9.17.2007
Arti at Chidambaram Nataraja Temple
When you walk into the Chidambaram Nataraja temple as a non entity, the feeling of divinity doesn't cover you half as strongly, as much as when you are guided into the temple by someone who knows the life in every stone in the wall.
Chidambaram temple might be a different world to the average devotee who comes there, but when you are guided into the temple, by one of the most passionate human beings, who sings nothing but the praise of the Lord, this temple has a different tune to play.
I am really blessed to have finally had the opportinity to meet this very passionate soul, a very learned man to whome Lord Shiva Nataraja is sublime poetry, music to the ears and rhythm to the feet. In his words one can hear the music of the ancients, the potency of the divine and the superiority of Hindiusm as a science. Every sanskrit verse he sang out were like a new pearl of wisdom, one that you connect with or want to keep listening to.
He walked us though the temple, circling at every shrine with adoration, through each prakara that we could access explaining each sculptural panel, defining each mural and giving me the freedom to click away. It was close to a dream come true. We sailed through the temple, breathed its calm fresh air, free from present day turmoil and corruption.
We entered the zone of the main sanctum, where the temple stood so grand, even in all the hussling crowd, one could hear the ghunguru sounds of the Lord as he danced in the central chamber. I was guided to ascend the steps to view the Lord up close, decked in flower and jewellery with the twinkling moon on his brow. The Lord danced gracefully at His seat in the Universe, the land of ether, within a ring of fire that glowed and brought His dance to life. This is where the Ananda Tandava can be felt, as the flames rise with the 6.00p.m. puja arti.
The drums resound, the bells ring and the sound of OM can be heard in every hit of the gong, the Universe awakens and the churn starts, the air reverberates and the flames of Arti rise in adoration. Fire, an element of purity, that burns out our egos, and merges us to this divine form, as the Lord swirls in Anandam.
As Raja Deekshithar describes it, when one reaches the sublime state of poetry, of beauty and bliss, of devotion... when nothing in the world matters anymore, you can feel the Lord dance, you can hear His divine feet in rhythm, you can see the grace in the ring of flames that cover Him, and then, history doesn't matter, living doesn't matter, its just beauty from within. Waves of grace, a veil of sound and music brings the Lord alive, its an experience to witness this through Chidambaram Nataraja.
Video courtesy: Raja Deekshithar
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Good morning Kavitha, It's a good description of the enjoyable visit.
I just would like to repeat as background of 'Hindu Philosophy' the following, 'Truth' in the words ow 'wise Hindus'...
‘Hindus’ believed God to be the one and only formless point source of energy called (Nirakar) Nadbindu. HE/ IT was also called ‘Shambhu’, an abbreviation ‘of Svayam-bhu’, that is, the one who appeared on its own, unending and unborn, related with zero time and space and, therefore, timeless…
’Our planet earth’, that is, ‘bhu’ or ‘bhumi’ was believed to be the true physical representation of the Formless ‘Nirguna’ or ‘inert’, that is, detached God who is seeing his own stories of the past, and called Bhootnath...
And, as we have seen earlier also, ancient Hindus, the word ‘Hindu’ having been derived from ‘Indu’ (the Heavenly Body that is once a part of earth itself, but now appearing detached from the earth due to ‘Maya’ or illusion, that is, Moon, that represents the Formless energy only, or soul of the ‘Nirguna’ - the Creator believed as detached from its ‘Creation’ represented therefore by inert composite earth) apparently had advanced in all fields of human activities related with the cosmos and they believed ‘mithya jagat’ or 'illusory earth' as the primordial physical form, maybe crude shaped in the beginning, from which apparently evolved the infinite universe while earth itself also evolved within it, within our Milky Way Galaxy, to the present believably immortal beautiful form, SHIVA the’Gangadhara’ (who holds the holy River ganga)/ ‘Chandrashekhara’ (who consumes the life- giving moonrays or ‘somrus’ to neutralize ‘poison of pollution’ that is ‘halahal/ ‘kalkoot’, literally the ‘crusher of time’ while Shiva Himself believably is 'Mahakal' the controller of time!)…
Happiness/ Bliss believably is a state of mind only!
"Hari ananta/ Hari katha ananta..."
‘Nadbindu’ believably created innumerable physical forms of the apparently infinite universe...
