Yoga of Perfect Sight

Cure of Squint

An old teacher of our Centre of Education was maintaining good eyesight with her bifocal glasses. Suddenly one day she felt that she was seeing double images of the object. She observed that her left eye had almost gone blind: it could see neither at a distance nor at near and her vision was very hazy with or without glasses. When she looked into the mirror it greatly shocked and depressed her to see that convergent squint had developed in her left eye and it was quite prominent.

On examination in the dark room it was found that the inside of the eye was quite normal. We assured the patient that her sight would be all right within a few weeks and she began to follow the treatment:

1. Keep the eyes closed and move the body gently from side to side and not to open the eyes widely at any time and stop reading and writing completely. For breakfast she was advised to take only fruits and a cup of tea. Egg, butter, bread which made up her usual breakfast were completely stopped. This relieved the tension and she found her mind and body quite relaxed. By following this first instruction for about a month, double vision almost disappeared and there was clarity in the vision. She felt the eyes and mind relaxed.

2. After a month she used to come daily for her treatment in the clinic for taking sun treatment, doing palming, long swing and candle practice. She had developed the good habit of blinking which is imperative in bringing about gratifying improvement in such cases, and in a month's time her left eye gained almost normal vision with a lower power of glasses; but this did not help in correcting her squint.

3. The constant presence of squint was due to some tension and weakness of the muscle. It was not due to the paralysis of the external rectus muscle as it is generally believed. In such cases a special treatment `Tarpana' helps very much to strengthen the weak muscle and correct the squint. The first course of treatment relieved the squinting state of the eyes temporarily. Squint was disappearing and reappearing. But after the third course of treatment which was after a fortnight, her convergent squint completely disappeared for good and the eye became normal both in appearance and function.

Another exercise which helped her to regain her lost binocular vision was daily practice on amblyoscope. In the first days of her treatment she found it very difficult to fuse the images. Gradually, as the tension became less and the muscle became stronger the faculty of fusion developed. This was also helped by closing the good eye at home and doing all the household work for an hour or so with the had eye (her squinting eye) only. Naturally, the had eye learned to function without effort and strain. The use of the bad eye made the muscle stronger and in due course of time she could move her left eye outwards without having to move her head which was not at all possible when she came first.

The cause of such a sudden onset is a severe mental strain and the long-standing habit of using the eyes improperly. It was worthwhile cross-questioning this teacher; for, towards the end the cause became crystal clear which by itself was very suggestive of treatment. It was found that her mind was burdened with anxieties and worries and that she used to feel spent after a little work. Many other minor points such as these helped us greatly in determining her treatment. Now that she is absolutely normal and that she has resumed her work she feels happy and grateful: greater is our pleasure to see her well and free of such a displeasing abnormality which otherwise would have tinted her life with a shade of unhappiness.

Furthermore, operations in such cases do not prove beneficial. On the contrary they may damage the functioning of the eye. Operations can only correct the existing abnormality temporarily but cannot relieve the root cause, namely strain upon the nerves responsible for the sound action of the external rectus muscle.