Temples In India-1.pdf - Vivekananda Kendra Prakashan

VIVEKANANDA KENDRA PATRIKAHe dances in all the four directions of theuniverse. He is omnipresent and allpervasive.His loose and whirling mattedlocks and the oscillating belt around hiswaist show that He always dances withoutany rest. His upper right hand holds a smalldrum. It indicates that God is the sourceof sound. In philosophical language, He issaid to be Nada-Brahman. The sounds ofall the letters of the alphabet have comeout of the play of the drum. It represents‘Om’ from which all languages are born. Thevery figure of Nataraja also stands for thepranava ,’Giram Asmi Ekam Aksharam’ (ofutterances, I am the mono-syllable “Om”)says the Bhagavad Gita (10-25).The upper left hand in ardhachandra mudracarries a blazing fire, the instrument forthe final destruction of the universe. Weknow that fire is the only element thatdestroys matter. The lower right hand inabaya mudra bestows protection. Thelower left hand in the gajahasta posturewhich points to the lifted foot, shows thatHis feet are the sole refuge of individualsouls. The lifted foot stands for releasefrom Maya. The dance of Siva is for thewelfare of the World. The object of Hisdance is to free the souls from the fettersof Maya. At His dance, the evil forces anddarknesses quiver and vanish. He is dancingover the body of Muyalaka who is theembodiment of ignorance, the destructionof which is the pre-requisite toenlightenment, true wisdom and releasefrom the bondage of mundane existence.The prabhamandala around the figure ofNataraja symbolises the dance of Nature(Prakriti), the never ending life-struggle ofcreatures in the universe.The number ‘five’ is closely associated withTEMPLE INDIANataraja. The dance is also identified withpanchakshara. It is a maha-mantra whichis composed of five syllables ‘Na-Ma-Si-Va-Ya’ which denote the Panchakriyas orthe five functions of the Lord, namely,Srishti (creation), Sthiti (preservation),Samhara (destruction), Tirobhava (veilingor illusion) and Anugraha (blessing). All thecreations evolve from the combination ofthe five elements; earth, water, fire, airand ether. Tradition says that in the South,there are five Sivalingas corresponding tothe five elements. Lord Siva is worshippedas Prithvi or earth at Kanchipuram, as Apahor water at Jambukeswaram, as Tejas orfire at Tiruvannamalai, as Vayu or air atKalahasti and as Akasa or ether atChidambaram. Our ancient scholarsclassified the dance of Siva into fivecategories such as Adputha Tandava(wonderful), Ananda Tandava (blissful),Anavarata Tandava (incessant), SamharaTandava (destructive) and finally PralayaTandava (connected with cosmicdissolution). They believed that the eternaldances take place in Kuttralam,Chidambaram, Madurai, Tirunelveli andTiruvalankadu respectively for the welfareof mankind. They are also called ChitraSabha (Hall of Paintings), Ponnambalam(Hall of God), Velliyambalam (Hall of Silver),Thamra Sabha (Hall of Copper) and RatnaSabha (Hall of Gems).Tirumoolar in his Tirumandiram writes that“the dance of Lord Siva takes place in theheart of every individual”. That is whyManickavachagar aptly puts it that “LordSiva is of South India, but He is the God ofall nations.”56