The building block of the universe today is called a Galaxy, which believably houses a ‘Black Hole’ in its centre, a ‘Heavenly Body (HB)’ that possesses super gravity compared to other HBs contained within it, to be able to make all other innumerable HBs go around it for billions of years – the present age of our universe is believed to be about 13 billion years as estimated by ‘scientists’ in the ‘west’, and those in the ‘east’ also copying them, who are ever looking outwards, while our solar system believably is about 4.6 billion years…
However, ‘wise’ Hindus believed the universe to be illusory, as an unending dream of the Creator in His ‘mind’s eye’, ‘seeking’ something that happened in His Past - starting from the ‘spiritual form’ at the beginning of Kaliyuga, literally the ‘dark age’. And, traveling backward in time from Satyuga... Even by the end of Dwaperyuga a ‘blind’ king, Dhritarashtra’ ruled over India that was Mahabharata, and is now ‘Bharat’ that is apparently shrinking further because of the ‘disturbed boundaries’ – the ‘burning northeast’ particularly (and its controller Mars was believed to be the ‘lord of war & fire)!
In a manner similar to that of ‘scientists’, ‘Historians’ and ‘Archeologists’ (perhaps all of us obliged to play the role of ‘jokers’ to reflect the time concerned that is Kaliyuga) apparently are busy to find the ‘skeleton’ of immortal name of ‘Lord Rama of Treta Yuga’, now merged with the ‘Absolute Truth’, just as digging in the sands of Egypt within the top-soil of earth and entering the Pyramids apparently revealed ‘mummies’ of Pharaohs (and also gold that believably fooled even Rama’s wife Sita too!), within those to the ‘westerners’ in the recent past – besides, of course, realization of the presence of ‘fire within’ because of the structure’s peculiar shape and orientation!
And, Hindus believed all physical forms, including man, to be made of ‘panchabhoota’ that is literally the ‘five ghosts’: ‘sky’, ‘earth’, ‘fire’, ‘air’, and ‘water’, as different reflections of the ‘beej mantra’, ‘OM’, the primordial sound energy used for Creation…
’Ayodhya’, the birthplace of Rama believably represented by the apparent location on the surface of earth close to Kashi, is believably deep within the bowels of the composite Earth – just as ‘present day scientists’ also believe Moon to have evolved from earth’s bowels!
Hindu Philosophy thus can't perhaps be easily digested by 'specialists' in one or a few subjects only, and 'wise Hindus' suggested it as the job of 'Siddhas' or 'all rounders'...and geniuses are born, and not made!
It is the state of mind that apparently matters. The environment determines man’s behaviour. If a person is lost, say, in an interesting film for a few hours inside a cinema hall, she becomes cut off physically and mentally from the knowledge of the external world and the apparent turmoil in, say, the field of ‘politics’, irrespective of who or which party 'rules'...
Similarly, a temple also could help a person remain detached for the time she spends inside it, provided she can manage to dump the thoughts related with day-to-day pressing needs that apparently still remain to be attended to by her in the material world for those minutes during that particular day…
The situation is perhaps like that of a goalkeeper in the game of football/ hockey whose role is to keep the football from entering between the goal posts!
“Travelling is education.”
Let’s try to see our planet through the eyes of an astronaut from a newspaper report a few decades ago... Recalling it from memory, an American astronaut reportedly expressed how when the spaceship had escaped the gravitational field of earth and proceeded ahead on its onward journey to moon, he saw the earth becoming smaller while moon grew bigger in size...
From space, at a certain stage earth appeared like a beautiful bluish-green gem to him. As time passed, it appeared insignificantly small, compared to other larger heavenly bodies and, had he not known it, he would find it difficult to believable it was inhabited not only by humans (who were fighting with each other all the time, God alone knowing why?) but God to have also believably appeared on it in person!
From the above, one could perhaps appreciate why the ancients advised detachment with earth, during the insignificantly small time a soul is obliged to remain attached with it in human form compared to the immortal Earth/ Formless Creator!
Talking of "churning" of thoughts,let us now try traveling up from the core of earth (where Ma Kali believably resides)!
