Yoga of Perfect Sight

Care of Eyes: A Dialogue

Sarla is an intelligent girl. Her eyes are beautiful. She is fond of music and knows the art of sewing. She is on a visit to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and enjoys the peaceful atmosphere. Her brother Ramesh is a young man of 25, his marriage is near. Sarla wants to stitch a suit for her brother. She has bought a piece of silk from the Auro Silk House.

Every morning after her prayers in the Sri Aurobindo Mandir she sits in the verandah to stitch the suit. After a few days she begins to feel a strain in her eyes and a pain in her head. One day she has intense headache and the pain in her eyes is so bad that she puts herself to bed. Her mother enters.

Mother —

My darling, my darling,
How are you?
My little one, my little one,
What pains you?

Sarla —

Ma, pain in the head,
Pain in the eyes
Has put me to bed,
Forbids me to rise.

The mother directs Sarla to go to an eye doctor. The doctor examines Sarla's eyes carefully but finds nothing wrong, yet he has prescribed glasses of plus 0.5.

Sarla now stitches the cloth with her glasses on but after a few days the headache and pain increase, her mother is greatly worried, she requests her husband to take Sarla to Dr. Agarwal.

Seth Ratanji is Sarla's father. He has arranged an appointment with the doctor and brings the daughter to his eye clinic. The nurse receives them. The doctor writes down her name and age and address and her complaint of pain and headache. Sarla sits on the eye testing chair facing the eye chart which is at 20 feet distance from her eyes.

Doctor—Read that chart with the right eye.

Sarla (closing the left eye with the fingers)—Very well.

Doctor—Not this way, cover the eye with the palm without any pressure on the eyeball.

Sarla (now covering left eye with the palm)—Yes, I can read up to 2QCOGDEC quite clearly.

Doctor (writing 20/20,)—Your right eye is normal. Now read with the left eye.

Sarla—Yes, 2 Q C line is quite clear.

The doctor then examines her eyes in the dark room and finds no defect. He and Sarla are now in the palming room. He puts her some questions.

Doctor—Can you tell me, Sarla, how you get strain and pain in your eyes?

Sarla—For some days I was stitching a cloth; it is at that time that the strain developed.

Doctor—Can you do stitching in my presence? Here are needle and thread.

Sarla (after a little sticking)—Doctor, my eyes and head have become heavy.

Doctor—Leave it. I understand your trouble. Now make yourself relaxed. Close your eyes and cover them with the palms of your hands. Look, how I do it.

Sarla (smiling)—This is palming.

Doctor—How do you know?

Sarla—Our teacher, Mr. Joshi, told us in the class to do palming for a few minutes every day. His eyes have been greatly benefited by palming.

Doctor—Look at the blackness of the top letter of this chart or at the piece of black velvet placed on your pillow and then remember the black colour while palming. You will then observe that it is all perfectly dark before your eyes.

Sarla—Yes, I see it is all perfectly dark before my eyes.

Doctor—Continue palming for five minutes or till you feel quite relaxed.

Sarla (after palming)—Doctor, please, make me all right soon, I have to stitch a suit for my brother.

Doctor—You will find yourself quite all right tomorrow.

Sarla—Can you tell me, doctor, what is wrong with my eyes.

Doctor—Nothing wrong with your eyes except this that somehow you have developed a wrong habit of sewing. You don't blink, you don't move your sight with the movement of the needle. Just see, I am showing you the right method of sewing.

Sarla—This is very easy, I can also do sewing like that, (Sarla now does sewing in the right way, her sight moves with the movement of the needle.)

Doctor—One thing very important I'll tell you.

Sarla—What?

Doctor—Fine stitching and fine print reading are very beneficial to the eyes.

Sarla—But, doctor, a teacher of ours tells us that fine print reading is harmful.

Doctor—What is the age of this teacher?

Sarla—About 40 years.

Doctor—Usually at this age one feels a strain in reading fine print. That is why your teacher says so. But if one can make it a habit to read the same fine print daily, fine print reading will prove extremely beneficial.

Sarla—Is there any book of fine print?

Doctor—Here is fine print; can you read it?

Sarla—I can read it very well. Now please tell me something practical for the good of the schoolchildren.

Doctor—What is this in my hand?

Sarla—Eye testing chart.

Doctor—Put the eye chart on the wall of each classroom and let the children read it silently from their seats with both eyes and with each eye separately, covering the other with the palm of the hand. Children should also be educated to do palming. This is enough to keep their eyes all right.

Sarla—This is quite practical. it will need hardly 5 minutes. I will tell this fact to Mr. Joshi.

Doctor—Those who have bad eyesight may read it four or five times a day after palming.

Sarla—You said something about blinking. What is blinking?

Doctor—The upper lid makes a short and gentle movement: look at my eyes. see how I blink.

Sarla—I understand. Look at my blinking.

Doctor—This is winking, not blinking. Again see how I blink.

Sarla's father is greatly impressed by the doctor's knowledge and kind talk. He puts a big note in an envelope and presents it to the doctor along with the invitation to his son's marriage. Both Sarla and Seth Ratanji express their gratitude to the doctor and take leave.

Doctor Agarwal opens the envelope and finds a three figure note in it. He feels very happy and sends this hundred rupee note to the Divine Mother for Ashram expenses. He knows that it is the Divine Grace that does miracles for his patients and that he is simply an instrument to give benefit to suffering humanity.

It is a fact that most of the eye troubles and other discomforts of the head are due to wrong use of the eyes and lack of relaxation. Mental relaxation is the key to success in life. If the students are taught how to read and write, how to see the cinema and sew, how to palm and read the chart, they will be free from mental strain and eye troubles, and show better progress all round.