Why does Lord Shiva like bilva leaves?

[An online spiritual discussion was conducted on January 30, 2021, in which several devotees participated. Some of the questions of devotees answered by Swāmi are given below.]

[A question by Śrī Bharath Krishna.]

Swāmi replied: The bilva leaf has three leaflets, which represent the three eyes of Lord Śiva. In the bilva leaf, two leaflets are horizontal and one leaf is vertical representing the two normal horizontal eyes and the third vertical eye on the forehead. The two horizontal eyes represent the equilibrium in pravṛtti or worldly life. The third eye on forehead represents the upward rise to spiritual life or nivṛtti. The eye is related to knowledge. The two horizontal eyes are related to worldly knowledge and the upper third eye is related to spiritual knowledge. The third eye of God Śiva contains fire, which is the spiritual knowledge that burns all worldly bonds, leaving the single bond with God alone. For souls, our intellect associated with sharp analysis is our third eye. In our case, the third eye is physically absent, indicating that we lack spiritual knowledge, which means that we lack real intelligence and real sharp analysis.

God Śiva is related to the world, from the standpoint of His medium. At the same time, He is also related to the unimaginable God present in Him in a merged state. If He opens His third eye, the entire world will disappear and the unimaginable God, who is the absolute reality alone will remain. Hence, He always keeps His third eye closed and does not become the unimaginable God. When the unimaginable God in His original non-mediated state appears, this creation disappears. As long as the non-mediated unimaginable God remains in the mediated state as God Śiva, creation continues to exist. The unimaginable God merges with the medium and identifies Himself with that medium so that the medium gains reality, which is almost equivalent to the absolute reality, which is the unimaginable God. This process is needed for the unimaginable God to obtain real entertainment from creation. By God’s unimaginable power, creation, which is only relatively-real with respect to Him, appears to be absolutely-real to Him. The unimaginable God never vacates the medium of the first Energetic Incarnation. Creation too continues forever. Creation only alternately goes from the gross state to the subtle state and vice-versa, so that God continues to have both entertainment and some rest alternately. He obtains entertainment when creation is in the gross state (vyaktam), while He rests when creation goes into a subtle state (avyaktam).

The soul always remains as medium alone and is not related to the third eye in any way. Every soul has only two eyes and every Incarnation has three eyes. The disappearance of creation is related to the third eye. Since God Śiva is related to the destruction of creation, the third eye is expressed prominently in God Śiva alone. The destruction of creation by God Śiva only means that creation goes from the gross state to the subtle state. It does not mean that it undergoes absolute dissolution. But the temporary dissolution is similar to the absolute dissolution because it is also a dissolution. So, the temporary dissolution represents the absolute dissolution signified by the third eye of Śiva. Hence, the third eye is seen only on God Śiva, who carries out the temporary dissolution of the world. The process of creating and maintaining creation are not at all related to the appearance of the unimaginable God, which makes the entire creation to disappear absolutely. Hence, the third eye is not expressed in God Brahmā (Creator) and God Viṣṇu (Maintainer).

Following the above argument, it is logical why God Brahmā and God Viṣṇu do not have the third eye on their foreheads. In that case, one might think that God Śiva should not have the two normal eyes on His face, since they are related to the state when creation exists. He should only have the third eye related to His activity of destruction. This doubt is answered by remembering that God Śiva is not related to the absolute dissolution of creation. In an absolute dissolution, He too will disappear. The mediated God, which is the first Energetic Incarnation, will never disappear, which means that the space occupied by His medium never disappears. Apart from the space occupied by the medium of the first Energetic Incarnation (parama vyoma), the subtle energy, which is space itself and out of which the first energetic form is made, also does not disappear at any time. The entire creation also only goes from the gross into the subtle states and there is no absolute dissolution of creation because God is engaged in continuous entertainment with some intervals in between. For such an apparent and unreal dissolutions, the existence of two eyes on Lord Śiva are also necessary. Hence, the three eyes indicate the dissolution of creation, which means that the world only goes from the gross to the subtle state, without undergoing total disappearance. The two eyes of God Brahmā and God Viṣṇu represent the existence of creation, without indicating the temporary dissolution. This concept is represented by the three bilva leaves and hence, God Śiva has special love for these bilva leaves.