The Cosmic Dance Of Shiva

"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. For the modern physicists, then, Shiva's dance is the dance of subatomic matter. 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. Indian artists have created beautiful pictures and statues of dancing Lord Siva. These statues are visual images of the cosmic dance, and so are the bubble chamber tracks photographed by modern physicists. They are a modern version of the dance of Siva obtained by using the most modern and advanced of our Western technological instruments. To me, the effect is as beautiful and as profound as the magnificent Hindu statues. In both cases, we are picturing an eternal dance of creation and destruction, which is the basis of all natural phenomena, the basis of all existence." - Fritjof Capra
Shiva, the arch-yogi of the gods, is necessarily also the master of the dance. The dance is an act of creation. It brings about a new situation and summons into the dancer a new and higher personality. It has a cosmogonic function, in that it rouses dormant energies which them may shape the world. On a universal scale, Shiva is the Cosmic Dancer; in his Dancing Manifestation (nritya-murti) he embodies in himself and simultaneously gives manifestation to Eternal Energy. The forces gathered and projected in his frantic, ever-enduring gyration, are the powers of the evolution, maintenance, and dissolution of the world. Nature and all its creatures are the effects of his eternal dance.
Shiva-Nataraja is represented in a beautiful series of South Indian bronzes dating from the tenth and twelfth centuries A.D. The details of these figures are to be read, according to the Hindu tradition, in terms of complex pictorial allegory.

The upper right hand, it will be observed, carries a little drum, shaped like an hour-glass, for the beating of the rhythm. This connotes Sound, the vehicle of speech, the conveyer of revelation, tradition, incantation magic and divine truth. Furthermore, Sound is associated in India with Ether, the first of the five elements. Ether is the primary and most subtly pervasive evolution of the universe, all the other elements, Air, Fire, Water, and Earth. Together, therefore, Sound and Ether signify the first, truth-pregnant moment of creation, the productive energy of the Absolute, in its pristine, cosmogenetic strength.

  The opposite hand, the upper left, with a half-moon posture of the figure (ardhacandra-mudra), bears on its palm a tongue of flame. Fire is the element of the destruction of the world. At the close of the Kali Yuga, Fire will annihilate the body of creation, to be itself then quenched by the ocean of the void. Here, then, in the balance of the hands, is illustrated a counterpoise of creation and destruction in the play of the cosmic dance. Sound against flame. And the field of the terrible interplay is the Dancing Ground of the Universe, brilliant and horrific with the dance of the god.

The “fear not” gesture (abhaya-mudra), bestowing protection and peace , is displayed by the second right hand, while the remaining left lifted across the chest, points downward to the uplifted left foot. This foot signifies Release, and is the refuge and salvation of the devotee. It is to be worshipped for the attainment of union with the Absolute. The hand pointing to it is held in a pose imitative of the outstretched trunk or “hand of the elephant” (gaja-hasta-mudra), reminding us of Ganesha, Shiva’s son, the Remover of Obstacles.
The divinity is represented as dancing on the postrate body of a dwarfish demon. This is “Apasmara Purusha,” The Man or Demon (purusha) called Forgetfulness, or Heedlessness (apasmara). It is symbolical of life’s blindness, man’s ignorance. Therein is release from the bondages of the world.
A ring of flames and light (prabha-mandala) issues from and encompasses the god. This is said to signify the vital processes of the universe and its creatures, nature’s dance as moved by the dancing god within. Simultaneously it is said to signify the energy of Wisdom, the transcendental light of the knowledge of truth, dancing forth, from the personification of the All. Shiva as the Cosmic Dancer is the embodiment and manifestation of eternal energy in its ‘five activities’ (panch-kriya)

1. Creation (sristi)–the pouring forth or unfolding
2. Maintenance (sthiti)– the duration
3. Destruction (samhara)–the taking back or reabsorption
4. Concealment (tiro-bhava)–the veiling of True Being behind the masks and garbs of apparitions, aloofness, display of Maya,
5. Favor (anugraha)–acceptance of the devotee, acknowledgment of the pious endeavor of the yogi, bestowal of peace.

