12.14.2008

Bhakti, pulse in the dance of Lord Nataraja

I sit here in silence
Bursting with life,
Bursting with enthusiasm
As I mull over the presence
Of the Lord rediscovered
Yet there is no one
To share with, this little joy

My mind is elated
A world new it sees
Thats where the Lord dances
With ghouls jumping around in glee

The verses of a Nayanar
Flow through my mind

I bow to the bhakti of Karaikkal Ammaiyar


The verses sung by Karaikkal Ammaiyar Pey bring to light, the intriguing documentation of the workings of a cremation ground. What might appear to be a fearful place, with screaming ghosts pulling out the flesh of burning corpses as they dance around enjoying the meal is a definition that bhakti knows no place, and has no bias to situation. In the middle of this strange theater, Lord Shiva dances as Nataraja, the flames of the corpses light up his stage.

In another work, the tamil poetry of Thirumanthiram, brings to light a different Nataraja. He resides in the Sushumna nadi, his stage is none other but the zone on the forehead between our brow. When the individual spiritual awakening reaches its mark, Nataraja performs on the forehead stage of enlightenment, where the third eye awakens, and issues the light of union with Lord Nataraja.

Yet another reference says Nataraja is the essence of Shi Va Ya Na Ma. He is the energy, the pulse of the sacred syllables that one recites deep within their mind as he dances in the blooming lotus of the heart, the hrudaya kamalam.


I am surrounded by apasmara, I am unable to imagine the Lord, I am distracted by the many people and relationships I am tied into. I am distracted by this maya of which I am a part. I am unable to imagine beyond my capacity, the root essence of Lord Shiva Nataraja. I cry over my miserable state, I cry because I am born in Kaliyuga, I cry because I am not trying hard enough to know and realize the divine presence of Lord Shiva. I am conscious and yet am not. I am awake and yet am not. I observe and yet am blind, what worth am I then in this life?


Wake my soul O Lord Shiva, to the vibration of the sound of your damaru, create in me that zest and that rhythm to live. Burn my desires in the fire bowl you hold, burn me to ash when I merge with you Lord. Guide me to your feet, wash away my apasmara, my nature and my pulse is all but yours to hold. Smash my ego O Lord, I, the miserable apasmara lie below, graced by your divine feet, as you stand crushing my ego to dust. I see the swirl of your jata, i see the graceful ganges dance, I see the sun, the crescent moon, adorn your divine crown. I see the serpent twirl, a jewelled necklace round your neck, I see myself so far down away from this paradise.


And here I sit in silence, watching people around, there is no meaning to see, there is no music to life. I dream of the great Lord dance, the divine natya between my brow, the firey ring forms the third eye on my fore. The fire issues forth, the agni awakens within me, bringing life to Trayambaka the three eyed Lord, the sun and moon dance along. Such is the beauty of Shiva, divine auspitious and warm.


Bhakti delivers this experience,

Bhakti awakens the self,

Bhakti knows no place nor beauty in form.
Bhakti knows no gender
Bhakti knows no judgement.
Bhakti is all that is needed
at home or in a dark cremation ground.
Bhakti is beyond knowledge,

Bhakti is beyond wisdom,
Bhakti is all it takes to reach the kingdom of heaven.

Bhakti is the music
Bhakti is the song
Bhakti is that experience
To watch the great Lord perform.

Photo courtesy: Creative commons, Flickr.com - Ravages Photo stream

20 comments:

JC said...

The 'Truths' of, 'mithya jagat', or illusory universe/ world, was generally realised and conveyed by the ancients as the innumerable images formed on the third eye of 'Shiva', the immortal spirit, called 'Bhootnath' the lord of ghosts, which reflect His instantaneous rise to infinity - and review of it backwards from the most advanced state...but for the purpose unknown to imperfect humans...who are guided, or misguided, by the innumerable concepts that are apparently available through various sources, or eyes, in regard to the same issue - maybe the smallest of some small issue, and there exist innumerable issues in human life that's just like a 'flash in the pan'...Thde ancients, Vedantis, realised the creator, in the present, as Bhootnath and all other apparent physical forms as the ghosts or bhootas - called His Own Images...and going into the depth of the Absolute Truth, the various truths in human life related with the apparent forms of the solar system members (reflected by colours of the rainbow - besides black and white)...

JC said...

The earth apparently has both bright and dark side simultaneouisly at any given instant thanks to the relative motions of the source of energy, our Sun, and our planet earth...both heavenly bodies considered as Brahma and Mahesh (that has Kali in its heart, that is, earth and its gravitational force concentrated at its centre)...the overall forces representing the unique force, also called Vishnu, represented by Black, ie., Krishna...

Sanctified Spaces said...

My god, kavitha..there's so much divinity flowing from inside of you...you have expressed my most dominant thought that is desperately seeking salvation...amazing woman this..!!
you also seem to know tamil, which i dont..i think its a big drawback.
Supremely divine!!

