Q&A: The Spiritual Heart

Is it desirable to try to open the third eye in meditation?

The inner eye should be opened only when there is inner purity and maturity, and when neither the past nor the future will disturb you. Many times the vessel is not ready, but by means of tremendous determination a seeker does succeed in opening the third eye. Then the result is most discouraging and damaging. When you are not spiritually mature, if you see with your third eye that your mother is going to die tomorrow, then you will die today with worry and anxiety. Or if you become aware of some unfortunate incident that took place in your past, you will feel extremely miserable and you will not have the strength to continue going forward.

There are people who have opened the centre between the eyebrows before having opened their heart centre and, by the Grace of the Supreme, have not made serious mistakes in using this power. But most of the time, unless and until the heart centre is opened and the emotional part of one's nature is totally purified, the seeker will fall victim to merciless temptation if he opens the third eye. He will try to see something inwardly and immediately he will tell others, or he will try to enter into somebody out of curiosity to see what is happening in that person's nature. There are a thousand and one things which can eventually lead the seeker far, far away from the path of spirituality.

For beginners especially, it is always advisable to meditate on the heart centre. In fact, even if you are advanced, you should meditate there, because in the heart centre you get joy and become part and parcel of whatever you are meditating on. If you concentrate on the third eye, you may not have the feeling of oneness. You may see light, but you will feel that it is not yours; you will think that perhaps it was not light at all but just imagination or hallucination. Doubt may enter into your mind. But when you use the heart, the joy that you get you immediately feel is yours; the peace that you feel is yours; anything that you feel becomes yours. This is the heart's capacity for oneness.

O my heart, 0 heart of mine, you are my life-boat. You sail the uncharted seas of ignorance and reach the Golden Shore of the Beyond. O sweet, sweeter, sweetest heart of mine, you are not only God's. God also is yours.