Shiva is Kala, ‘The Black One’ ‘Time’; but he is also Maha Kala, ‘Great Time’, ‘Eternity’. As Nataraja, King of Dancers, his gestures, wild and full of grace, precipitate the cosmic illusion; his flying arms and legs and the swaying of his torso produce– indeed, they are–the continuous creation-destruction of the universe, death exactly balancing birth, annihilation the end of every coming-forth. The choreography is the whirligig of time. History and its ruins, the explosion of suns, are flashes from the tireless swinging sequence of the gestures. In the medieval bronze figurines, not merely  a single phase or movement, but cyclic rhythm, flowing on and non in the unstayable, irreversible round of the Mahayugas, or Great Eons, is marked by the beating and stamping of the Master’s heel.
But the face remains, meanwhile, in sovereign calm.
Shiva is apparently, thus, two opposite things, archetypal ascetic, and archetypal dancer. On one hand , he is Total Tranquility — inward calm absorbed in itself, absorbed in the void of the Absolute, where all distinctions merge and dissolve, and all tensions are at rest. But on the other hand, he is Total Activity — life’s energy, frantic, aimless, and playful.
(Heinrich Zimmer in his book “Philosophies of India”)

Hinduism Today III

After Part I and II

The Muslim League’s movement, which led to creation of separate state of Pakistan, proved to be its peak. For details one might refer to this excellent article by Sepoy at Chapati Mystery. Increasingly it becomes apparent to the keen observer of the sub-continent’s history, during the period of independence of India, the Indian National Congress was conceived to be the pro-Hindu party while the Muslim League was the mouthpiece of the Muslims. In the period after the Independence, this perception appears to have changed diametrically, with the Bharatiya Janata Party being the representative of Hindus and The Indian National Congress being seen by most Indians as the mouthpiece of non-Hindus. In this most amazing reversal of roles, the only unidentified party seems to be the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh – RSS. During the period of Independence and the subsequent partitions, the RSS emerged as the self-appointed flag bearer of Hindutva. Nurtured mainly by the Hindus from the state of Maharastra, their ideologue Nathuram Godse was later to kill Mahatma Gandhi. In his book titled “Gandhi Badh Kyon?” (Why Killing Of Gandhi?), he states many perceived betrayals of Mahatma Gandhi to the Hindu cause as the reason for this killing. The main points of his statement can be summarized as

a) During 1939-40 till 3rd June 1947 the Indian National Congress bowed before Jinnah and agreed to creation of Pakistan under the leadership of Gandhi.
b) Gandhi went into fast till death, to pressurize Indian government to pay Pakistan 55 Crores as compensation.

It is interesting to note that, although these were the general perception of the Indian populace during that time, nobody ever owned up the cause. During the last several years of independent India, the facts of that period have never been discussed to its logical conclusion. Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation remains the holy cow, and no discussion has ever been tolerated about him.

The RSS went on to create its political wing named “The Hindu Mahasabha”, which later transformed into Jana Sangha and ultimately to the Bharatiya Janata Party. After trying for several years unsuccessfully to come into main stream politics, their time finally came after the Ram Janma Bhumi movement which culminated into breaking of a 18th century mosque at Ayodha in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, built by the Mughal emperor Babar (founder of Mughal empire in India) at the site of the Hindu god Ram – according to the legends. This was followed by wide scale violence across India. This followed by the Hindu votes being diverted in favour of the BJP, and they formed the government with many other smaller regional parties under the name of National Democratic Alliance (NDA). They were defeated in the subsequent 2004 general elections, which apparently resulted in much behind the screen soul searching at BJP. During a vist to Pakistan as the leader of opposition, the BJP president at that time (June 2005) called Jinnah secular. This resulted in a huge controversy and Advani had to resign as party president. It was later found that this comment of Advani was on the lines of Bhopal Papers submitted by Sudheendra Kulkarni, BJP national secretary (later resigned). Mr Kulkarni in his papers had advised the BJP leadership to drop the Hindutva agenda, carve out an identity for itself as an entity not tied to the RSS' apron strings, and woo Muslims. Mr Kulkarni continues to write for a leading Indian daily, The Indian Express. The BJP, inspite of best efforts of RSS, has rapidly emerged as the alternative party to the Congress, and it appears to be just a matter of time before it becomes just the other option that the Indian voter goes to when they have had enough of Congress, as is evident from the fresh results of by elections in India.