JC said...

'Salvation'/ 'Moksha', are often repeated although the average exterior body may not be aware what these refer to...for as per the grand design each individual has to learn about the exterior world first, the various 'untruths' of the 'mithya jagat', the illusory physical world, as per 'wise' though ancient 'Hindus'...

The Gita states the only purpose of human life is to seek the Formless Creator and also the creators with form (and the wise stated each human being to have the all knowing Shiva residing within each physical form, and therefore to seek it within the self!)...However, the 'present day' youth generally disposes of the search (because of Kaliyuga the dark age) by stating that he/ she doesn't believe in God, or Paramatma the superior most soul!

Kavitha Kalyan said...

Isnt is tough that we need to learn and know the illusory world to learn that it is an illusion after all. We need to reject the illusion to accept the real.

Isnt life just all about the unlearning of what we were taught. Ans it is strange, we need to be taught to unlearn!

JC said...

It's a known fact that an individual is born with apparently a clean slate. And, in the beginning, each and every 'normal' individual has a good observation power, but poor analytical power... And, when one attains physical maturity, one has a better analytical power, but generally one's observation power becomes poorer...It is only now that an average person is in a position to attempt reaching the 'Truth'...by reading between lines the various truths that are passed on by the society at large...It is perhaps like writing an exam at the end of the year...life is thus believably is an exam...

JC said...

Apsmara Purush, that is, the forgetful man who cannot recall memory of the past, indicates human being to be a model whose memory is reset according to time of birth, as also the era concerned...leaving it to the concerned animal society to revive the concerned person's memory...

It is a common observation that mention of just one particular word sometimes help recall numerous chains of incidents related with that one word itself...

JC said...

In 'my' personal case, for example, 'I' had read hundreds of time Time moving backwards - from Satyuga to Kaliyuga. But, its significance became clear to me only when in the eighties 'I' believed one night, in the head-light of the vehicle, 'I' saw a white hooded serpent on the highway move backwards towards the valley side...and learnt later that as per Meiteis' belief (in Manipur, northeast 'India') the God (called Pakhangba) who is in-charge of earth (similar to Ganesha to us in the other parts) can appear in the form of a white serpent! 'I' considered it as a mysterious style of communication by the Formless...

JC said...

The local person was surprised that Pakhangba chose to appear in person before some 'outsider' who didn't even believe in Him, and thus was not a devotee! Whereas, he had never done so to many locals who believed in Him! ('I' had only heard from a local Manipuri, a Meitei, the mythological story related with the God who doesn't die and his two sons, similar to the story about Shiva-Parvati and their two sons, Kartikeya and Ganesha)...and also 'I' had heard some Indian Armyman, in some programme on Radio, tell how they had been experiencing hurdles in a certain region, which were overcome when they costructed a temple in their camp, dedicated to Pakhangba on the advice of some local people...thus indicating the mysterious appearing style of functioning of the Formlsss Creator...for some purpose known to Him alone...

JC said...

Ancient 'Hindus' were basically 'scientists' (in the present day terms, who generally are believed to seek the 'Truth') who apparently went into much greater depths in all subjects and to have reached and discussed about Supreme Soul, and souls, 'His Own Images'...that got reflected in the eventual description of Shiva, the immortal, as 'Bhootnath' the 'Lord of ghosts', which is generally believed related with the souls. But, today being pictured as 'harmful' to souls with forms...due mainly to fear of the unknown - in the words of the wise ancients...and therefore Shivqa the Nataraja is depicted to indicate with one of His hands fearlessness (Abhaya mudra) in His devotees...

Kavitha Kalyan said...

Yes, when we read some of the descriptions of Lord Shiva it is indeed scary. Should we come across the real view am not sure how i would react, quite honestly.

Though we do see a lot of replicas around Banaras and Pashupatinath temple Nepal, I wonder whether they are real sadhaks or whether they just drape themselves such.

This thing called truth that we are all so hungry for... am sure is something we cannot even start to digest because we are so so ill equipped.

God help our people. They dont even know how to help themselves.

Regards
Kavitha

JC said...

Kavitha, Once someone comes to realise the Creator as formless who is related with time and space zero, and thus creation as well as destruction to have taken place instantaneously, it becomes easier to realise the phenomena like 'action replays' being reviewed after the events have already taken place - aqnd perhaps thus the advice to remain a spectator of the drama/ film that's prepared in the past...according to some pre-determined script by a perfect being...each actor playing the assigned role, but without being aware of it...

JC said...

Maybe 'I' had indicated it earlier also elsewhere, 'I' had seen a demonstration 3-D film of a short duration. Spectators were made available coloured glasses - one was green and the other red. The film needed to be seen through those spectacles. Interesting scenes were included, some causing scare, for example when one believably followed a truck carrying poles in a vehicle, every spectator ducked when it appeared as if one would be hit by the poles on the face! There was lot of excitement and shrieks were heard when certain such scenes were projected on the screen...and sometimes some persons even removed the glasses from their eyes!

