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Timelessness of Mahashivarathri
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by V. Sundaram |
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Tomorrow (Friday-12-2-2010) is Mahashivarathri Day (The great night of Lord Shiva). This is one of the most important festivals for the Hindus of India and the world. Festivals are an important means of spiritual regeneration in Hindu Religion.
According to timeless and sacred Hindu tradition, any one who recites the names of these 12 Jyothirlinga regularly in the morning and evening washes away all the sins committed in his previous 7 births and attains all the powers and Siddhis. I am presenting below an ancient verse in Sanskrit which lists the names of all the 12 Jyotirlingas. This verse is chanted by millions and millions of devotees of Lord Shiva everyday.
![]() In all his images, Lord Shiva is depicted in a human form. His body his naked and covered with ashes. The naked body indicates that He is free from attachments to the material things of the world. Since most things get reduced to ashes when burned, ashes symbolize the essence of all things and beings in the world. The ashes on the body of the Lord signify that. He is the source of the entire creation which emanates from Him. Lord Shiva is depicted as having three eyes. The two eyes on the right and left indicate His activity in the physical world. The third eye in the centre of the forehead symbolizes knowledge (Gnana), and is thus called the eye of wisdom or knowledge. The powerful gaze of Lord Shiva’s third eye annihilates evil, and that is the reason why evil-doers fear His is third eye. The destructive power of Lord Shiva is symbolized by the snakes around His neck. In many pictures Shiva is depicted holding a trident in His right hand. In certain other pictures, a trident is shown standing adjacent to Him. A trident has three edges, which denote the three qualities of nature: Sattva (Inactivity), Rajas (Activity), and Tamas (Non-activity). The trident signifies the Lord is beyond the three qualities of nature. The trident also symbolizes the weapon that the Lord uses to destroy evil and ignorance in the world. A damaru (small drum) produces sound when vibrated. As per Hindu scriptures the sound of vibration (of the sacred syllable OM) is believed to be the source of creation. A damaru in one of Lord Shiva’s hands conveys the idea that He holds the entire creation in His hand, folding or unfolding it at His will. Since a tiger symbolizes power, the tiger skin on which the Lord sits indicates that He is the source of infinite power which He controls at will. The crescent moon is shown on the side of the Lord’s head as an ornament and not as an integral part of His countenance. The waxing and waning phenomenon of the moon symbolizes the time cycle through which creation evolves from the beginning to the end and back to the beginning. Since the Lord is the Eternal Reality, the crescent moon is only one of His ornaments, and not an integral part of Him. The moon symbolizes the qualities of the heart such as love, kindness and compassion. The crescent moon near the Lord’s head conveys the idea that a devotee must develop these qualities in order to become closer to the Lord. ![]() According to scholars, ‘Divine Characteristics of the Tandava Dance’ have been described in the fourth chapter of Bharat Muni’s Nata Shastra, which is referred to as fifth Veda and an expression of Lord Shiva’s eternal dance - Tandava. It says that Shiva’s Tandava is embellished with 108 karanas and the 32 anghaharas - the composite parts of the dance. Bharat Muni further says that Lord Shiva conceived the dance, as he was very much fond of dancing every evening. Lord Shiva further indicated that the 108 karnas included in Tandava could be employed in the course of dance, fight, and personal combats and in other special movements like strolling. Some scholars believe that there are eight (8) different types of Tandava. The Tandava performed with joy is called Ananda Tandava and that which is performed in a violent mood is called Rudra Tandava. The other types of tandava identified are Tripura Tandava, Sandhya Tandava, Samhara Tandava, Kaali Tandava, Uma tandava and Gauri Tandava. The Hindu Agamas describe these different forms of Dance of Lord Shiva. However, there are certain other scholars who believe that there are sixteen (16) types of tandava. What is the significance of Lord Shiva’s Tandava Nritya? According to religious scholars, the cosmic dance of Shiva, called ‘Anandatandava,’ meaning, ‘the Dance of Bliss’ symbolizes the cosmic cycles of creation and destruction, as well as the daily rhythm of birth and death. The dance is a pictorial allegory of the five principle manifestations of eternal energy—creation, destruction, preservation, salvation, and illusion. According to the great Art Historian Dr. Ananda Coomarsamy, (1877-1947) the dance of Shiva represents his following five activities namely, ‘Shrishti’ meaning creation and evolution; ‘Sthiti’ meaning preservation and support; ‘Samhara’ meaning destruction and evolution; ‘Tirobhava’ meaning illusion and finally ‘Anugraha’ meaning release, emancipation and grace. Dr. Ananda Coomarasamy states in his famous book on the Dance of Shiva that Lord Shiva as represented in the Nataraja form is a remarkably resplendent wonder of the aesthetic world. He puts it in inimitable words of indescribable beauty: ‘The Indian Nataraja