Shiva has always been referred to as Triambaka because he has a third eye. The third eye does not mean someone’s forehead cracked and something came out! It simply means another dimension of perception has opened up. The two eyes can see only that which is physical. If I just cover them with my hand, they cannot look beyond that. That is how limited they are. If the third eye opens, it means another dimension of perception, which is inward-looking and looks at life completely differently, has opened up and everything that can be perceived is perceived.
If your perception has to evolve and enhance itself, the most important thing is that your energy has to evolve and enhance itself. The whole process of yoga is to evolve and refine your energies in such a way that your perception is enhanced and the third eye opens. The third eye is the eye of vision. The two physical eyes are just sensory organs. They feed the mind with all kinds of nonsense, because what you see is not the truth. You see this person or that person and you think something about him, but you are not able to see the Shiva in him. You see things the way it is necessary for your survival. Another creature sees it another way, as is necessary for its survival. This is why we say this world is maya. Maya means it is illusory. We are not saying that existence is illusory. We are only saying the way you are perceiving it is illusory. So another eye, an eye of deeper penetration, has to be opened up. The third eye means your perception has gone beyond the dualities of life. You are able to see life just the way it is, not just the way that is necessary for your survival.
There is a scientist who recently published a book where he talks about how much of the physical existence is visible to the human eye. He says 0.00001% is all that the human eye sees of the physical existence. So if you look with the two physical eyes, you will see what is manifest. If you look with the proverbial third eye, you will see what is yet to manifest and what could manifest.
If your perception has to evolve and enhance itself, the most important thing is that your energy has to evolve and enhance itself. The whole process of yoga is to evolve and refine your energies in such a way that your perception is enhanced and the third eye opens. The third eye is the eye of vision. The two physical eyes are just sensory organs. They feed the mind with all kinds of nonsense, because what you see is not the truth. You see this person or that person and you think something about him, but you are not able to see the Shiva in him. You see things the way it is necessary for your survival. Another creature sees it another way, as is necessary for its survival. This is why we say this world is maya. Maya means it is illusory. We are not saying that existence is illusory. We are only saying the way you are perceiving it is illusory. So another eye, an eye of deeper penetration, has to be opened up. The third eye means your perception has gone beyond the dualities of life. You are able to see life just the way it is, not just the way that is necessary for your survival.
There is a scientist who recently published a book where he talks about how much of the physical existence is visible to the human eye. He says 0.00001% is all that the human eye sees of the physical existence. So if you look with the two physical eyes, you will see what is manifest. If you look with the proverbial third eye, you will see what is yet to manifest and what could manifest.
In this country and tradition, knowing does not mean reading books, listening to someone’s talks or gathering information from here and there. Knowing means opening up a new vision into life. On Mahashivarathri, somehow, nature is bringing that possibility very close. It is possible every day, it is not that we have to wait for this particular day, but on this day, nature makes it more available to you.