Volume : 4 | Issue : 7 | July2015 ISSN - 2250-1991

Research Paper Education

Effect of Tratak Candle Flame Meditation on

Concentration and Memory Level of the College
Athletics Team

Dr. Binod Chowdhary Assistant Professor, Seva Bharati Mahavidyalaya, Kapgari.

The study was conducted to assess the “Effect of Tratak candle flame Meditation on Concentration and Memory level of the
college Athletics team”. The subjects for this study were 37 college students of B.A/B.SC from Seva Bharati Mahavidyalaya,
ABSTRACT

Kapgari. The student went through yogic practice of Tratak Candle flame Meditation for twelve weeks training program of
20 minutes during morning session. Pre- test data was collected in the beginning of the training and after the completion
of eight weeks training programme, Post-test was conducted. The score of the Pre-test and Post-test were statistically
analyzed by employing-test’ at 0.05 level of significance. A significant improvement in the variable was found as the effect
of Agnisar training.

KEYWORDS Tratak, Concentration and Memory.

Introduction – During our waking hours, our minds are usu- flow evenly through both halves of the brain, body and spinal
ally filled with thoughts good and bad. The mind has a ten- cord. The upward rush of energy creates a feeling of bliss. The
dency to stay in a state of disturbance and we have a propen- opening of the pineal gland takes times and does not happen
sity for being distracted easily. This leaves us feeling scattered overnight. Regular and persistent practice of Tratak will bring
and fragmented and unable to cope with situation that needs greater awareness of the visual realm, a relaxed state of mind,
focus. We are constantly being bombarded by thoughts and enhanced brain wave function, and a deeper knowledge of
may feel out of control. It comes as no surprise that, with all the self, all leading to the path to Enlightenment.
the thoughts that invade the mind, our minds drifts and wan-
der and cannot stay still for longer than a few moments. As Hindu scriptures say that the practice of “Tratak develops the
a result, we experience stress, memory loss and lack of con- faculties of greater intuition and the past, Present and future
centration. We are unable to feel and experience the present all begin to appear with equal clarity. We can enhance our
moment. power of concentration and strengthen our memory by an an-
cient meditation technique called Tratak. Its benefits bring an
Tratak is an Ideal Meditation technique. With continuous end to the mind’s distractions, enhance our ability to concen-
practice, you will witness an increase in your alertness, confi- trate, increase the power of memory and bring the mind into
dence level, stability in thoughts, and an ability to control sit- a state of supreme awareness, attention and focus.
uations that were previously difficult. You may also notice an
improvement in your eyesight. Tratak is very improving mental Objective of the Study:
clarity and capacity. People of all ages will benefit, especially To study the effect of Tratak candle flame Meditation on Con-
students who need to concentrate on their studies. Children centration and Memory level of the college Athletics team.
in India are started with this Meditation technique at an early
age, but this method should not be practiced by children that Hypothesis of the study:
are not supervised. Regular Meditation techniques may be dif- It was hypothesized that there will be significant changes in
ficult to master “Hello Giselle” if you are extremely stressed, the Concentration and Memory level of the college Athletics
worried or agitated. But Tratak is different in that you gaze at team.
a focal point, usually a candle flame that captures your sight.
The eyes control the thought process, and focusing on a can- Procedure and Methodology:
dle flame that is steady has tremendous and powerful bene- To achieve the purpose thirty seven (Female-24 and male-13)
fits. Changes in our consciousness level occur through gazing students were selected randomly from B.A/B.Sc class from
steadily at the glowing flame. To attain a deep state of med- Seva Bharati Mahavidyalaya, Kapgari. There age ranged from
itation, the level of energy in the mind must be elevated and 19 to 23. These students went through the Tratak Meditation
single- pointed. Concentration is the first stage of meditation. program of 20 minutes daily in the morning session. Before
Tratak induces and magnifies this single pointedness. starting the meditation programme the psychological based
tests for measurement of concentration and memory level
The light emitted from a flame is taken in the eyes and gen- were conducted.
erates energy. The lens of the eye concentrates the light and
heat energy of the flame onto the retina, and conducts the The test for the concentration and memory level were con-
light and energy through the optical nerves to the lopes at the ducted before and after the Tratak Meditation for eight
rear of the brain. This energy that has entered through the weeks. These tests can be describe as follows-
eyes now increase energy in the pineal gland and increase and
improves its function. The pineal gland is located at the back 1. Test for Concentration – In this test the subject were asked
of the head and feeds on light and heat energy. It is the only to solve some multiplication (four digits by figure) in 5 min-
gland receptive to light even though it is encased in bone. utes. After completing the assignment, the multiplications
The pineal gland is known as the “Third Eye” and converts were corrected. Results were tabulated as total attempted,
light into the electromagnetic energy responsible for the entire correct problems & wrong problems.
body’s glandular system. Flooding the Pineal gland with light 2. Memory Test- In this, the different 25 items were kept on
stimulates its development and functioning. This allows the the table. All subjects were asked to observe for one min-
opening of the “Third Eye” and the ensuring feeling of bliss. ute. After this observation, they were asked to write the
names of items within 5 minutes. The observations were
When Pineal function is restored to its peak, the body be- tabulated as the number of items written.
gins to respond with new balance as nerve energy begins to

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Volume : 4 | Issue : 7 | July 2015 ISSN - 2250-1991

