9.24.2007

With the Lord of Chidambaram, I dance


An open truth
for the world to know
the Lord brings out
from the world of Dhyana
Sprinkling the syllables
potent letters of life
for us to learn
for us to evolve

Simple potent letters
yet so deep are their meaning
seemingly complex
profoundly divine
we sing them out loud,
in all the noise
no sweetness left to see
no divine charm to feel

The Lord is reduced
a speck in a myth
one you want and don't know
whether to believe
A grand temple was made
to secure this faith
to relive this essence
to relive this life

Within a golden hall of flames
a golden hall of life
lies that world unknown
so enchanting and close
the blackness surrounds
but when the bells ring
the black veil falls
reveals the Lord within

Space and silence - a Void
in the fire reveals
rain of letters covers Him
hanging down among golden leaf
syllables of life
untouched and potent
my life breath
my Lord Divine

The dancing flames
form a ring of light
within the deep silence
I hear the sound of His feet
In shimmering moon light
On his brow dances a crescent moon
grace that sways the world
rhythm that makes the heart beat.

Such love I feel
to witness thy divine Self
Such a rain of bliss
to see your dancing step
Fresh life in the air
New life at your feet
Oh wake my soul
Throw away this veil of black

The divine Mother rises
my heart pounds anew
A red hue of life
descends onto me
the path to the Lord
Oh Mother show me the way
Bathe me in your grace
In those letters of life

Fire that burns my heart
Music that makes me move
Rhythm that is my breath
The Lord my only goal
The world ceases to exist
His golden feet I touch
The Lord's feet my home
The Lord's feet my home


Based on the feeling of Divinity, when the Lord dances in the light of the Arti flames that cover His chamber within a ring of light. Flames of Gold bathe His form, a blessing for those who witness His presence.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beautiful! Transported me back to the temple and the Aarthi ritual..

Anonymous said...

‘I' see Shiva the earth unmoved
And Brahma the Sun dance with Him
As also innumerable other stars

‘Maya’ shattered and veil lifted
'I' am retold it is Shiva
Who dances With His consort Parvati the Moon
Giving Him company!

Both around each other
And around Brahma too
While Vishnu as Shiva's eye
The centre of our galaxy
Or Krishna as His representative
Enjoys the dance from a distance
Eternally in yoganidra
Or a super conscious state!

‘I’ now wonder who ‘I’ am
And what am ‘I’ doing here?

Could ‘I’ be one of the eyes
Of the Formless itself?
But attached to Mahesha
Since time immemorial
As a spectator
Man is only an image of God
As indicated by 'wise' ancients!

Anonymous said...

I realize that earth rotates
From west to east
Sun thus appears going around it
Rising in the east
And setting in the west
Day in and day out
Resulting in days and nights...

And earth’s tilt makes Sun appear To move from north to south
In six months
And from south to north
In the next six
Resulting in different seasons
Year in and year out
For over 4 billion years now!
Experienced by billions
Animals as well as men before me!

‘I’ being a model of the universe
A yogi or union of essences
Of selected grahas or planets
To reflect essence of the void
With earth as the true image
Of the Formless Creator or Energy
Must look in all directions
Absorb information detachedly
Unlike a frog in the well
Or a koopmandook
In the words of the wise ancients

Or unlike an unblinkered horse
A specialist reflecting it
As its model in the present
Unlike a siddha in Satyuga
That is an all rounder
Through a thoughtless state
Or a minimum action state
To make required space available
As reflected by a trash bin even!
The choice is yours!

Kavitha Kalyan said...

Hi Joshi Uncle

Very well written indeed, specially the first one. There is such sweetness in these words that describe the Lord dancing. Yes, and who really are we? A spec of dust at His Lotus feet?

Its a cosmic stage with graceful movement, strangely close and yet so abstract.

Regds
Kavitha

Anonymous said...

