Bindi and the sixth chakra

As you probably know, bindi is a red dot typically put on the forehead of a married Hindi woman here in India. Nowadays, it is becoming more like a fashion I heard. There are lots of cute and decorative sticker-type bindi that you can buy at the local jewelry stores (I also heard that you can buy at any "fashion stores" = clothing stores, but I haven't tried yet), and I also got myself a couple of them the other day just to explore how they would add some spice to my forehead :-)

Anyway, what's interesting is the particular location on your forehead that you place the bindi at. It is in the eyebrow region and is said to be the sixth chakra, Ajna. It is also commonly known as the third eye. According to the wiki, however, Ajna chakra is positioned in the brain, directly behind the eyebrow center, while its superficial activation site is at the eyebrow region.

Ajna is the chakra of the mind. When something is seen in the mind's eye, or in a dream, it is being 'seen' by Ajna. It has two petals representing the psychic channels Ida and Pingala. They would meet at the central Shushumna channel, before rising to the crown chakra, Sahasrara.

Ida is the lunar nadi (life force energy similar to "ki" in Japan; "nadi" comes from the Sanskrit root of "nad" which means "channel", "stream", or "flow"), and it corresponds to the left hand side of the body and the right hand side of the brain. Pingala is the solar nadi, and it corresponds to the right hand side of the body and the left hand side of the brain. As you may guess, Ida is an introverted passive energy, and Pingala is the extroverted active energy.

There are two deities (gods) residing in the chakra. One is Ardhanarishvara (a hermaphrodite form of Shiva-Shakti), symbolising the primordial duality of subject and object. I believe these are represented by the letters on the petal 'ham' (left side) and 'ksham' (right side). And the other is Hakini Shakti, who is inside the central circle, is moon white white with 6 faces, and 6 arms, holding a book, a skull, a drum, a rosary, and making the gestures of granting boons and dispelling fears. I found the drawing (above) of Hakini Shakti on one of the sites about Ajna chakra.

Ajna is said to be the entry point of external spiritual energy and the exit point of the Kudalini energy. It is from here that a person harmonizes the forces within him/herself and achieves a balance between Ida and Pingala.

According to this site, when energy is not flowing freely from this chakra there will be poor focus and intuition. For instance, your perception of the world, sense of purpose in your life, morals, and your thought process could be out of normal. I guess you need to leave this chakra open but yet in a very cautious and balanced way. Maybe my new bindi will help me focus around this chakra a little bit more.

Maybe this dog that I saw the other day on the street which had a little bindi on her forehead might be much more awakened than I am :)