Ishtalinga is an indispensable means for the practice of Shiva-yoga. It is made of light grey slate stone which contains and generates electricity. To be kept intact, it is coated all over with a fine durable paste made of certain ingredients. The colour of the paste is indigo or blue-black. The colour of bhrumadhya chakra (i.e., agneya chakra or brow chakra) is also indigo. Ishtalinga is placed on the palm of the left hand so raised as to come in line with the centre of the eye-brows. Behind the back and just above the left shoulder an oil-fed lamp or candle should be placed so that the light of the lamp is reflected in the coating of Ishtalinga. With half-closed eyes and without blinking one should fix his attention upon the Linga, the coating of which is blue-black or indigo serving to widen and deepen concentration. The colour of the paste and the colour of Agneya Chakra, being akin in nature, they act and react upon each other thus generating electromagnetic waves which dash against the pineal gland situated in the third ventricle of the brain. The pineal gland is present in everybody and although it is dormant it can be stirred into action by the process of Shiva-yoga.
Shivalinga, kernel of Ishtalinga Shivalinga, kernel of Ishtalinga
Ishtalingas placed at Gurudeva’s altar before distributing to Sadhakas for ‘Shiva-yoga Initiation’
The Pineal gland, known to be the relic of the third eye, is embroynical which means that it can evolve but its evolution is very slow. It is possible to quicken its evolution into a condition in which it can perform a function of apprehending events comprehensively. The full development of the pineal gland confers clairvoyance and helps a yogi to transcend mathematical time which is merely an illusion. Really speaking, there is no such thing as past, present and future. Time is an eternal duration. The human intellect is unable to comprehend it so we insert gaps and we say this is the past, this is the present, this is the future. For a yogi who has opened the third eye, the future and the past rolls into the ever present. For him there is neither past nor future and he can say:
All time is now, all distance here
All problems solved, solution clear
No selfish aim, no tie, no bond
To him doth each and all respond.
Pictures artifically developed to show “Divine Light” seen in Ishtalinga during Shiva-yoga practice [Photos by – Pierre Schintone, France]
It is possible through Shiva-yoga. Crystal gazing is as old as the hills. The belief that it generates magnetism is equally old. It was only in 1850 that Sir John Reichenback discovered this magnetic force and he called this magnetism odylic force. Since then the odylic force has been photographed and there are reasons to believe that crystals on human bodies can send forth emanations which surround the human body. Those emanations can be seen and felt by those persons who are sensitive. Ishtalinga which is a stone with a shiny covering is, therefore, a crystal magnet used in the process of Shiva-yoga to open the invisible or the third eye. Shiva-yoga, which aims at the awakening of the dormant pineal gland, is unique in the sense that it has an easy technique which is simple and scientific and yet powerful enough to transform the lower nature of man into the divine nature.