It is observed by characters - categorized as ‘scientists’ today - that tonnes of soil gets deposited upon the surface of our planet earth annually from space, such that it is growing fatter along the Equator (perhaps becoming ‘Ganesha-like-lambodar’, that is, pot bellied – in the words of the ancient ‘wise Hindus’!). And, it is feared that it might even burst one day!
As we are believably in Kaliyuga, as communicated by the ancients, earth’s core perhaps represents the Satyuga, where possibly a large quantum of universal knowledge/ information is believably recorded, as it is believed to exist at the ‘mooladhar’ in human form also - as its model. And, the rest of the information perhaps is recorded distributed in different layers of the composite earth, with the minimum in the clay that exists on the surface, for certain ‘scientists’, with the background knowledge of music recorded on discs, at some stage mooted the idea of possibility of learing what all was being discussed in the ‘advanced Egypt’ from the pots (turned on the potters’ wheels in Cairo) that belonged to, say, Cleopatra’s period that were dug out and found by archeologists!
The above reasoning suggests that a major portion of the superficial rocks and soils pertaining to the Tretayuga in the present is lying deep within the bowels of earth, (together with the ‘life’ that existed then, including Lord Rama’s skeleton if it isn’t already turned into ashes and merged with the molten magma and, therefore, perhaps reappeared on earth’s surface at other times also in the form of lava from erupting volcanoes!) followed by the layers representing Dwaperyuga also deep within the earth over the layer that represents tretayuga. And, the top-most layer over it represents the ‘present’ or Kaliyuga…Moon being represented by all the waters on the planet in three forms as reflections of the Trinity…
Formless Creator is mischievous – as ‘Krishna’ was also believably understood as such...
In all aspects of life, as part of a grand design, it reflects itself in three major physical forms, expressed by the ‘wise Hindus’ as Brahma-Vishnu-Mahesha, the three broad aspects of the Formless, and yet an average human being fails to see Her hand although he/ she/ it is provided look at the ‘Nature’, day in and day out, all the time, all through one’s life-span of around 100 years!
For example, water appears in three states, as these are apparently categorised so by humans (male, female and eunuch) – solid (ice/ snow), liquid (water under normal condition of temperature and pressure), and gas (cloud/ steam); soil appears as silt, clay, and sand; rocks as sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous; and so on…
The entire drama is based on Yoga, where ‘mooladhar’, as part of the composite Earth, that is, the ‘Trimurty’, believably acts as an assistant to the hero during a particular era...
In Satyuga, it was Ganesha (essence of Mars, the ‘outer planet’), as 'mace-holder', who assisted his Mother Parvati (essence of Moon) to keep even Shiva (essence of earth) away from her, despite existence of their powerful elder son in the form of Kartikeya (essence of Venus, the ‘inner planet’)!
In Tretayuga, as Hanuman ‘the mace holder’, in the form of a ‘flying monkey’, it helped Lord Rama (essence of Sun) retrieve Sita (essence of moon) ‘from the clutches of demon king Ravana’!
And, in Dwaperyuga, as Bhima the mace-holder, he assisted Draupadi (essence of Moon) by eventually killing Duryodhana (the essence of Venus)!
And, in Kaliyuga, a batter (or batsman), a powerful hitter of sixes, could perhaps be seen as a reflection of Ganesha the 'mace holder'!
"Ganpati Bappa morya."
I just wanted to add that the Twenty20 Cricket matches, the latest source of excitement and entertainment for the present day youth are presently being played in (South) Africa, the once 'dark continent' (projection on the surface of earth of Ma Kali who according to hindus resides at the heart of shiva/ core of earth) believed as the ‘root’ of the ‘present day’ Homo sapiens all over the world…A continent of originally black-skinned people that has diamonds, hard forms of black Carbon in its bowels, that are being exploited by the white-skinned people who came from the west a few centuries ago, and established colonies all over the world for similar purposes (exploitation of ‘material’, including ‘black gold’) as part of the ‘churning’ as Shiva continues His dance, that is, the planet earth rotates around its axis and revolves around the sun, the source of white light that results in black shadows of all objects that come in the way of the sunlight, as also bright days & dark nights on earth day in and day out!
“The world has to move forward with nuclear power as an inevitable option.”