On a related note, the Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs (all sub sects of Hinduism) claim to be independent entities from Hinduism. The Buddhism has almost vanished from India, the place of its birth, and survives (flourishes) only outside India. Some Hindu scriptures had started referring to Buddha as another incarnation of Vishnu, a god of Hindu pantheon. This feature of Hinduism, of internalizing any available religion, is another matter of pondering. This probably overwhelms other religions and they prefer to flee to keep their identities from being overtaken by the Hinduism.

Hinduism Today - II

Continues from Part I
Talking of Yoga, the present day yogi, Swami Ramdev has generated his own share of controversy. His success is attributed to the basic principles of marketing management as taught by C. K. Prahlad, the management guru, namely addressing the bottom of the pyramid. It is evident from his huge and ever increasing popularity in India, that some thing is going right. There are numerous people who claim to have been benefited by the yoga techniques (pranayams) taught by Swami Ramdev. During his recent visit to Bhopal for his training camps, he insisted repeatedly that he or his yoga techniques were not hypothecated to any particular community. However with almost the entire BJP government of Madhya Pradesh attending, with one of its ministers in full RSS dress, it was evident that the ailing hearts and bodies of the local congress leaders and Muslims had to wait for another day to learn yoga. This fear of yoga appears to be spread even abroad.

Yoga is actually an omnibus term for an approach to spirituality. According to Hindu scriptures (Reference: Kevalya Darshan) the Sadhak (the one who seeks), when practicing the pranayams (yoga exercises) under supervision of guru, undergoes a transformation of thinking and starts seeking the God. This has been referred to as Bahirang sadhana - the external practise. This Bahirang Sadhana enables a person to destroy his unholy desires (Kevalya Darshan says - Pashutva nashaya). This makes sense, at least to the extent that only a healthy body can bear a healthy mind. The actual seeking of god starts later, as part of the Antarang Sadhana - the internal practice.

A Hindu is defined as a person who regards the land of 'Bharatvarsh', from the 'Indus' to the Seas as his land is a Hindu. Their panthas (sects) may differ, but their nationality is one. This is the only religion, which does not have any defined religious boundary but is defined by geographical boundary. William Dalrymple in his book "The Last Mughal" portrays an India which had internalized the culture of the mughals, "A pluralistic culture where you find Hindus and Muslims sharing the same poetry, enjoying the same mushairas." as per Dalrymple . In "The White Mughals", the same author says

“The wills of East India Company officials, now in the India Office library,
clearly show that in the 1780s, more than one-third of the British men in India
were leaving all their possessions to one or more Indian wives, or to
Anglo-Indian children - a degree of cross-cultural mixing which has never made
it into the history books. It suggests that, 200 years before Zadie Smith made
it on to the telly and multiculturalism became a buzzword politically correct
enough to wake Norman Tebbit and the Tory undead from their coffins at party
conferences, the India of the East India Company was an infinitely more
culturally, racially and religiously mixed place than modern Britain can even
dream of being”

It is evident that India had her own way irrespective of the religion being followed by the person, Hinduism was mostly the way of life the people here followed. However there was eminent shift in this attitude after the defeat in Sepoy Mutiny of India in 1857, in which about 85% hindu army rode to Delhi to fight the British under a Mughal Bahadur Shah Zafar. This defeat somehow brought great self-doubts to the Indians. The general Hindu and Muslim Indian were polarized. The Hindus formed the English culture oriented Arya Samaj, while the muslims in a bid to restore the old glory days of the mughals drifted towards Deoband, a faith which follows shariyat and shuns everything else. Also, after 1857 the prestige attached to Mughal culture disappeared. People were no longer interested in the old Mughal politeness, which was regarded as elaborate nonsense. Once the British won in 1857, suddenly everything about them became attractive. Again referring to William Dalrymple

“And you find that the Mughal culture shrinks in prestige and shrinks in its
attractiveness and more and more people want to go into English language
education. The most crucial thing is that the same year Ghalib dies is the year
when Mahatma Gandhi is born. So you have one world going down and there is this
new English educated, English-speaking world rising up. It’s that world which
wins India’s independence. It isn’t the old feudal elite. It is the products of
Anglicized schools and using, in many ways, the Western political methods,
political parties, protest marches rather than, you know, a mass uprising.”

