Awaken the third eye within us!

Today is Mahashivaratri or the Holy Night, the night of divinity.It is celebrated across India by followers of Lord Shiva. I am watching the live telecast from Isha Yoga Centre, Coimbatore. The founder, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev was giving a discourse some time back. I would like to share an interesting aspect he touched upon.We all do know of Lord Shiva's story but he highlighted something which we fail to realize in our lives.

He was telling about the greatest Yogi, Shiva in a state of ecstasy. Lord Shiva was dancing completely lost unaware of the world around. He was always like this and this disturbed the other Gods in Heaven. Hence they conspired to get Him married and bind Him to worldly affairs. Sadhguru light-heartedly said marriage is indeed a conspiracy which sometimes is sweet else turns bitter. I hope people realize this!
As planned by the Gods, Kama deva, the God of Love was called upon to shoot a love arrow at Lord Shiva. Kamadeva was fearful of the Lord yet he finally gathered courage to perform his task. Lord Shiva was infuriated and he opened His Third Eye and burnt Kamadeva. We have often heard this story but what we failed to understand is this.

Sadhguru said Kama is not an external thing, it was something within the Lord which He destroyed by awakening His Third Eye. Kama here signifies the evil within us like anger, jealousy, greed etc. The Third Eye is nothing but the awakening within us which destroys the evil in us. Hence we should destroy the evil rising within us by awakening our inner selves  This is possible through self-realization which is the result of true Bhakti (devotion) towards the Lord.

ॐ नमः  शिवाय 

Let's hope to get the blessings of Lord Shiva to rise above this materialistic world and realize our inner self.

Realize the Goddess' Greatness

I had been to Sri Sundarkumar's discourse (during Navaratri) on Ambal Mahimai (Goddess' greatness). He gave a beautiful example: A child always wants his mother to be around without letting the mother to go anywhere. One day, the mother engages the child with toys and goes off to do her regular chores. The child is lost in playing with the toys and forgets that his mother has fooled him into this. When this regularly happens, the child one day realizes and does not want the toy but wants his mother and does not allow himself to be satisfied with the toys and cries for his mother to come. Then the mother is forced to be with him.
In the same way, we are the child in the story and the mother is the Goddess, the toys are the various materialistic pleasures which the Goddess bestows upon us and makes us forget Her. Only when we realize Her Greatness and we come out of this bondage of materialistic pleasures does the Goddess really grant us Moksha. As long as we are lost in the material world, we will never be able to realize the Almighty

या देवी सर्वभुतेषु मातृरूपेण संस्थिता ।
नमस्तस्यै नमस्तस्यै नमस्तस्यै नमो नमः ॥

(To that Devi Who in All Beings is Abiding in the Form of Mother,  
Salutations to Her, Salutations to Her, Salutations to Her, Salutations again and again.)

Let's aim to rise above this materialistic world and realize the Greatness of the Goddess and seek Her blessings in this New Year!. Wish you all a very Happy, peaceful and spiritual year ahead!!