Here comes the tricky thought

Maybe earth in fact is immobile
Reflection of the Absolute Truth
Other Heavenly Bodies only dance

Like aarti in front of an idol
Results in play of various lights
Make idol also to appear to dance
To the performer of the aarti
As the spectator of the performance

And all this may just be illusory
A dream within the head of Nadbindu
That has energy form only
That is Ma Kali the destroyer
Represented by a female figure
Depicted with tongue painted red
Or red molten lava in 'Nature'
That emerges from volcano’s mouth

To act as Vishnu the Preserver
On earth’s surface
As the more fertile soil
For sustenance of life
On mrityulok
Where death of 'life' is certain
On Shiva the Destroyer
Who itself is rendered immortal
By life-giving rays of Moon
Earth's better half
That is Shiva's consort
A form of Sati or Kali itself
Who had died in a 'sacred fire'
To be reborn as immortal Parvati
Thanks to Mahakal Shiva!

Anonymous said...

And to start with
‘I’ visualize

Like a child creates soap bubbles
Mischievous Krishna that is Kali
On Nadbindu’s behalf
Filling up the universal void
Whistling away melodiously
Music played as on a flute
Or sound energy
That turned into matter
As per his predetermined thoughts
To acquire various forms
With passage of time
As Krishna himself also evolved

And after trials and errors
Creating innumerable galaxies
He achieved our Milky Way Galaxy
That contained Shiva or Earth
As his perfectly evolved form
As part of ‘our solar system’

All members rendered immortal
By life-giving rays of perfect moon
That is Sati
Turned into Durga of Satyuga
After playng different roles
In different Yugas

Such as Vaidehi the formless Sita
Consort or soul of Rama of Treta
The still evolving model of sun
Assisted by brother Lakshamana
As the model of earth
Who saw only the feet of Sita
During fourteen years of exile!

Or as Draupadi
The wife of Five Pandava brothers
Won in a competition by Arjuna
The model of Sun in Dwaperyuga
Assisted by brother Yudhister
The then model of earth
A simple character like Bholanath
Also called Dharmaraja like Shiva
Despite being a loser in gambling
Who lost everything
Including their common wife
To their cousin Duryodhana
Son of blind king Dhritrashtra!

Kaliyuga the present is the era
When various trials were made
By young krishna in the beginning
And hence the apparent chaos
Reflecting the start of churning
And the emergence of poison
Faced by both
Selfish and the Selfless...

Anonymous said...

Says Shri sathyanarayan, “I had been to Chidambaram on the day when the deity is taken around the temple on the temple car. In the sea of humanes present on this day it is difficult to have a peaceful dharshan of the lord.”
It reminded me of the mysterious ways of the Lord, an example experienced by my wife in the eighties in Gauhati. She had accompanied another lady to Ma Seetalamata’s Temple. And, as she couldn’t have withstood the inevitable push and jostle of the crowd, being a patient of arthritis, she asked the lady to go ahead and bring ‘prasad’ for her too while she sat on the step of the pool...

As she sat far away from the crowd (like Krishna at thecentre of our galaxy) brooding over her handicap, at a certain point of time, the idol of the Mother was brought by one of the attendants to give it a wash in the pool. She was grateful to the Mother to make it convenient to give her exclusive darshan personally, from a close quarter, and was delighted when the attendant allowed her to hold the Mother for a minute before she gave Her bath! Her desire to have darshan was thus fulfilled in a dramatic way!

And, maybe ironically, Hindus believed God to be residing within each human form!

Anonymous said...

Thinking of grand mysteriious
Man-made masonry structures
For worship of the Creator
‘I’ visualize the pyramid
The edifice of long standing
As a composite mysterious body
Its base representing Kaliyuga
The era of highest density
Of images of the Creator

Nadbindu the point source of energy
Represented by its apex

Similarly Hindus believed
Sahasrara that is thousand channels
Housed in human head
And Mooladhar that is basic channel
Housed at the tail-bone end

An inverted-pyramid-like structure
Made by God!

Kavitha Kalyan said...

Hi Joshi Uncle

A very interesting narrative indeed about the devi's darshan. Its a very personal feeling when a person feels blessed to have seen the deity when they deeply desire it but are unable to fulfill their wishes.

The world starts looking a lot different after these small incidents happen around us. They are very valuable to sustain us through our lives.. a reassurance that we are protected and blessed. Its so important for living every day.

Rgds
Kavitha

Anonymous said...

