Sunil Raina Rajanak
Shiva as a supreme consciousness is in everyone. He throbs in each and every atom thus accentuating His Mastery over Universe. Shiva dissipates darkness from inner being of individuals similar to the morning Sun rays which eliminates darkness from physical world. This phenomenon is akin to Nataraja dance which is synchronous with universal activity and is aesthetically symbolized into an exquisite sculpture of Nataraja by the master sculptors of yore in India.
Nataraja stands as Nata – Nautch, dancer and Raja – The King. Hence Nataraja stands for King of The Dance, the master dancer. Under whose guidance this cosmic inertia comes into rhythmic motion. Shiva is believed to dance at heights of Kailash where all other deities are in full attendance surrounding him. The other famous dance of Shiva is in cremation grounds accompanied by Bhairavi and capricious imps. This dance is also referred as Tandava.
But the significant dance of Shiva is Nataraja which infuses momentum into the Universe. The legend goes that Shiva was meditating in the forest and in the same forest some rishis having quarrel amongst themselves directed their anger towards Lord. In first of this they created a tiger by the power of their mantras which was let loose on Shiva. The Lord ripped the tiger and wore his skin as his hide. The Rishis then sent cobra to disturb the Lord which was worn as adornment by Lord. Not buoyed by failures Rishis then created a dwarf monster Muyalaka upon which Lord stood up to dance and then pressed his tip of the toe on the spine of dwarf and broke his back. This dance is exquisitely captured in the image of Nataraja displaying Shiva dancing having four hands, with braided jeweled hair. Cobra, skull, and mermaid figure as Ganga, crescent, cassia leaves on his matted locks. Lord wears man’s ornaments on right side and woman’s ornaments on left side representing Uma the consort of Shiva. The ornaments include earrings, anklets, bracelets, finger and toe rings. The dress includes breeches, scarf and sacred thread.
The right upper hand holds drum which signifies that Lord’s power of creation the first Spanda or the motion.
The right lower hand is in varad mudra signifying to the myriad souls not to fear as He is the eternal protector.
The left upper hand has fire pot which signifies the Lord’s power of destruction.
The left lower hands points towards dwarf laying at Lord’s foot which signifies that Lord is capable of punishing those who create turbulence, disturbance or contemptable acts.
The left foot is raised signifying that Shiva grants eternal bliss who beseech him.
The right foot on ground implies that He is the only worthy of refugee for the tired souls struggling in the world of causality.
This symbology denotes fivefold acts of Shiva. These acts as per Kashmiri Shaivism are creation, sustenance, dissolution, concealing and revealing. The later two are referred as Triyodhana and Anugreh respectively.
Shiva loves to do Tandava dance in burning grounds of crematorium. But the significance of this act is that he dances to burn the negative impressions or the malas on consciousness so as to remove the fetters of illusion and vanquish evil and to thrust the soul into eternal Bliss. The burning ground is the body and this dance takes place within self and Shiva as a supreme consciousness constantly awakens the individual self to get realized hence the analogy.
The celebrated mystic scholar of Kashmiri Shaivism Utpaldev says in Shivstotravali that Lord Shiva is also capable of giving two kinds of rewards. One is known as Iham the materialistic wish and the other as Param the Bliss of the attachment to the lotus feet of Lord also referred as Mukti. Utpaldev prays to the Lord to decide what best suits for him.
The iconography of Nataraja has an Arch emitting fire and touched by hands and feet of Shiva which represent that cosmic existence comes into play only when Shiva Wills and creates his first movement as a creator which in turn becomes the source of expansion.
No sooner does the Shiva dance that inert matter dances with Him setting things into motion. This rhythmic dance pulsates from micro to macro. From atom to cosmos thus underlining the existence of dance of consciousness.
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