The third eye⁴

Dear seekers, I am extremely happy to be here with you. This art gallery is called the Third Eye Centre; therefore, I shall give a short talk on the third eye. I wish to invoke the third eye of all the seekers here, and if you want to, you can be of help to me. There is a special way to invoke the third eye, and that is to chant AUM. We have six major psychic centres. Each centre has a sacred seed sound. The seed sound of the third eye is AUM. Before I begin my talk, I wish the seekers to join me in chanting AUM three times.

AUM… AUM… AUM.

AUM is a Sanskrit syllable. It is the combination of three letters: A, U and M. A represents God the Creator. U represents God the Preserver. M represents God the Transformer. There was a time when seekers felt that God the Creator needed God the Preserver, and that God the Preserver, as necessity demanded, would need God the Destroyer. But in the spiritual process of evolution, seekers of the highest magnitude have discovered that God does not destroy. He only transforms. Anything that is unlit, obscure or impure in us, He transforms into purity, beauty and divinity. So when we chant AUM, at one time we invoke God the Creator, God the Preserver and God the Transformer.

The third eye is located between the eyebrows, a little above. This eye is also called “the commanding eye”. What does it command? It commands our past, our present, our immediate future and our distant future. That is to say, past, present and future are at its command. The third eye, when it envisions the past, feels and sees the beginning of humanity’s evolution. When it enters into the present, into the immediacy of today, it sees the capacity and receptivity of humanity. And when it enters into the near or distant future, it sees not only the possibility and practicality, but also the inevitability of humanity’s progress, perfection and satisfaction.

There are quite a few ways one can open the third eye, but the two most significant ways are through prayer and through concentration. If one soulfully prays to the Absolute Supreme to open one’s third eye, the Lord Supreme may open it. And if one concentrates on the third eye soulfully, devotedly and consciously, then one can open the third eye oneself. But even in this case, the seeker owes his success ninety-nine per cent to the divine Grace, for without it he cannot even make the sincere effort. Although he may want to become sincere, sincerity does not come to the fore all at once. It takes a very, very long time. Therefore, the seeker has to know that God’s Grace has given him the necessary sincerity to open his third eye.

Some of you may be curious to know what actually happens before the third eye opens. Before the third eye opens, the seeker feels a kind of sensation in that spot. In the beginning, it may feel as though a tiny ant were moving around there. A few days or a few months later, the seeker will inwardly see a disc. At first it rotates from left to right. Then, when it starts rotating very fast, it changes its direction and rotates from right to left.

After a few months or a few years, the seeker will see a fully illumined sun in his forehead, like a bright midday sun. This sun indicates the complete opening of the third eye. When the third eye is completely opened, the infinite Vast, the eternal Height and the immeasurable Depth can be seen inside the third eye. At that time, the seeker sees himself as the seed of the entire creation, as the tree of the entire creation and as the fruit of the entire creation. The seed is the past, the tree is the present and the fruit is the future.

For absolutely sincere seekers, highly advanced seekers and seekers who have totally surrendered to God’s Will, to have the third eye opened is a veritable blessing, a great boon. But if the seeker still has many earthly desires to be fulfilled, then it is nothing but a curse. There have been many seekers who made considerable progress before their third eye was opened. But when their third eye was opened on the strength of their eagerness or on the strength of their dynamic will, and not on the strength of their surrender to God’s Will, their progress stopped almost immediately. When the third eye is opened while the vital is still impure, the power of the third eye creates problems for the seeker. The impurity of the vital enters into his divine vision and blinds it. Then the human being, at times, acts like a mad elephant.

If the seeker wants to open his third eye in order to know his past, and if he sees that in his past life he was an atheist, then despondency assails him. He feels that if he did not even believe in God in his previous incarnation, how can he realise God in this incarnation? If the past was not satisfactory, being able to see it with the third eye can create problems for the seeker. And if the distant future is not promising, the seeker will feel doomed to disappointment if he can see the future. If the future is threatening and frightening, then the third eye may create tremendous fear. But when the third eye is opened in accordance with God’s Will, no matter what the seeker did in the past, no matter what is going to happen today or tomorrow, no matter what will take place in the distant future, the seeker will not be affected, for God’s Will will liberate him, illumine him, perfect him and immortalise him.

There are some spiritual Masters who tell their students that it is not advisable for them to try to open the third eye. What is of paramount importance right from the beginning is to surrender to God’s Will. The easiest and safest way to become aware of God’s Will and to surrender to God’s Will is to open the heart centre. If the seeker opens the heart centre first, then he becomes inseparably one with God’s Will. After that, if God wants to grant the seeker that Vision which He Himself is, if God wants to open the seeker’s third eye, then it will not cause any problem. At that time the happenings of the hoary past, the immediate present or the ultimate future are no longer matters of concern to the seeker, for the seeker has become inseparably one with God’s universal Vision and transcendental Reality. Inside God’s universal Vision and God’s transcendental Reality, all the things that he sees, feels and grows into can be perfectly housed without any problem whatsoever. So if God wants to give Vision to a certain seeker, He will give it. Why? Just because the hour has struck for Him to make a perfect instrument of that person. But if a seeker untimely pulls the Vision-Reality of the third eye, it will be a disaster for him. The third eye is the eye of illumination for sincere seekers. But for curiosity-mongers the third eye is nothing but temptation.

The third eye is like a toy that a child plays with. After a few years he does not want to play with toys any more and he gives it up. At that time he studies for knowledge; he prays and meditates for inner wisdom. After the seeker has played for a few years with the third eye toy, he wants to acquire infinite wisdom-light. This wisdom-light he gets on the strength of his constant surrender to God’s Will and by virtue of his inmost cry.

The opening of the third eye does not determine God-realisation at all. Some people think that if the third eye is opened, that means they have realised God. No, the third eye can see the Face of God, but this does not indicate that conscious oneness with God has been established.

The third eye can see the past, the present and the future, but it cannot change humanity’s cry into divinity’s Smile. With it we can see something, but we don’t have the capacity to change it. If we can’t change it, then it remains imperfect. But if we see something and have the capacity to perfect it, then it is worth seeing. If one has discovered oneself and has realised the highest Truth, then if one sees something that needs perfection, at that time he can perfect it. It is the seeker’s self-discovery that can make the third eye an effective divine instrument. When the third eye observes something that needs perfection, the third eye can get the necessary help from the inner light of the seeker’s self-discovery.

The earthly eyes, the two human eyes, are side by side, but they cannot see each other. Why? Because of the human limitations, because of the earthly bondage that each eye embodies. But if we stand in front of a mirror, then we see both the eyes at once. Similarly, when we stand in front of our highest Reality, God, and see God with our third eye, then only can we see human life in its acme of perfection. Otherwise, the third eye will see, but what it sees will not offer any abiding satisfaction to the seekers of the ultimate Truth. Only if it sees God, only if it sees infinite Truth and Light, only if it can embody God’s divine Presence at all times and feel God’s universal Reality inside its Vision, only then can the opening of the third eye be a perfect spiritual experience.