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nataraj shiva

Nataraja or Nataraj, the dancing form of Lord Shiva, is a symbolic synthesis of the most important aspects of Hinduism, and the summary of the central tenets of this Vedic religion. The term 'Nataraj' means 'King of Dancers' (Sanskrit nata = dance; raja = king). In the words of Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, Nataraj is the "clearest image of the activity of God which any art or religion can boast of…A more fluid and energetic representation of a moving figure than the dancing figure of Shiva can scarcely be found anywhere," (The Dance of Shiva)

The Origin of the Nataraj Form:

An extraordinary iconographic representation of the rich and diverse cultural heritage of India, it was developed in southern India by 9th and 10th century artists during the Chola period (880-1279 CE) in a series of beautiful bronze sculptures. By the 12th century AD, it achieved canonical stature and soon the Chola Nataraja became the supreme statement of Hindu art.

The Vital Form & Symbolism:

In a marvelously unified and dynamic composition expressing the rhythm and harmony of life, Nataraj is shown with four hands represent the cardinal directions. He is dancing, with his left foot elegantly raised and the right foot on a prostrate figure — 'Apasmara Purusha', the personification of illusion and ignorance over whom Shiva triumphs. The upper left hand holds a flame, the lower left hand points down to the dwarf, who is shown holding a cobra. The upper right hand holds an hourglass drum or 'dumroo' that stands for the male-female vital principle, the lower shows the gesture of assertion: "Be without fear."

Snakes that stand for egotism, are seen uncoiling from his arms, legs, and hair, which is braided and bejeweled. His matted locks are whirling as he dances within an arch of flames representing the endless cycle of birth and death. On his head is a skull, which symbolizes his conquest over death. Goddess Ganga, the epitome of the holy river Ganges, also sits on his hairdo. His third eye is symbolic of his omniscience, insight, and enlightenment. The whole idol rests on a lotus pedestal, the symbol of the creative forces of the universe.

The Significance of Shiva's Dance:

This cosmic dance of Shiva is called 'Anandatandava,' meaning the Dance of Bliss, and 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 Coomerswamy, the dance of Shiva also represents his five activities: 'Shrishti' (creation, evolution); 'Sthiti' (preservation, support); 'Samhara' (destruction, evolution); 'Tirobhava' (illusion); and 'Anugraha' (release, emancipation, grace).

The overall temper of the image is paradoxical, uniting the inner tranquility, and outside activity of Shiva.

A Scientific Metaphor:

Fritzof Capra in his article "The Dance of Shiva: The Hindu View of Matter in the Light of Modern Physics," and later in the The Tao of Physics beautifully relates Nataraj's dance with modern physics. He says that "every subatomic particle not only performs an energy dance, but also is an energy dance; a pulsating process of creation and destruction…without end…For the modern physicists, then Shiva's dance is the dance of subatomic matter. As in Hindu mythology, it is a continual dance of creation and destruction involving the whole cosmos; the basis of all existence and of all natural phenomena."

The Nataraj Statue at CERN, Geneva:

In 2004, a 2m statue of the dancing Shiva was unveiled at CERN, the European Center for Research in Particle Physics in Geneva. A special plaque next to the Shiva statue explains the significance of the metaphor of Shiva's cosmic dance with quotations from Capra: "Hundreds of years ago, Indian artists created visual images of dancing Shivas 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."

To sum up, here's an excerpt from a beautiful poem by Ruth Peel:
"The source of all movement,
Shiva's dance,
Gives rhythm to the universe.
He dances in evil places,
In sacred,
He creates and preserves,
Destroys and releases.
We are part of this dance
This eternal rhythm,
And woe to us if, blinded
By illusions,
We detach ourselves
From the dancing cosmos,
This universal harmony…"

shiva tandava

Tandava story

The son of sage Vishrawas and the demon princess Kaikesi, known as Dashaanana, the ten headed one, was once flying over the great Himalaya mountains in his airborne chariot, Pushpaka. The aircraft could be willed to move in any direction as chosen by its rider. The young and proud Dashaanana tested its capabilities by willing it to ascend higher and higher, much above the tallest mountain peaks, and he was delighted as the vehicle obeyed his mind and continually rose. Abruptly, however, the motion of Pushpaka was stalled. The aircraft would move neither upward nor forward. It was as though an invisible barrier held it from going ahead.

Dashaanana willed the chariot to descend at the foot of the mountain beyond which his plane refused to travel and he alighted to examine what prevented its further motion. He beheld a large lake, north of which was the mountain. Moving closer, the ten headed one observed some activity around the mountain. At its base was a gate, attended to by a strange looking being. He could not make out from the distance what being it was and he mockingly called out to it saying, "Monkey! Tell me why my chariot is not able to cross this mountain aerially. What holds it back?"

