Cosmic Dance

“Dance, Shiva, dance in our hearts
Blow out the winds of desire
Purify our hearts, purify
Let our sins die in Your Fire
Dance, Shiva, dance in our hearts
And Love will flow like a river”

This English bhajan was playing in my ears since yesterday after reading the snippet of Sabitha and the response from Kamala about the cosmic dance. Having spent 4 years of young life in Chidambaram doing my undergrad in Annamalai University, I had a great opportunity to visit the very special temple built for Lord Nataraja. Interestingly, Sannadhi of Maha Vishnu in a lying posture is right next to Lord Nataraja’s cosmic dance posture in this exquisite South Indian temple. I am not going to get into the ancient history of this temple nor the new controversial discussions about how this temple is the center of the universe.

The purpose of this snippet is to talk about the significance of the Lord’s posture. On June 18, 2004, an unusual new landmark was unveiled at CERN, the European Center for Research in Particle Physics in Geneva, a 2m tall statue of the Indian deity Shiva Nataraja, the Lord of Dance. The statue, symbolizing Shiva’s cosmic dance of creation, protection and destruction, was given to CERN by the Indian government to celebrate the research center’s long association with India. The artwork is an artistic metaphor for CERN’s study of the “cosmic dance” of subatomic particles.

The purpose of the dance is to release human beings from illusion of the idea of the "self" and of the physical world. The gestures of the dance represent Shiva's five activities, creation (symbolized by the drum), protection (by the "fear not" hand gesture), destruction (by the fire), embodiment (by the foot planted on the ground), and release (by the foot held aloft). As Nataraja (Sanskrit: Lord of Dance) Shiva represents apocalypse and creation as he dances away the illusory world of Maya transforming it into power and enlightenment. The symbolism of Siva Nataraja is religion, art and science merged as one. In God's endless dance of creation, preservation, destruction, and paired graces is hidden a deep understanding of our universe.

Bhashya Nataraja, the King of Dance, has four arms. The upper right hand holds the drum from which creation issues forth. The lower right hand is raised in blessing, a sign of preservation. The upper left hand holds a flame, which is destruction, the dissolution of form. The right leg, representing obscuring grace, stands upon Apasmarapurusha, a soul temporarily earth-bound by its own sloth, confusion and forgetfulness. The uplifted left leg is revealing grace, which releases the mature soul from bondage. The lower left-hand gestures toward that holy foot in assurance that Siva's grace is the refuge for everyone, the way to liberation. The circle of fire represents the cosmos and especially consciousness. The all-devouring form looming above is Mahakala, "Great Time." The cobra around Nataraja's waist is kundalini shakti, the soul-impelling cosmic power resident within all. Nataraja's dance is not just a symbol. It is taking place within each of us, at the atomic level, this very moment. The Agamas proclaim, "The birth of the world, its maintenance, its destruction, the soul's obscuration and liberation are the five acts of His dance."

By observing how thoughts flow in from our encryption, when energized with actionable thought energy how it becomes an inherent determination to perform an action and those thoughts that appear and disappear discarded by the human mind with no empowerment indicating ever-changing world we perceive through our mind, we understand the dance of the ignorance. When we realize the constant happening in our body like cells being replaced regularly, pressure of blood maintained to circulate to all organs, the elements of what we eat are absorbed into our system for generation of energy, how inhaled air sustains our system by purifying, how unused elements are discarded through exhalation and excretion, etc. without any command center intervention, we begin to understand the cosmic dance of knowledge. Even when command center is involved in actions performed, how that is communicated to the various part of our body is amazing transformation that happens 24/7.

Encrypted Consciousness manifests into a form by getting into a body, mind and intellect (“BMI”) complex with a specific purpose to be liberated. Without the existence of Consciousness, those BMI tools become a cadaver. Neither the body nor the encrypted Consciousness can function independently and hence the subtle command center closer to the Consciousness takes coordinator’s role. When it is independent with ego, it performs the dance of ignorance and when it fills the role of a liberator of the Consciousness from its encryption, it performs the cosmic dance of knowledge. Understanding changes are inevitable, appears to be the purpose of the cosmic dance.

 

Dear Smt. Jayasala:

Thank you for your response. I almost thought this snippet will be orphaned and I was very happy when I read your response.

Viswa

 

Dear Sri Thyagarajan:

Thank you for your response. I was scared that this snippet of mine will be listed as one of the unanswered snippet and at the end of the year, there will be an award for those who respond to all unanswered posts. Thank God, Smt. Jayasala and you by responding, saved me.

The above is the answer to your question about Muyalagan.

If the Lord stop dancing, imagine the plight of the earthlings.

The dance of electrons at the sub-atomic level will continue forever is a profound statement.

Viswa

 

Dear Kamala,

Your words in response to Sabitha was the motivation for me to write this snippet and without your response, this snippet would not serve its purpose.

You have mentioned the most crucial point as part of your response. The worship in form was only for human comprehension. The interesting part is how those who don't know much about Sanata Dharma are appreciating the design of Lord Nataraja. The way the right leg is positioned gives the perfect gravity for someone who moved the left leg all the way to the right.
Even scientifically, Matter and Energy are complementary to each other. As Sri Thyagarajan pointed out the dance of Electron at the sub-atomic level continues forever.

Those symbolic representation including Kundalini around the waist reflecting the energy raising in our body from the lower abdomen to the head to release a ignorant human life into enlightenment, is very engaging.

Viswa

 

Dear Geeta,

Thank you for your wonderful response. We are really blessed to have that knowledge available to us. I was reading about the Agama Sastra for the Temple sometime back and I came to know exactly the same message of how each Temple is designed. As we all know, the sharp Gopuram is intended for receiving cosmic energy and radiate that to the devotees coming to the Temple. Three Pragarams are supposed to represent three Gunas of humans namely Tamosic, Rajasic and Satwic. When we get into the Sanctum Sanctorum, we see the Lord seated in a dark place and becomes visible only when we light a lamp or burn the camphor. The burning of camphor is a symbol of burning the desires and attachment to have the glimpse of Atma.