Yes, Kavitha, God believably is mysterious as well as mischievous, as the ‘wise’ ancients called Krishna ‘Natkhat Nandlal’!

God to them believably is unborn, that is, younger than even a just born infant, still within the womb of its mother!

I give below how a ‘modern’ young nephew of mine described that stage to my daughter when his wife was expecting their second child.

“…U know u wonder, who wud want to come out of the spa like environment to
delhis 40 celsius. I mean u get food on demand, u swim around all day, there
is a active noise reduction mechanism in place, u can kick the ass out of
your mom and she'll still be smiling...I mean y come out at all, so who can
blame the kiddo...Hang in there buddy, dont let momma spoil the party for
you. Enjoy it as much as you can, coz it aint a party once u get out…”

Yes, occurrences such as described by me give one a wonderful feeling of assurance that there is some super power close to one, and perhaps, therefore, you are required to bear with that ‘Divine Person’ for some more time, or whatever time that is left with you in the present mortal form, mainly because man isn’t able to appreciate the true meaning of life, which only the Formless Creator believably knows.

And, He perhaps remains inaccessible to humans and even demi-gods or devtas and wants one to reach Him on his own! And, therefore, innumerable interpretations of the ‘Truth’ that perhaps led the ancient Hindus to the worship of innumerable varieties of physical forms in ‘India’, and so on, including the non-believers in the existence of any such ‘Divine person’!

And also there are some who switch from one 'religion' to another - maybe because of pressure or pleasure!

Anonymous said...

Reverting to man
As inverted pyramid
One finds Krishna the yogiraja
Indicate in the Gita
Man as an ‘inverted tree’
With his roots in the sky

Read with Hindu belief
Of all forms made from panchatatva
That is five elements
And a pyramid having five points
Four at the base
And one at its apex to represent it
Indicate ‘Earth’ as the apex
And the other four elements
Indicated to represent
Sun as ‘Fire’
Mars as ‘Air’
Moon as ‘Water’
Venus as ‘Akash’
The blue ‘sky’
All four acting as the essences
That jointly formed the root
At the start of the churning
At the beginning of Kaliyuga
To reach the perfect Earth
At the end of Satyuga!

The well known 'Truth' is
Each human being is the dust
That lies at the feet of Shiva
The surface of Earth

But ‘Maya’ that is illusion
Makes me to see ‘I’ alone
As the superior most
The golden dust!

Anonymous said...

The discerning eye of God
The ‘Third Eye’ of Shiva
The ozone layer
In earth’s atmosphere
Acting as His eye-lid
Remains generally closed
In the interest of ‘Maya’
The drama of animal life

But not always
As reflected in stories
Of Kamadeva and Bhasmasur
Devtas and Rakshashas both

Thus Time plays the pivotal role
In the drama of Shiva as the stage
Conveyed through ‘west’
And earth as Mahakal
The controller of Time
Realized in the east
And conveyed by Yogis
Who copy Yogiraja Krishna
Who evolved as Yogeshwar Shiva
The true image of the Formless!

To reach the Absolute Truth
Hindu mythology suggests
An open Mind's eye
With the two physical eyes
That represent east and west
When one faces the fixed star
Closed in a discerning 'I'
During 'sanyas'
The age of retirement
Which is Mahakal's prerogative
As the stories convey!

Anonymous said...

Thinking of 'present day events'
When ‘I’ fly a kite
‘I’ am the VIP
The kite is a mere object
So also other accessories
Such as reel and thread
‘I’ alone possess them all
Thus ‘I’ am the master
‘I’ store the kite as I like
After I have enjoyed flying it

The same ‘Truth’ is reflected
Say through the BCCI
Why then the furore
Raised particularly by the media
Over the ‘Board’ taking the credit
For the kite-like T20
They sent flying high
In the ‘sky’ of South Africa
The 'root of Homo sapiens’
And return victorious therefrom

Krishna puts the blame
On lack of overall knowledge
For all ‘wrong actions’
And St. Mathew warns each human
To beware when judging others!

Anonymous said...

With the present day turmoil
In ‘democratic India’ over ‘Ramsetu’
And in Myanmar over ‘democracy’
A thought rose to my head
Which I shared
With a young monk in the making
As a message from a monkey!