His callousness and ignorance angered the gatekeeper, who was actually a bull called Nandi. "Foolish raakshasa! For your slight of monkeys, may your lands be burnt by one. This is Kailasa, the abode of the Great Lord Siva. Do you not know of Him, ignorant as you are? There is nothing above Him in this world and, therefore, your silly vehicle cannot cross His abode. Turn back and return to where you came from, demon."

Dashaanana laughed out loud. "Of course I know Siva. I worship Him. But even He cannot stop me from traveling over this world, my own world. Does He not know I am Dashaanana, the ten headed? Does He not know that I am the ruler of the world? The gods all bow down to me and do my bidding. Surely Siva must acknowledge my superiority too. Instead, He chooses to block my path. Let me uproot this very mountain on which He dwells."

Dashaanana pushed Nandi away and dug his hands into the snow at the base of the mountain. Reaching for the roots of the mountain, with an enormous groan, the ten headed raakshasa lifted up that entire mountain. He pushed it up and heaved it on his great shoulders, much to the shock of Nandi. The demon was mindful to manage a smirk on his face, despite the enormous effort it took him to bear the weight of the whole mountain.

Atop the mountain, Siva and His consort, Parvati, felt a quake and Parvati expressed Her fright to Siva. The Destroyer smiled reassuringly at Her and pressed the surface of the mountain down with His big toe. Just that small pressure from the Great God, Mahadeva, pinned the mountain back down, crushing Dashaanana's arms beneath it. The demon let out a terrifying howl of pain- a howl that was magnified by the mountains, as though each peak relayed his agony with increased intensity. It appeared as though his cry echoed across the whole world, wringing the hearts of all its inhabitants. He tugged hard but was unable to release his arms from beneath the crushing weight of Mount Kailasa. He cried in pain and with eyes filled with tears of pain and desperation, looked beseechingly at Nandi. A few more of Siva's attendants had gathered to see what was happening. They all advised Dashaanana to sing hymns in praise of Siva to appease Him.

The mighty raakshasa inhaled deeply, as though gathering all his pain, and when he released his breath, he began singing. In that abject state of pain, Dashaanana composed powerful, moving hymns, in waves of resounding beauty.

"Lord with forest thick matted hair,

With graceful snakes as throat garlands,

Thump thump thump beats Your drum,

Dance Taandava to grant us grace,

Lord with river from Your thick hair,

With brightest fires on Your brow,

And a crescent moon on Your head,

I bow deeply down to Thee,

Lord of the mountain's daughter Parvati,

With an ever compassionate eye,

In whose control these worlds all are,

My mind seeks You everywhere,

Lord who burnt even Manmathan,

With one arrow razed the Tri Puras

Destroyer of the demon Andhaka,

Release me from bonds of the world,

Lord who destroys destruction

With sweetness destroys all evil

Controlling even mighty Yama

I pray to Thee and sing Thy name,

Lord who is eternally felicitous,

With equal love for one and all,

Folding hands above my heads I come,

When, Guru Siva, will I be at peace?"

And Siva appeared.

"Rise, o Dashaanana! Be freed from the weight you foolishly ventured to bear. Rise, o ten headed one, rise!"

Dashaanana found his hands released from the pinning burden of the Mountain. He fell at Siva's feet. "Pardon my arrogance, Mahadeva, for I am yet a fool."

"Your devotion in the face of adversity is worthy of the highest praise, ten headed one. May you be known henceforth as Raavana. He of the terrible cry. Rise, Raavana and behold your reward."

The Destroyer produced a long, thin, curved sword, forged of brilliant, white metal.

"This is My Chandrahaasa blade. I gift it to you in acknowledgement of your faith in Me. Be warned that it is not to touch the ground at any time, nor used on an enemy unjustly. Should it, and it shall return to Me immediately. Use it well."

Raavana accepted the Chandrahaasa- literally, moon smile- blade and touched it to his forehead as a mark of respect. He bowed again to Siva, and the God disappeared.

The hymns composed by Raavana are known collectively as the Siva Taandava Stotram, with each line comprising of sixteen syllables.

This was the story of Dashaanana the ten headed being given the name Raavana by the Destroyer Himself. I shall be back soon with another story to tell. The story of the fulfillment of Sati's promise to Siva...

shiva immortal love story

In the fourth skandha we have the glorious katha of Siva and Sati, which will strike us with wonder and consternation. When Brahma was about to create the world, from him the four Kumaras – Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanatana, Sanatkumara – were manifested for the first time. The moment they were born, Brahma told them to assist him in creation. The Kumaras said, “We would rather concentrate our minds on the Supreme Being than engage ourselves in creation.” Brahma was in a state of discomfiture at the total disregard that they paid to his request. He was annoyed, and anger burst through his forehead. But as these Kumaras were equally powerful due to their centralisation in God Almighty, this anger could not be directed towards them; and since Brahma could not swallow the anger, he released it. At that moment, a fiercely roaring being arose from his forehead, demanding an immediate abode for itself. It cried out. Then Brahma said, “Oh, Rudra!” Because it cried the moment it was born, it is designated as Rudra – one who makes roaring sounds, and yells and shouts.

