108 Karnas, the Art of Bharatanatya

The tiny drop of water fall from the heavens as the grey clouds cover the land. The lush green trees shimmer as the smell of wet earth awakens the soil. The rain comes down in a rhythmic pattern such that the sound adds to the rhythm in my being. I step out into the courtyard of this now silent temple to discover new emotion, new love, new bhakti in the form of the Lord who resides deep within the sanctum.

There is silence except for the beating raindrops on the wet rocky and the ghunguru on my feet. I face him, decorated in flowers and silks, seated on his throne surrounded by fiery lamp lights. I look up to Nandi, who within my imagination picks up the mridangam and starts to play. I slowly move, swirl and express my feeling, my devotion to the Lord within.

It is a conversation, delightful and profound, as I emote through my eyes and melt in my heart offering every known emotion up to him in abhinaya. There is sound that surrounds me, there is water that bathes me, there is wind that envelops me, there is earth that holds me steady, there is fire that enlightens me and there is space that gives me the freedom to move around it. The body arches, the fingers emote and my internal self wakes up to the divine sounds of deep meditation and complete bhakti that has been expressed by Patanjali for whom the great Lord Nataraja has performed.

In this emotional water fall, my heart beats hard, asking the Lord to come and dance with me. Such graceful moves, as we rest our hands on our hips, move around and raise it to the sky. Express the deep emotion that lingers within, in controlled meditation as it surfaces to the front and blossoms into an expressive art form that is divine dance, that is divine movement, divine experience as my body awakens to divine breath that fills my soul and bathes me in these pure waters from heaven.

The music echoes in my soul, the beat brings my self to drift away into this magical world where I am a form, a divine form made up of the most profound elements and I am the fortress in matter that houses the various devas within me at my energy centers. Its at this moment of heightened experience of bliss that the my perceptive world changes and the temples appears like an imaginary land in paradise.

Time has stopped, there is no world, there is no noise, there is no people, there is no chaos. There is the sun that lights up this floor and shimmers in the water drops making the whole ambiance appear rich and jeweled. There is the rain that gently tickles my being as the water drops slowly roll down my fingers. There is the wet earth that now lies cool and soft, as I stand on it and stamp it at regular intervals. There is the tiny lamps that light the fire in my heart, melting my being to just collapse in his arms in eternal bliss of divine love and overwhelming awe. And there are the divine gandharvas who play the mystical sounds of heaven, so profound and sweet, so pure and unique that it makes my heart jump with childish excitement over this overwhelming experience. And there is he, in his brilliance with his matted hair swirling around him, as he constantly gets bathed by the ever flowing Ganges who resides in his locks. There is he who has sharp and clear eyes, yet warm and loving and full of divine enlightenment that i can barely move away from. And there is he, with the jeweled snake move around him in grace. There is he, fragrant and all empowering enveloping the whole universe around him as he dances ash clad wrapped in tiger skin with divinely handsome charm that could dissolve a woman's being into itself. There is he, who makes all time stop and takes me into that void where my senses fail, my being fades, my body lets go and my consciousness witnesses is all powerful self, so gentle and yet so kind, so compassionate and yet so energetic.

To all the forms of his, to all the directions that he protects, to the elements that sustain me, to the great devas who reside within me, to the enigmatic yet charming world of the celestials, to the divine and mystical world of the sages, to this pantheon of invisible yet enchanting beings of superior intellect and charm, I bow in misery of being just a human.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Based on the divine Natya of Bharata, which expounds on the various postures, gestures and expression of dance, this is a feeble attempt to meditate upon oneself as one performs the 108 Karnas that have been meticulously carved and documented on the temple walls of Chidambaram, Thiruvannamalai and Tanjavur for our understanding. This is an attempt to deeply understand the movement of the body, the state of the self emotionally and in discipline as one performs this art form in an imaginary world, which I cant perceive and yet I believe truly exists and has been documented in our scriptures. I have attempted to present to you within the limitations of language and yet with creative imagination, the feeling of supreme bliss that we can attain if we try hard enough with every breath.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo Courtesy:
Arjun Kumar - Facebook