which a flickering stimulus is perceived to be continuous. There was a significant increase in CFF following traṭaka suggesting changes at the cortical level in the processes that mediate fusion. Meditation and autonomic changes are researched extensively and shown shift towards vagal tone during meditation (Orme-Johnson, 1973; Telles et al., 2013; Wallace, 1970). However, there was no study evaluating autonomic changes during traṭaka which is similar to meditation. Hence, in the present study, we used heart rate variability (HRV) which is a well-known and extensively used method to evaluate autonomic modulation .
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