Brahma said, “Help me in creation.” Instantly, this being created an endless variety of demoniacal creatures which were frightening even to Brahma’s eye. Brahma said, “Please stop your creation!” “Then what shall I do?” asked Rudra. “I shall give you an abode. Go there, and keep quiet. Don’t do anything at all.” Then Brahma named him Siva, Rudra, Bhava, and many other names, and also gave him the Saktis; and Rudra, who is Siva, retired to Kailasa. He did not interfere with anybody.

One day, when Brahma was holding his audience, all the gods were seated, and Siva also was seated there. At that time, Daksha, who was also a progeny of Brahma, entered the hall. In honour of his great entrance into the hall, all the gods stood up in obeisance. But Siva did not get up. He remained seated, minding not the coming of Daksha. Incidentally, Sati, the daughter of Daksha, was married to Siva, so Siva was Daksha’s son-in-law. But Siva showed utter disregard for his father-in-law and did not rise from his seat when all others stood up offering obeisance. This enraged Daksha, who stood with uplifted arms and said, “Oh, you gods! Please listen to what I am saying. Here is an idiotic fellow seated in the audience of the gods. Shameless is he. He has no respect for anybody. He wanders about half-naked and lives like a beggar. To him I gave my daughter; what a mistake I have committed! Shame to those with him in this audience!” Daksha went on shouting like this for a long time, and all the gods shut their ears because they could not hear all this. Siva also heard all the abuses poured upon him by Daksha, but he did not utter even one word. He just walked out of the palace and returned to his abode in Kailasa, where he lived with Sati.

One day, Sati observed the celestials travelling in some direction in their aerial cars. She looked up and asked, “Where are the gods going?”

“You don’t know?” asked one of the gods, “How is it that you do not know? Your own father is performing a glorious yajna, to which he has invited all the celestials, and we are all going there. How is it that you, his daughter, do not know?” Sati was in great chagrin that an invitation had not been extended to Siva. She was disturbed that her father had ignored both her and Siva, but as he was her father she told Siva, “I want to go to my father’s yajna.”

Lord Siva said, “It is not proper for you to go there.”

“Why?” she asked.

“Daksha does not like me. He has no regard for me, and therefore your going there is not proper,” replied Siva.

But Sati said, “No, he is my father.”

“He may be your father, but he hates me, so you should not go if I am not going. I am not responsible for the consequences.”

“What consequences? I shall take care of myself,” she told him.

“I am telling you again, it is not good for you to go there. You will not gain anything by it, and this adventure will not end in anyone’s happiness. I advise you not to go.”

“No, I must go,” she insisted.

“I don’t think I should send my attendants to take you there. It will be highly improper for me,” said Siva.

“I shall go with my own attendants!” Sati collected all her attendants and marched, under the impression that she, being the divine daughter of this great Daksha, will be highly honoured in the midst of all the gods.

With great expectations of glory before her, she went to the yajna and stood at the gate. She expected someone to come and receive her, but nobody looked at her. For fear of Daksha, no other god would utter a word. Of course, her mother and associates came and hugged her but she rejected their greeting, perhaps because her father was not concerned with her. She looked here and there. “What is happening? How is it that no one is receiving me?” Sati thought. Then she remembered the words of Siva. “I disregarded him, and came here. Now neither can I stand here, nor can I go back to him shamefacedly.” She expected somebody to come. Nobody came. Time passed like this, and the yajna was going on. The gods turned their backs to her. It was a very serious situation.

Sati stood up and loudly proclaimed in a ferocious language, “Due to the impropriety of this yajna, where the great master Siva is not invited, it cannot be called a divine sacrifice because the chief divinity itself is not present. Fie upon you all gods! Shamelessly you have attended the yajna of this irresponsible Daksha, whom I no longer regard as my father. Siva is being disrespected. The two words ‘si’ and ‘va’ are sufficient to give salvation to people, and such a divinity is being disregarded here. Is this a divine sacrifice? Are you gods? Have you any sense? You did not invite Lord Siva, and you come and sit here at the feet of this terrible person whom I shamelessly called father. I am sorry that I have been born to him.”