This difference between Hindus and Muslims had grown so wide by the mid nineteenth century that Sir Mohammad Ali Jinnah, educated in missionary school and graduated from Lickons Court, London in law, brought about a theory known as the “Two Nation Theory”, which is essentially a version of the observations of Al Biruni, a Persian scholar. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, an England educated Right wing Hindu leader, also supported the two-nation theory, albeit with the caveat that the Muslim state should be created somewhere in the Middle-East Asia

Hinduism Today - I

With the increasing threat from international terrorism, the anti-islamist is increasing by the day. India has taken off lately as a potential economic superpower and that has apparently not gone down well with her neighbours. Rajinder Puri in a chilling article published in Outlook quotes Yossef Bodansky, the Director of the Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare of the U.S. Congress. Bodansky, in the mid-1990s prepared a carefully researched and meticulously detailed 20,000-word official note entitled China's Surge in the Malacca Straits. It dealt with the strategy of China's Peoples' Liberation Army (PLA) to destabilize Southeast Asian countries. The PLA sought leverage over their governments to secure for China control of the strategic Straits of Malacca. All shipments for the Far East from West Asia, including oil, must pass through Malacca. In Bodansky's background paper, the references to India are incidental. But the following excerpts from it merit consideration. Bodansky wrote:

"Beijing urged Islamabad to escalate the subversion of eastern India. The ISI
did not need too much prodding. With support from Beijing, the ISI expanded
operations from vastly expanded camps in both Burma and Bangladesh as of the
fall of 1993. The ISI terrorism support infrastructure in Bangladesh not only
supplies and trains on China-made weapons and explosives, but the Bangladeshi
military officers, acting as instructors had received special commando and
mountain warfare training in China. The deployment of these assets has increased
markedly since the fall of 1994. It is not by accident that the first action in
the long awaited escalation of terrorism in eastern India was the bombing of an
Indian troops' train in India's northeastern state of Assam in late February
1995. The bombs were attributed to the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland
(NSCN) on the basis of use of RDX and other bomb-technology details. Since the
fall of 1993, there has been an expansion of the ISI support for all forms of
terrorism in north east India, especially Manipur. At least five senior ISI
operatives cooperate closely with the NSCN, providing instructions and guidance.
As of mid-1994, the ISI provided the NSCN with huge quantities of weapons,
ranging from small arms, to rocket launchers, to anti-aircraft missiles
(including a few Stingers). The Chinese preparations for a regional escalation
and major crisis under conditions short of a major war are thorough. For the
conduct of covert operations inside India, Bangladesh and China run their own
training program at Kalapara and Munakata on Bay of Bengal and especially at the
25 Bangladesh Rifles at Khulna and Teknaf Island in Chittagong. There, Chinese
instructors are directly involved in training Tamils and other Indians for
terrorist, sabotage, and espionage operations."

Chirstanity in India has its own share of problems, what with the conversions to christanity. So does it make everything un-hindu unacceptable? That leaves us with the question, What is un-hindu? In Millie Graham Polak’s book on Gandhi, the man mentions that many Christians who heard him thought that he had converted to Christianity. Henry Polak and his wife Millie Graham Polak were quite close to Gandhiji during his years in South Africa. ‘‘Is Mr Gandhi a Christian?’’, a visitor once asked Millie. Millie sought clarification: ‘‘You mean one who converted to Christianity or one who believes in the teachings of Christ?’’ The visitor meant the former. Since Gandhi knew Christian scriptures so well, and would quote Jesus so frequently, she and her friends thought he must be a Christian. The visitor’s logic sounded convincing to Millie. Gandhi’s reverence for Jesus was transparent. Christ’s ‘‘Sermon on the Mount’’ was a source of guidance and inspiration to him. A beautiful picture of Jesus adorned the wall over his desk. Yet, when Millie asked him why he did not embrace Christianity, Gandhi’s reply was revealing. He said that although he had studied Christian scriptures and was tremendously attracted, he concluded that ‘‘to be a good Hindu also meant that I would be a good Christian. There was no need for me to join your creed to be a believer in the beauty of the teachings of Jesus or try to follow His example’’. One particular hindu guru, Paramhansa Yogananda founder of Yogada Satsang Society, even invokes jesus as a siddha Yogi (one who attained spritual enlightenment). The followers of his kriya yoga invoke Jesus as part of their daily prayer.