Located at the point between the eyebrows, the “spiritual eye” is the seat of spiritual awaking within the body. Sometimes called the “Christ/Krishna Center” or Kutashta Chaitanya, the spiritual eye is also the positive pole of the ajna chakra and is the doorway through which all spiritual aspirants must pass their consciousness to attain the highest state of Cosmic Consciousness.
In the practice of meditation we gently uplift the eyes and focus our inner gaze at the point between the eyebrows in order to awaken this center. By holding our attention steadily at this point, we stimulate the frontal lobes of the brain and
magnetically draw life-force upward from the base of the spine to the brain. All spiritual states of awakening are accompanied by this upward movement of life-force.
Further discussion about the chakras, movements of life-force and an overview of our inner, spiritual anatomy will be covered in Level 2: The Art and Science of Raja Yoga.
Swami Kriyananda writes the following about the spiritual eye
(from Awaken to Superconsciousness)
The medulla is the seat of ego in the body. It is the negative pole of Selfconsciousness.
The positive pole is located at the point between the eyebrows. Here is the center of the higher expression of Self-consciousness. At this point is beheld also the spiritual eye, which is a reflection of the energy that enters the body constantly from the surrounding universe, through the medulla.
The spiritual eye is not imaginary. It is something one actually sees in meditation, when the thoughts are stilled, and when the intellect functions on its own higher, intuitive level. Many that I’ve met have told me they’d seen the spiritual eye in
meditation, some of them long before they had any idea what it was. Some saw it even before they knew about the spiritual path.
When the spiritual eye is beheld clearly, it is a golden circle of light surrounding a field of deep blue. In the center of this blue field is a white star with five points. When the spiritual eye is beheld imperfectly, it is seen as a dim violet light with a faint circle around it, and an even fainter dot in the center.
Whether or not you behold the spiritual eye, by meditating at that point your consciousness will gradually rise until at last it passes the portals of human awareness and enters the state of ecstasy, or superconsciousness.
One problem people face is not knowing from what position, mentally, to approach that spiritual center. Lahiri Mahasaya, my guru’s “spiritual grandfather” (his guru’s guru), said to concentrate the attention first in the region of the medulla oblongata, and from that point to gaze toward the spiritual eye.
People’s awareness of their egos is often distributed
vaguely throughout the body. By centering it consciously in its true seat, the medulla, it becomes possible to direct ego-consciousness toward its own
higher octave.
Once ego-consciousness has been dissolved in superconsciousness, the center of consciousness shifts naturally from the ego to the heart. At this point,
intuitive feeling takes one’s consciousness upward
through the spiritual eye and out into Infinity.
Mediation Upon the Spiritual Eye
Concentrate at the point between the eyebrows. Visualize there a tunnel of golden light. Mentally enter that tunnel, and feel yourself surrounded by a glorious sense of happiness and freedom. As you move through the tunnel, feel yourself bathed by the light until all worldly thoughts disappear.
After soaring through the tunnel as long as you feel to so do, visualize before you a curtain of deep violet-blue light. Pass through that curtain into another tunnel of deep, violet-blue light. Feel the light surrounding you. Slowly, the tunnel walls disappear in blue light. Expand your consciousness into that light—into infinite freedom and bliss. Now there is no tunnel. There is only the all-encompassing blueness and bliss of infinity.
At last, visualize before you a silvery-white, five-pointed star of light. Mentally spread out your arms and legs, assuming with your body the shape of that star. Give yourself to it in body, mind, and soul as you surrender every thought, every feeling to absolute, Self-existing Bliss.
Bliss cascades gently over you, like a waterfall of mist, filling your heart with ineffable peace.