It was reported in the newspaper that 3D films were banned as some person died of heart attack...

With the above as background, when even man-made films can create such impact on other humans, it would be beyond imagination what some supreme being could do, or how humans could be moved easily to believe 3D projections as 'real'! And, Yogis or advanced souls have similarly conveyed life to be the history of the supreme being who believably achieved perfection starting from zero, that is, absolute ignorance of 'material world'...Appearance of dreams during sleep in animals itself is an example of projection of thoughts when one is closer to zero during sleep, and thus it inspired Yogis to attain zero thoughts even during 'wakeful' condition...

JC said...

Certain enlightened Yogis are believed to have their third-eye activated (by concentrating total energy at one point in the head) and thus becomtacking capable of viewing scenes anywhere in the whole universe/ world...'I' had indicated one of 'my' personal experience regarding a tantrik's prediction of 'one of my relatives' impending heart attack a fortnight in advance, in the year 1980, just by looking at my face - during our first meeting (the relative turned out to be my father who at that time was at our home-town, a few thousand kilometres away)...

JC said...

On review of the comment, 'I' find 'becoming' had surprisingly become becomtaking'!

Regarding realisation of human form capable of acting like a super multi-purpose instrument, the Hindu mythology and writings of certain Yogis are available in abundance in 'India' even in the 'present', which appear unbelievable to us because of lower efficiency during Kaliyuga in average humans...

Kavitha Kalyan said...

The have been 3 distinct occasions in my life when i have had vivid dreams that i remembered right up to the dialogs of the players.

They were strange and the incidents in isolation didnt make any sense yet they grabbed me with a feeling of eeriness that didnt go and i remembered those visuals.

It almost seemed like i had had a peek into the future. These incidents took place, uncannily making sense as the events unraveled making me feel i had been there before - Déjà vu was at its peak.

getting an insight into the future may be a nice thing but when we are not conditioned to it, it can be really scary.

I could not have changed the events but i could only live through them. That scared me plenty. Or rather i didnt have the power to intuitively change the events even if i was warned through dreams. I helplessly went through them.

Regards
Kavitha

JC said...

Yes, Kavitha, each individual has some intuitive power which however mightn't be much enhanced normally and, therefore, each individual believably needs certain exercises to be informed...which basically need training/ control of the mind - like for example all 'wild animals' are trained/ disciplined by 'experts' to behave in the right manner as desired by the 'master'...and in life, the Master is believed to be the unique Supreme Being, with each physical form believed as 'His image' (and hence the concept of magical-mirror-image-like illusory reflections)...

In view of the above, Hindus indicated all physical forms to house a component of the immortal, called Shiva, whereas the unique unborn and unending immortal only was recognised as Mahadev, ie., the best among all gods, who alone is immortal...other souls continue to undergo cyclic transformations eternally...and one might come to know some truth of future, which also anyway is the 'past'! The phenomenon is like fast-forwarding a reel and view in advance some events that appear as if to happen later...

JC said...

In the 'present' (that was 'past', as indicated in the Hindu belief - of Bhootnath Shiva who Himself is related with zero time and space - as the controller of apparent time) 'scientists' are reportedly engaged in research with a view to recording dreams that are received in the analogical computer that human brain believably is, the electrical impulses, in digital computers, and replaying them as many times as one liked...One can wish them best of luck...in realisation of human being as an 'instrument' or a medium...

JC said...

The 'present day' education system, according to wise Hindus pertaining to the beginning stage of 'churning', reflects expectedly erratical behaviour in the individuals because overall knowledge was yet to be attained by Vishnu's representative, Krishna...

With the background knowledge of transformation of massive stars into 'Black holes', one could perhaps easily visualise today that Krishna, meaning Black, and that Hindus realised man as model of the infinite universe, called the enlarged form of Vishnu, obviously indicated 'Krishna', in human form, as the model of our galaxy that contains our solar system located towards its outer periphery, which was also realised as the essence or model of the universe...

Hindu mythological stories apparently convey evolution of the unique formless being into the infinite universe, in four stages - as it is believably being reviewed (through temporary but innumerable eyes of fictitious innumerable charactes) repeatedly by the Supreme Formless Being in apparent time, for He Himself is beyond time, being related with zero, and hence indicated as a spectator who is completely detached from the material world...also indicating a spider as the web spinner as an example in Nature - who while herself remains detached catches insects in its sticky web...

Hindu philosophy or belief therefore appears to have been so named because they believed the unique being associated with moon or Indu as its true image, and whose essence is isndicated to be housed in the brain/ head/ 'sahasrara chakra' where total energy in eight chakras in the body is needed to be lifted, or get lifted naturally perhaps, for attaining 'enlightenment'...or realisation of the Absolute Truth of existence of one and only Bhootnath Shiva alone...

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