Sati sat, with great sorrow burning her body. She sat in a state of yoga, invoked agni from within herself, and the yoga within burned her. Flames came up and consumed her. All were shocked. What is this that has happened? They had nothing to say this way or that way. All were wondering what to do. There was nothing that they could do, nothing that they could say. They were shocked, nothing but shocked.

News reached Lord Siva. He could have opened his third eye and burnt Daksha, but he had something else in his mind. He pulled a hair from his head and struck it on the ground. A fierce giant rose up. “Order, master!” said the giant.

“Go and destroy the yajna of Daksha,” said Siva.

With the fierce retinue of Rudra, this giant called Veerabhadra rushed to the sacrificial area of Daksha, and when this fierce onrush of militant demoniacal forces entered the yajna, the ritviks, the priests performing the yajna, were frightened. They immediately invoked a force into the fire, by which they created a counterforce which rose up by the millions and attacked Rudra’s retinue. There was a tussle between the two forces, but suddenly Veerabhadra overcame all the opposition and severed the head of Daksha.

Rudra came to know all this. He was mad with rage. He ran, holding the body of Sati, and rolled all over like a crazy person, as if he was dancing the final Tandava of destruction before him. The whole world was terrified because nobody knew what he was going to do. He would not stand in one place. He ran from place to place – the whole creation, as it were – holding Sati’s body, and he looked as if he was inebriated and had lost his sense. He was conscious only of Sati’s dead body, and was moving fiercely like a whirlwind, like a tornado, like a tempest.

All the gods were frightened, and went to Lord Vishnu: “Please do something. Everything is in danger. He is not going to leave this body; and what he will do finally, nobody knows.” Then Sri Vishnu, Narayana, released his sudarshana chakra, which sliced Sati’s body into little pieces; and because of the ravaging movement of Siva, the pieces were scattered and fell in seven different places. It is believed that all the spots where parts of this body fell are sakti sthalas, and even today they are worshipped in various parts in this country.

Then the gods, including Brahma, went to Siva. Vishnu greeted Siva and said, “Calm down. Please pardon this man Daksha. His behaviour was due to ignorance, and you should not punish an ignorant person. Calm down. Bless him. Let him be allowed to continue his yajna. After all, he is a foolish person, and are you going to be so enraged at the foolishness of this man?”

Then Lord Siva calmed down. But how could the yajna continue when Daksha’s head had gone? So a goat’s head was brought and fixed on Daksha, and he was enlivened to the person that he was. He immediately realised his mistake and prostrated – sashtanga namaskaram – before Lord Siva, and chanted the Rudra mantra, Namakam and Chamakam. Some people humorously say the mantra was made by uttering words cha me, cha me, because goats make that sound! The yajna was completed. Brahma, Vishnu, Siva blessed the yajna, and everything went on well.

Here, in the tradition of the pantheon of gods according to the Epics and the Puranas, Lord Siva stands preeminent. He is not an ordinary god. It is impossible to describe what kind of person he is. He is a person who wants nothing for himself. 

Lord Siva’s name also occurs in the Mahabharata. One day, when Arjuna was seated with Bhagavan Sri Krishna at the close of the day’s battle, Arjuna queried Krishna, “Master, may I ask you a question?”

“Yes, ask,” replied Krishna.

“When I was engaged in battle with Drona and Karna, I saw some vague being moving about, not touching the ground. It was sometimes visible, sometimes not visible. It had ashes on its body, a serpent on the neck, and a trident in hand. I could not make out what it was. It was an illusion before me. At the time I could not speak about this because I was engaged in war, but I remember this incident now and want to ask you what it was that I was seeing there.”

Sri Krishna said, “You are a blessed man to have that vision. It was Bhagavan Sankara imself, invisibly moving in the battlefield to help you. Otherwise, even with all your archery, with all your might and name, knowledge and power, do you believe that you can face people like Bhishma, Drona and Karna? They are all a hundred times stronger than you. Siva, in is compassion, came uninvited to bless you because of your goodness. He did not engage in battle, and did not come to wage war with the Kurus, but is very presence was enough to paralyse the strength of all the Kurus. The very odour emanating from is body was enough to cow down everybody and make them lose all their strength. Such is the glory of Siva, the great Sankara Bhagavan, and you had is darshan. Blessed you are, Arjuna! He is ashutosh – immediately pleased. Ask, and it is given immediately. You did not call him, but he knew that you require help. Unsolicited, the great master, the great god, comes to you.”

This is Mahadeva, Sankara, Rudra, Siva. He was in the air, moving about without touching the ground. The point here is is blessings. Sankara bhagavan ki jai! Here we have the central issue, practically, of the fourth skandha of the Srimad Bhagavata – among many other things into which we will not enter here due to paucity of time...

21st century SHIVA