The Buddha needed monks
While Rama needed monkeys
To spread
Their respective messages!

Anonymous said...

It looks funny and unbelievable
That apparently man is last
To arrive on the stage
That is our planet earth
After monkeys and chimpanzees
Believably in Tretayuga

And that micro-organism
Such as e-coli bacteria
Is the oldest cellular life
Virtually ruling over earth
For over 3 billion years
During its over 4 billion years
In its estimated age
While residing within humans
In the lower intestine that
As per Hindu belief is housed
In the region called 'mooladhar'!

Read with the Hindu belief
Of time moving backwards
From Satyuga to Kaliyuga
The above perhaps suggests
Human being as the original form
Perhaps floating in space
To start with in Kaliyugq
That eventually evolved
By the end of Satyuga
To result in the most potent form
The ‘Heavenly Body’ called earth
The model of immortal Formless
And therefore believed illusory
Or ‘mithya jagat’!
For universe is but a dream
Within ghe head of Nadbindu!

Anonymous said...

And as we have seen earlier
Earth is Creator’s physical eye
With ozone layer
Acting as His eye-lid
And the panchbhoota
Responsible for the drama
In the three worlds
Air
Surface of earth
And underground!

Anonymous said...

Only the discerning eye of Yogis
Perhaps could see the ‘Truth’
Or earth as Shiva the immortal
And the opposite of ‘Visha’
That is poison
Called ‘Halahal’ or ‘Kalkoot’
Literally the 'crusher of time'
As model of Nadbindu or Vishnu
Literally the ‘atom of poison’
Nirakar reflected by Shivalingam
Of fire that is energy
A volcano as its model
Whose bottom and top
Both remained elusive
Even to Vishnu and Brahma
In their physical forms
Vishnu at the centre of galaxy
Representing the centre of earth
And Brahma reflected by Sun
Flying high in the ‘sky’ or space!

Hindu Mythological stories
However permit interpretations
That are innumerable or 'ananta'
That is unending
One life-span insufficient
For in-depth study
But permits drawing essence
That is 'satva' or 'satya'
For anyone to reach the 'Truth'
During one life-span in human form!

Krishna says anyone can reach Him!

Anonymous said...

Even the game of Cricket
Allows insight in to the 'drama'
As a discerning eye could realize
The stadium packed with spectators
Watching players of two teams
Engaged in the competition
In the middle of the stadium
Within an oval boundary
That represents field of influence
Of earth’s gravitational force
Or the ‘Lakshamana Rekha’
As a model of our earth
Within our Milky-Way galaxy
Of innumerable stars

And the game is repeated
Between different teams
By rotation
At different pitches
In different formats
To sustain everyone’s interest
Again and again
For every human being
Anywhere on the globe to see
To provide equal opportunity to all
Perhaps as per God’s Constitution
That is unwritten
But followed truthfully verbally
As Suryavanshi Kings believably did
As it was applicable till Tretayuga
And saw ‘dharma’ decline
Even in Dwaperyuga
And therefore not applicable
In the ‘present’ or Kaliyuga
The era of maximum 25% virtue
That reduces to 0% at its end!

The turmoil in and around 'India'
Perhaps is indicative
Of approaching 'Absolute Truth'
The destination of Bhootnath
In His journey from the 'Truth'!

Maybe to start once again
As believed by the ancient Hindus!

Anonymous said...

Once someone is convinced
Like the ancient ‘wise Hindus’
That it is Bhootnath Shiva
Who is ever viewing History
That is His stories
As various characters
In the remote past
That is apparently becoming remoter
With the passage of time
Such that the present could
Almost reflect the end of Kaliyuga
Perhaps one could then make a guess
Which character today
Or the soul inside it
Could have evolved
To play the role of Ravana
In the Tretayuga
And which one the role of Krishna
The believable all in one
To start with
That eventually reached perfection
By the end of Satyuga
To play the role of Shiva
The 'Gangadhara'
Or 'Chandrashekhara'
That is the cool soul
That consumed 'Somrus'
That is 'moonrays'!

Anonymous said...