After pre-test an Eight weeks training schedule of Tratak Can- The mean value for items written and correct items for
dle flame meditation practices were administered and after memory test and simply a score for cancellation test is
the completion of training a post-test were taken on con- given in table no. 2.
centration and memory level of the subjects. The score of the Effect of Tratak Candle Flame Meditation on Memory level.
Pre-test and Post-test were statistically analyzed by employing Treatment Items written Correct Items
t-test’ at the0.05 level of significance. Before
Males 14.6 13.5
Result: In order to determine the significance difference after Females 15.4 14.6
administrating the training treatment, the pre-test and post- Total 15.1 14.2
test scores. The results of the study are represented in tabular After
form. Males 16.7 15.5
Females 19.1 18.5
From the concentration test it was observed that the mini- Total 18.2 17.2
mum number of problems solved before Tratak meditation
were only three, out of which two were correct. But after the The histogram obtain from these values is as shown in
practices of meditation, the minimum number of problems Graph no. 2.
solved was nine, out of which 8 were correct. While the max-
imum number of problem solved before meditation were 41,
all were correct. But after the practice of meditation, the max-
imum number of problems solved was 42 and all were cor-
rect. The average number of problems solved before practice
were 20, out of which 17 were correct. But the meditation
practices, the average number of problems were 24, out of
which 21 were correct.

The mean values for the problems attempted, correct

problems solved wrong problems and not attempted
problems are given in table-1.
Table-1
Effect of Tratak Candle Flame Meditation on concentration.
Treatment Attempted Correct Wrong Not
attempted From the above histograms it is observed that after Tratak
Before Meditation the score for the respective tests increase signifi-
Males 21.5 17.5 2.5 20.5 cantly.
Females 19.9 17.5 4.0 22.1
From the memory test, it was observed that, before Tratak
Total 20.5 17.5 3.0 21.5
meditation, the average number of items remembered were
After
15, while after Tratak meditation, the number increased up
Males 22.9 20.8 2.5 19.1 to 19. The minimum number of items remembered before
Females 25.5 20.9 4.6 16.5 and after Tratak meditation were 8. But the maximum num-
Total 24 20.9 3.1 18.0 ber of items remembered before Tratak meditation was 21.
While after practice, this number has increased to 24. Before
The histogram obtained from these values is as shown in Tratak Meditation the maximum number of item 20 and 21
graph no. 1. were remembered by only one subject each. But after Tratak
Meditation, the maximum numbers of items (i.e.24) were re-
membered by 4 subjects. The 20 items were remembered by
11 subjects and 18 items were remembered by 8 subjects. Be-
fore Tratak Meditation only 4 subjects have remembered max-
imum number of items, but after Tratak meditation17 subjects
have remembered the maximum number of items. Here, we
assume that the 4 subjects have remembered maximum num-
ber of items before Tratak Meditation practice, they are having
good memory. So excluding these 4 subjects for remaining 23
subjects, the memory has increased significantly. This means,
the ability to reproduce the known things i.e. memory has in-
creased significantly. This means, the ability to reproduce the
known thing i.e. memory has increased. It is concluded that,
the memory has increased to 16% for 66% of subjects after
the Tratak Meditation Practice.
From the above histograms, it is observed that after Tratak
meditation the score for the respective tests increased signif- The standard statistical test recommended, to test wheth-
icant. er the Tratak Candle Flame Meditation practice changes the
concentration and memory level in case of tribal subjects is a
Before Tratak Meditation, the average minimum 5 problem paired t- test. It was applied for concentration test and mem-
were solved by subjects, but after the meditation the average ory test. In this case, null hypothesis to be tested is that there
minimum 10 problems were solved by subjects. Similarly be- is no difference before and after the Tratak Meditation. The
fore Meditation, the average maximum numbers of problem results are as:
were 20 by 11 subjects but after meditation, this average
maximum number of problems solved was 25 by 16 subjects. Mean
Test n Difference t-Test
The improvement in ability/ accuracy of solving problems af-
ter Tratak meditation indicates the increase in concentration. Concentration 37 2.87 6.37**
From the observation, it can be seen that the concentration of
70% subjects has increased significantly. Memory 37 2.91 5.68**

**: Highly Significant.

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Volume : 4 | Issue : 7 | July2015 ISSN - 2250-1991

The differences are statistically significant. So the hypothesis,

that the Tratak Candle Flame Meditation affects the concen-
tration and memory level is accepted.

Conclusion:
On the basis of result obtained the following conclusions are
drawn:

1. The Tratak Candle Flame Meditation had significant con-

tributing change over the concentration.
2. The Tratak Candle Flame Meditation had significant con-
tributing change over the Memory level of the subjects.

REFERENCES

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mindfulness Meditation”. Perceptual and motor skills 1984:727-733. | 3. Tloczynski, Joseph, et al., “Perception of Visual Illusions by Novice and Longer-term Meditation”.
Perceptual and motor skills 2000:10211-1027. | 4. Sedlmeier,Peter; Eberth, Juliane: Schwartz; Zimmerman, Doreen;Haarig, Fedrerik(2012),”The Psychological Effects of
Meditation: A Meta- Analysis”. Psychological Bulletin 138(6).pp. 1139-1171. | 5. Woolf, Kelvin; Bisognano, John (2011), Nondrug Interventions for treatment of Hyperten-
sion. 13. pp. 829- 835. |

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