may well be claimed as the clearest, most logical and impassioned statement of the conception of life as an eternal Becoming. This is His dance in the last night of the world when the stars fall from their courses and all is reduced to ashes, to be ever rekindled, ever renewed by the boundless power of the Lord. The Dionysian frenzy of his whirling dance presents affirmation of the eternal, unseen spectacle of the dynamic disintegration and renewal, birth and death, of all cosmic matter in every second as in every kalpa of time’. Thus Nataraja typifies the universe in the action of creation and destruction. The overall temper of the image is paradoxical, uniting the inner tranquility, and outside activity of Lord Shiva. Dr. Ananda Coomarasamy was clearly able to see beyond the unsurpassed rhythm, beauty, power and grace of the Dance of Nataraja, when he described it eloquently: ‘Whatever be the origins of Shiva’s dance, it became in time the noblest image of activity of God which any art or religion can boast of.’ Sir Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), leading English Sculptor, also wrote about Shiva Nataraja: “Shiva dances, creating the world and destroying it, his large rhythms conjure up vast eons of time, and his movements have a relentless magical power of incantation. Our European allegories are banal and pointless by comparison with these profound works, devoid of the trappings of symbolism, concentrating on the essential, and the essentially plastic’. Siva is the Divine Dancer, visualized in terms of motion and vibration, who in 108 various movements interprets the mathematical Law of the Universe. The Natya Sastra or the Science of Dance enumerates 108 modes (Karanas) of dance and all these are found sculptured on either side of the doorway of Chidambaram Temple, Tamilnadu, India. Anyone who wants to know the secret of the Universe is advised to go to the Cidambaram Temple situated in Tamilnadu, India where Lord Nataraja is the presiding deity. Any one who understands the Dance of Shiva Nataraja could easily understand the mysteries of the Universe. My friend and great Scholar G.P. Srinivasan has invited my attention to the fact that on June 18, 2004, an unusual new landmark was created at CERN, the European Centre for Research in Particle Physics in Geneva. A 2m tall statue of the Indian deity Shiva Nataraja, the Lord of Dance has been installed at the Centre. The statue, symbolizing Shiva’s cosmic dance of creation and destruction, was given to CERN by the Indian Government to celebrate the research Centre’s long association with India. The symbolism of Shiva’s Cosmic Dance is strong and simply overpowering. As scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research at (CERN) near Geneva smash subatomic particles in the world’s largest experimental Centre, Lord Shiva, the destroyer, continues to keep a cosmic watch over it all, standing in close proximity in the immediate neighborhood. In choosing the image of Shiva Nataraja, the Indian Government has acknowledged the profound significance of the metaphor of Shiva’s dance for the cosmic dance of subatomic particles, which is observed and analyzed by CERN’s physicists. The parallel between Shiva’s dance and the dance of subatomic particles was first discussed by Fritjof Capra in 1972 in an article titled ‘The Dance of Shiva: The Hindu View of Matter in the Light of Modern Physics' Shiva’s cosmic dance then became a central metaphor in Capra’s international bestseller The Tao of Physics, first published in 1975 and still in print in over 40 editions around the world. A special plaque next to the Shiva statue at CERN in Geneva explains the significance of the metaphor of Shiva’s cosmic dance with several quotations from The Tao of Physics. Here is a quotation from Fritjof Capra that has been put in that special plaque ‘Modern physics has shown that the rhythm of creation and destruction is not only manifest in the turn of the seasons and in the birth and death of all living creatures, but is also the very essence of inorganic matter and for the modern physicists, then, Shiva’s dance is the dance of subatomic matter. Hundreds of years ago, Indian artists created different forms of visual images of dancing Shiva in a beautiful series of bronzes. In our time, physicists have used the most advanced technology to portray the patterns of the cosmic dance. The metaphor of the cosmic dance thus unifies ancient mythology, religious art and modern physics.’ In his Introduction to his famous book The Tao of Physics Capra had narrated his experience while gazing at the Pacific Ocean. His entire field of vision just disappeared and was replaced by an irrepressible Cosmic Consciousness, which he could identify and which he was later able to relate to Advaitha of Hindu Philosophy of gaining cosmic vision. To conclude in the words of G.P. Srinivasan: ‘For the first time this made history for the philosophy of yoga and principles of quantum physics were merged into seamless realism’. To conclude in the exquisite and ecstatic words of Shonar: “Ancient Bharatha—where does she begin? When did she end? Or has she even ended? There are those who say no. They say she has no beginning, no end, like the Brahman that she loves and swears by, which begins from nothing and ends into nothing. Timeless and Everlasting! |
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11-Feb-2010 | ||
More by : V. Sundaram | ||
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