Krishna says
He has nothing remaining
To be achieved in the three worlds

He could be offered anything
Just plain water even
As some Hindus ritually do
Offering it every morning
In the direction of the rising sun

Or one could offer just leaves
As some offer bilva leaf
To Shivalaingas
Jyotirlinga or even ordinary ones
Made from plain clay even

And so on
Such that one finds in ‘India’
Almost all temporary forms Worshipped in various manners
A devotee offering to the deity
Of one's choice
Whatever one could afford

However perhaps required from one
To ever remain conscious
That in reality
The Creator is Nirakar
And it alone is immortal
And all forms are transitory
Like reflections in a mirror
Its Own Images
To serve Almighty's purpose
Who is Supreme Knowledge!

But man as Apsmara Purush
Or the forgetful character
Ever fails to realize
That the information is recorded
Held locked up in Bandhas
That is 'Locks'
Inside each human form!
And that the key
To all locks
Is held by the Creator!

And it is His prerogative
Which character would
In the drama
Have His blessings
At a particular point of time!

Anonymous said...

Each normal human being is
Apparently naturally provided
Five physical senses
Or five external spies
To gather information
From outside world
That all feed the common brain

Each source acts independently
And total information
Then gets analysed
In the ‘mind’s eye’
For overall comprehension
Of the data thus collected
By the concerned individual
For use in one’s day-to-day life

Like the five fingers in one’s hand
Display hierarchy
There is hierarchy observed
Among different individuals

For instance
Test conducted in one subject
In the same class
At any given time
Would normally show
Irrespective of spatial
Or temporal location
A general trend of marks
Range varying
Between near zero and one hundred
Out of a total of one hundred

Maybe rationally speaking
This should itself be sufficient For one To realize
Animal life as a design
By a supreme being

And any resistence to accept it
Credited to provision
Of some factor
In the design itself
To drive the individual away
From realization of truth
Unless it is the will
Of the designer itself
Who perhaps as believed by ancients
Is a mischievous character
Called natkhat Nandlal!

The wise suggest surrender in Him
If one is desirous to reach Him!
And History indicates
Many such characters who did it
And perhaps reached eternal bliss!

Anonymous said...

Gautam the Buddha
Son of Shuddhodhan
King of Kapilvastu
Despite father’s efforts
To keep him covered
With the ‘veil of gold’
That as part of a design
Affects the vision of man
But not other animals
Perhaps because of design
For Gautam to evolve as Rama
The believably ideal King
The benefactor of the populace
Later in Tretayuga
Like sun provides energy to all
Irrespective of their specis
As the best 'Suryavanshhi king'
Was destined to quit
And Krishna-like start the churn
Of a different kind
Just as before him Gandhi had done
Both acting as messiah
Of the ‘down-trodden’!

Anonymous said...

‘Shiva’s-dumroo’
Shaped like the hour-glass
Made by man to mark time
With the use of sand
Placed in two compartments
That needs to be reversed manually
When all the sand has dropped
Into the lower vessel
Reflects the shape
Of the percussion instrument
Believably used originally
To evolve with time
Basically to give the beat
To regulate the tempo
Varying from slow to fast
Of music and dance
Performed by artistes
On man-made stages
On the planet Earth
Consisting of two hemispheres
Perhaps as the evolved shape

Yogis too saw moon revolving
Around the earth
And realized these two
As the heavenly bodies
That formed the prototype
Both considered together
To basically represent
The dynamic human form
As one vessel above the other
Also reflected by numeral 8
That could also be used as a churn
‘To lift the sand'
'In the lower vessel’
'To the upper one'
Perhaps naturally
As the dance continues eternally
As churning of milk in fluid form
Separates cream from it
And moves it outwards
And hence the importance of water
Without which it is impossible
To imagine life on earth
And moon as 'Parvati'
'The daughter of Himalaya'
Consort of Shiva
With Her abode in Mount Kailash
As its believable original source
In the lake Mansarovar
As reflected by Rivers
Ganga-Yamuna-Brahmaputra
Originating from it
And evacuating together in the sea
As Padma the lotus flower
That evolved from Voshnu's navel
And housed Brahma in the beginning!