Third Eye

Everybody is familiar with the two eyes we have, which are the organs that help us to see the physical world. Actually it is our intellectual prowess that makes us see things by processing the signals brought in from the physical world by these two eye-organs.

On the other hand, for our intellectual prowess to be able to ‘see’, that is, to realize the spiritual world (or the aatma, or our own self) it must grow to attain ‘spiritual wisdom’. This spiritual wisdom (or bibek budh) is also known as the ‘third eye’.

Being engrossed in the materialistic pleasures of the physical world, our third eye is clouded with ignorance. Its prowess only goes as far as seeing the physical world (jaat) and not our real self (jot), while latter should be our major concern as mentioned in the following Gurbani verse,

ਜਾਣਹੁ ਜੋਤਿ ਨ ਪੂਛਹੁ ਜਾਤੀ ਆਗੈ ਜਾਤਿ ਨ ਹੇ ॥

Jano jot na poochho jaati aage jaat na he || (Page 349)

How can one then remove the cloudiness from the third eye? Gurbani tells,

ਗਿਆਨ ਅੰਜਨੁ ਗੁਰਿ ਦੀਆ ਅਗਿਆਨ ਅੰਧੇਰ ਬਿਨਾਸੁ ॥

Gyan anjan gur diya agyaan andher binaas || (Page 293)

which means that the knowledge from Guru acts like an anjan (eye ointment) that needs to be put into the third eye, thus dispelling cloudiness (or darkness) caused by ignorance. Other verses suggesting the same fact are,

ਗੁਰਮੁਖਿ ਗਿਆਨੁ ਬਿਬੇਕ ਬੁਧਿ ਹੋਇ ॥

Gurmukhi gyan bibek budhi hoye || (Page 317)

ਸਤਸੰਗਤਿ ਮਿਲਿ ਬਿਬੇਕ ਬੁਧਿ ਹੋਈ ॥

Satsangati mil bibek budh hoyi || (Page 481)