By Rudra Shivananda
A theme that was consistently emphasized in the teachings of Yogavatar Lahiri Mahasaya, the polestar of Kriya Yoga, is that of the spiritual eye. He called it the Kutastha. It is equivalent to the third-eye center or Ajna chakra which is located in the third ventricle of the brain in the middle of the head behind the mid-eye brow.
All the sages have said that the Divine is within us and that we can realize our unity with the Divine. Lahiri Mahasya has identified the spiritual eye as the center through which one can attain to this Divine consciousness, because “it is the center of two-fold consciousness where the individual self meets the Cosmic Self.”
By the practice of Kriya breath and the Jyoti Mudra (an advanced technique of Kriya Yoga), the door to Divine Consciousness is revealed. It appears in the spiritual eye as a bright light – in the Master’s words – “the Divine Light illumines the spiritual eye. Within that bright light is revealed a blue center. It is a vibrant and yet serene light of solid blue. Further, within this blue center shines a star, the guiding light.”
It is the guiding light of this star revealed in the spiritual eye that fills the Kriya practitioner with a soothing peace that cannot be articulated and protects her from all desires throughout the hustle and bustle of daily life. It is the guiding light of this star that fills the Kriya adept with a self-less love that eventually stops the flow of the karmic wheel of life and death. It is the guiding light that fills the Kriya adept with the power of higher consciousness that eventually leads to the unity with the cosmic Divine Consciousness.
The Divine Light revealed in the spiritual eye shines in all the other lotus centers – the spiritual chakras along the central astral channel called sushumna nadi. It transforms all these pranic centers so that they each reveal their own levels of illumination in different spheres of consciousness to envelope the whole of existential Being.
Only when the whole self is realized can the soul-self merge with the Divine Self and attain Divine Consciousness. Lahiri Mahasya identifies this process as a second birth, “when the individual self-consciousness enters the cosmic Self-Consciousness, soul is reborn in God. This is the mystic second birth.”
When one is truly re-born, one enters into Samadhi immersed in the Divine Light and experiences the infinite bliss of consciousness, the absolute universal peace and the timeless eternity of existence. The state of awareness at the spiritual eye is called the Kutastha Chaitanya – it fills the whole body with the divine light.