Shiva has always been referred to as Triambaka because he has a third eye. A third eye does not mean a crack in the forehead. It simply means that his perception has reached its ultimate possibility. The third eye is the eye of vision. The two physical eyes are just sensory organs. They feed the mind with all kinds of nonsense because what you see is not the truth. You see this person or that person, and you think something about him, but you are not able to see Shiva in him. So, another eye, an eye of deeper penetration, has to be opened up.

Any amount of thinking and philosophizing will never bring clarity into your mind. Anyone can distort the logical clarity that you create; difficult situations can completely put it into turmoil. Only when vision opens up, only when you have an inner vision, will there be perfect clarity.

What we refer to as Shiva is nothing but the very embodiment of ultimate perception. It is in this context that the Isha Yoga Center celebrates Mahashivratri. It is an opportunity and a possibility for all to raise their perception by at least one notch. This is what Shiva is about, and this is what Yoga is about. It is not a religion; it is the science of inner evolution.