‘My’ newspaper, in ‘A thought for today’, has presented Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Shri Anil Kakodkar’s, perhaps the ‘mind opening’ quotation in the eyes of the editor, the age old ‘Truth’ known even to the ancient made to appear 'foolish', but perhaps ‘wiser Hindus’ than the ‘present day’ ‘wise scientists’ in Kaliyuga, due to characteristic property of time…
They, however, used instead, the word ‘Brahmastra’ (Brahma related with Sun, and Hydrogen Bombs exploding in the Sun) generally referring it to a weapon of mass destruction (WMD) as experienced by Japan in the year 1945…
Hanuman, the ‘flying monkey’, and many other Yogis too believably made use of the energy/ intelligence available within the human form instead - besides Yogeshwar Shiva’s, that is, Earth’s believable use of the ‘Third eye’ (alluding to opening of Ozone layer in the earth’s atmosphere) in His Rudra form, in Satyuga - which believably normally exists in a dormant form in all humans and could be exploited by the ‘wise’ or knowledgeable persons limited to the achievable maximum range in a particular yuga…
N.B.
[‘I’ (phoenetically, the word, perhaps surprisingly for an average man, means ‘MOTHER’, both in Assamese, the language spoken in the northeast, as well as in Marathi, the language spoken in the apparent distant northwest coastal region!) have stopped sending my reactions to the paper, to save my energy…]
If anyone is reading the comments, please read ‘southwest coastal region’ in place of ‘northwest…’:-)
As is well known, it is the southwest coastal region in India that acts as the origin of the ‘churning’ created by the ‘panchabhoota’ in the form of annual southwest monsoon, the cause of the ‘water cycle’ in which the northeast region of the lower Himalayas plays an important role of 'Mooladhar' symbolically represented by the Kamakhya Temple in Assam…
Hi Joshi Uncle,
You have made many references to asthras, the latest being brahmastra. Should it be taken so literally?
There is a full possibility that you are right about the chemical nature of it, but given the concept of asthras, they could have been for various other kinds of purposes... of a much smaller nature.
Ashtras used to ward off enemies, to save oneself from insult and disrespect, from jealousy... from people trying to get at you for their own inadequacies...
I wonder if there are books published on asthras and their nature.
Regds
Kavitha
Hi Kavitha, ‘I’ write so because ‘I’ am convinced, after ‘churning of the thoughts’ from left to right and from top to bottom’ while attempting to remain aware of the centre always, that Sun-Moon-Earth, together, make up the ‘Trimurty’ of Brahma-Vishnu-Mahesha, as the true image of the formless Creator that jointly represent Mahashiva…Of course, with assistant of the other HBs, such as Mars and Venus, for generating hierarchy, etc. and for fooling His ‘best creation‘- man through 'Maya!
‘I’ believe that one needs to enter the mind of the ancient wise to make two plus two equal to four…
’Astra’, of course, literally means a weapon – from a catapult to an atomic bomb, to the ‘sudershan chakra’ of Krishna/ Vishnu, and ‘kavacha’ as the protective shields, different for different weapons, or one for all weapons, viz. the believable ‘kavacha of Durga’, (maybe 'mantras' only), the model of moon that is generally provided the highest pedestal in the Hindu Pantheon…
And, of course, the Creator being formless, every character apparently has the choice depending on his/ her position in the hierarchy/ capacity…
Brahma would always be found in the stories to stand symbolically associated with our Sun, the most evolved source of energy among the ‘grahas’ or solar system (and ‘Krishna’, a model of the centre of our galaxy says that He illuminates the sun and the moon, and it is these two HBs - who believably helped point out to Vishnu - ‘demon Rahu’ (a 'cold planet) posing as a 'devta' when ‘amrit’ (Somrus or moonlight) was being distributed and Vishnu therefore cutting off his head, to result in Ketu the lower body acting separatly from the head!) …
The character of Karunanidhi, for example, quotes from ‘Valmiki Ramayan’ only (it was believably written even before Rama was born, as an example of advancement in Astrology) and thus conforms to ‘Yogiraja Krishna’ saying that everyone believes Him, on account of ‘Maya’ that is illusion, to reside within one's self, whereas the truth is that the entire creation lies within Him! (And the universe therefore is called ‘Brahmand’, that is, the egg of the Creator!)…
Hindu mythology thus isn’t easily digestible to all and sundry – it needs all round knowledge, besides Creator’s blessings too!
