A spot on your forehead

Whenever I come in contact with westerners, they get fascinated with the bindi I have on my forehead. They ask about its significance and many of them get it as gift from me and they happily wear it too.

On the other hand, many Indian girls and ladies have stopped wearing bindis. I am curious about the reason for this and whenever I get an opportunity, I ask.

‘Oh, aunty, bindi doesn’t go well with the western dresses that we wear.’ May be… Or am I getting old fashioned?

Bindi is old fashioned for Indian ladies

Then I started seeing Indian dames in Indian dresses sans bindi. May be wearing bindi is now outdated. And why am I even bothered whether bindis are seen on their foreheads?

Intuitively, I have always felt that bindi had some connection with preserving energy. This is the sequence that happens in my life. First I sense things and I do it in my life. But if I have to ask others to do, I have to provide a logical reason. This is true even in my professional life as an Endodontist.

Energy leakage

The other day, after my morning meditation, I got the guidance to check the leakage of energy from the ajna chakra (third eye area) with and without the bindi. Both my husband and I are good at dowsing. I went to my husband with a pendulum and bindi and asked him to check my ajna chakra. He was working on the computer at the time. Just turning his chair towards me, he checked. Then, he stood up, ‘Oh oh, let me check again. This is making a tremendous difference.’

‘We will wear it now’

Yesterday (7-3-2016) two young girls came to me for Reiki healing. It was Shivratri and both were wearing Indian dresses, but no bindis. One girl’s (she looked like a skeleton) problem was constant tiredness, lack of energy and continuous head ache. For the last three weeks she was taking pain killer daily. When I checked her energy level, the pendulum showed no movement on any of the chakras, which explained her lack of energy. I gave her a Reiki healing and she got relief from her head ache.

Then I said to them, ‘Let me show you something,’ and brought a pendulum and bindi. I showed the difference in pendulum movement with and without bindi.

‘Already you are having shortage of energy, and whatever is there, is continuously leaking since you are not wearing a bindi.’

Both the girls said in unison, ‘From now on, we will wear the bindi. We never knew its significance.’

The health aspect

From a health point of view, the Bindi is worn between the eyebrows where the pineal gland lies. This is an important nerve center and applying sandalwood or ash keeps the nerves cool and so keeps you cool and conserves energy. In the past the Bindi was made from the yellow and red sandalwood, red and yellow turmeric, saffron, various flowers, ash, zinc oxide. All these had cooling properties in nature.

Traditionally, the area between the eyebrows (where the bindi is placed) is said to be the sixth chakra, ajna, the seat of "concealed wisdom". The bindi is said to retain energy and strengthen concentration.

The pineal gland is a light sensitive gland that produces the hormone melatonin which regulates sleep and waking up, and is also postulated to be the production site of the psychedelic dimethyltryptamine, the only known hallucinogen endogenous to the human body. Ajna's key issues involve balancing the higher and lower selves and trusting inner guidance. Ajna's inner aspect relates to the access of intuition. Mentally, Ajna deals with visual consciousness. Emotionally, Ajna deals with clarity on an intuitive level.

In South Asia, bindi is worn by women of all religious dispositions and is not restricted to religion or region.

A much deeper significance

From Vedic times, the bindi was created as a means to worship one's intellect. Therefore, it was used by both men and women. Worship of the intellect was to ensure that thoughts, speech, actions, habits and ultimately one's character becomes pure. A strong intellect can help one to make noble decisions in life, be able to stand up to challenges in life with courage, and recognize and welcome good thoughts in life. The belief was that on this a strong individual, a strong family and strong society can be formed. Red represents honor, love and prosperity; hence it was worn to symbolize these aspects.