God is mischievous! In the make-believe world of Cinema, for example, there are two characters, Salman and Sanjaya, maybe it is a pure coincidence that both names start from letter ‘S’, like Saraswati’s the Goddess of Learning, and both are now ‘running from pillar to post’ due to lack of knowledge – and are chased by cameramen for common man’s knowledge too that the ‘Vaishnava thoughts’ (Vishnu believed as the Preserver) still rule the minds at least in in Udaipur, Rajasthan, India despite globalization, and that the ancients believed in God to appear in any form – animal, or man, whether ‘Hindu’, ‘Christian’, ‘Muslim’, or so on! Sanjay would perhaps never touch an ’astra’ again!
The Gita, that is perhaps translated in all important languages also says that all ‘wrong doings result from lack of (overall) knowledge’…
‘I’, therefore, think the Gita is the one and only book worth reading when one enters the stage of ‘Sanyas’…
Krishna says He appears in various physical forms, and cites how He is ‘the best’ in all the varieties of apparent forms, which although only are projections of light/ energy - appear real to animals including humans as their leader - as His Own models or ‘images’ because of Yogmaya the art of creating illusion through apparent imperfections in the apparent physical senses!
Perhaps ‘animals in the wild’ even today unaffected by time have more evolved sixth sense than ‘civilized humans’. They are least bothered of human presence also in the ‘wild’ only if they know that you aren’t going to harm them!
Yogis have apparently lived amongst the animals when they were the wildest when the Himalayan forests hadn’t been ravaged by the civilized man to the extent that leopards and man are forced to live in cities!
Of course, as per the belief of the experienced Yogis, with Yogic exercises, human body becomes unaffected even if an Atom Bomb were to explode in its vicinity…
It is a well known fact how there is continuous depletion of forests all over the world in the ‘present’, because of the thought (on account of inherent nature of Kaliyuga) that material advancement alone is important – a thought that was the sole objective of achieving immortality for the HBs when ‘churning’ was originally started by ‘Krishna’ on behalf of Formless Shiva (represented by the lingam as a symbol of proliferation of 'life' or 'material advancement)/ Vishnu the Nadbindu!
Thus it is only a matter of realization that Bhootnath Shiva is reviewing His Past, as the word, ‘bhoot’ itself alone communicates! Ancient man was a past master in the art of communication!
With the background of 'Vedanta' expressing the ‘Absolute truth’, the apparent ‘Truth’ related with confusion at the end of Kaliyuga when our Sun, that is, Brahma is preparing to go to sleep, having believably completed 4.6 billiion years that comprise its one day, ‘I’ think, an ‘engineer’ or an ‘architect’, because he/ she deals with drawings at the planning part itself, even before a structure/ project is actually undertaken/ executed, is in an advantageous position to appreciate, say, ‘Ramsetu’, as it is apparently also seen from the satellite in Kaliyuga by NASA, to be what it was thought originally to be constructed in the Tretayuga, through say a medium that represented primarily the Panchabhoota, ie, ‘earth’ (Lakshamana in human form as its model), ‘water’ (representing Moon, and Sita as its model), and ‘fire’ (Sun, represented by Rama as its model), and the role of ‘air’ as the medium of travel is played by the ‘flying monkey’ Hanuman (Model of Mars) and Sugriva’s simian army (representing Asteroids) the planetoids that exist between Mars and Jupiter (Mooladhar and Swadhisthan bandhas as their houses within each human form)…
Kavitha, Talking of weapons, that is, ‘astra’, one life-time isn't enough to know about just one subject. However, one gets introduced to some examples as essence. For example, there was once a news item in ‘my’ newspaper how a motorcyclist was going along the correct side of the road when a speeding truck - loaded with CGI sheets - overtook him. At that very moment, as his ‘bad luck’ or a rare ‘coincidence’ would have it, a sheet got liberated from the loaded truck and flew in the air and one of its edges separated the head of the rider from his body! The headless body thereafter continued to remain seated on the bike that continued to move for some more distance (following Newton’s first law of motion)! Although it was a sad affair for the concerned, but it made me recall also at that instant how the incident related to Vishnu cutting away Demon Rahu’s head is read by us all in the ‘Hindu mythlogical stories’ without a feeling of sympathy for the poor Rahu!
Krishna, in the Gita, also advises one to take death lightly!
Also, in the story related to Samson and Delilah, ancient Biblical characters, Samson reportedly used massive strength - he derived from his long hairs as some ‘Brahmins’ in India even today wear on their heads - to combat his enemies . He reportedly performed heroic feats believably unachievable by ordinary men: wrestling a lion, slaying an entire army with just a donkey's jawbone, and tearing down an entire ampitheatre that was supported on just two columns!
Similarly, ‘Hindu’ mythological stories also indicate Sage Dadhichi’s bones being used for making ‘astra’ for killing some demon!
Kavitha, Perhaps a ‘coincidence’, I just now read in ‘my’ newspaper the reporting with the title, ‘Bahubali statue with flowing hair found’. The news item originating in Bangalore reads, “This life-size Bahubali image of ninty century has long flowing hair unlike the ones you have seen. And the style resembles the Bahubali metal image of the 5th century, now preserved in the Metropolitan museum, New York, USA…”
I would also add that women in India have for long generally sported long hairs, just as Sikhs, who also sport beards (a believably typical image of Lord Shiva)...And, some 'Rock Stars' in the present also have started sporting a 'choti' at the back of their heads...
Sorry! Please read ninth century in place of ninty century...
Based on Hindu Mythology, essentially, ‘I’ visualize immortal ‘Nirakar Nadbindu’ as the original ‘Divine Person’, the cause of innumerable thoughts within zero time that believably got reflected in innumerable physical forms, as its own hierarchical images, which apparently fill the infinite void of the universe. And, in these physical forms, members of the solar system reflect its ‘true immortal images’ while reflecting the apparent hierarchy too… and animals, including humans as the most evolved among them, made from essences of selected eight members of the solar system, one each for control of, or representation of, eight directions, to similarly reflect the apparent hierarchy on its perfect physical form. Earth (represented by Shiva in human form), which rotates from ‘west’ to ‘east’, the direction in which ‘Vishnu’ is believed to lie.
Earth believably has three aspects reflected: By Sun for creation, and apparent rising in ‘east’ (India, represented by Manmohan) and setting in ‘west’ (USA, represented by Bush) respectively; and Moon for preservation of Earth and ‘life’, if any, upon it depending on the yuga concerned, as His other heads/ eyes while inert earth itself performed the task of transformation of energy into different shapes with passage of time created with the help of the solar system…
Kavitha, I had indicated at some places that Lord Vishu is generally believed to recline in West-East direction...
Thanks to Shri TR Krishnakumaran, I have learnt from Wikipedia on hte Internet, "Srivaishnava shrines that were sung about by Azhvars (divine saints) are called divya desams. There are 108 divya desams in total. Two of these are not in this material world - Parama padam (at God's holy feet) and ThiruppaRkadal (the Ocean of Milk where Vishnu resides). Of the remaining 106, 105 are located in India and 1 is in Nepal (SaLagramam)"…
Of course, it could be visualized that one is formless, at the centre of oour earth; one is at the centre of our Milky Way Galaxy…and it is also learnt that 79 of these face East…rest face in other directions...
As per Hindu Philosophy, the Formless Creator is related with time and space zero. Thus the entire ‘Creation’ (to make it possible to reach the immortal solar system as the essence of the infinite universal void) was completed in zero time. Thus, when He, believably as Bhootnath Shiva, is believably reviewing the creation from infinity to zero, or the stage of perfection to the beginning stage of imperfection, like an old person reviews one’s past, obviously one can do so with the memory of the very present moment fresh in one’s mind. And, therefore, it would take time to reach almost the remotest past, for humans generally, because of the design, lack memory of the early childhood...hence called 'Apsmara Purush'...
The Hindus believed this apparent time of review for the Formless to be 4.32 million terrestrial years in one cycle along a big circle of the space/ globe. And as there are 360 degrees in space and three aspects, they indicated 1080 such cycles (reflected by 108 beads in the rosary) needed to review the past story related with the entire 360 degrees of space to represent one day in the life of Brahma that is one of the three aspects of Mahashiva the earth, the believable centre of the physical universe (having the Formless, Kali, at the core of earth/ heart of Shiva)...
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