[ Nataraja ]
Natesha or Nataraja, Shiva as the Lord of Dance, is one of the most significant forms of Shiva. The Nataraja form represents the exuberance and dance of creation which self-created itself from eternal stillness.
▵ Lord of Dance
Natesha or Nataraja, Shiva as the Lord of Dance, is one of the most significant forms of Shiva. When I visited CERN in Switzerland, which is the physics laboratory on the planet, where all the atom-smashing takes place, I saw that there is a Nataraja statue in front of the entrance, because they identified that there is nothing in human culture which is closer to what they are doing right now.
The Nataraja form represents the exuberance and dance of creation which self-created itself from eternal stillness. Nataraja standing in the Chidambaram temple is very symbolic because what you call as Chidambaram is just absolute stillness. That is what is enshrined in the form of this temple. The classical arts are to bring this absolute stillness into a human being. Without stillness, true art cannot come.
▵ Shiva, Nataraja & Physics
One of the theories that is being thrown around in science over the last few years is Constructal theory. What they say is that whether you take an atom, a human being, an elephant or the cosmos – the fundamental design is the same. It is only the complexity that increases in sophistication.
This is something we have always said in Yoga. The microcosm and the macrocosm are essentially the same design. It is from this that the yogic practices began. We said anda, pinda, and brahmanda – the ingredient that makes this life, the individual person, and the cosmos – are three manifestations of the same thing. They are all in the same synchronicity. And because it is the same design, you can put one into the other. You can eat a carrot and make it into a human being because it is the same design.
The nearest analogy and the closest description you can give for the way the cosmos is functioning is that it is a dance, because it all seems to be at random, but there is perfect organization and synchronicity behind it. It is just that most people’s idea of organization is too intellectual and divisive. For example, let us take a nice, manicured garden and a forest. A garden means everything is organized. A forest means no organization. But if you do not attend to the garden for three months, it will be gone. But a forest can live for millions of years without your attention. So which would you consider as better organization?
At the Chidambaram temple, there is the Nataraja, Shiva as the Lord of Dance. Natesha or Nataraja is one of the most significant forms of Shiva. When I visited CERN in Switzerland, which is the physics laboratory on the planet, where all the atom-smashing takes place, I saw that there is a Nataraja statue in front of the entrance, because they identified that there is nothing in human culture which is closer to what they are doing right now.
▵ Nataraja: The Cosmic Dancer
Because creation is a dance, we said the divine is a dancer. If he is not a dancer, how could he make this dance happen? When we say Shiva is Nataraja, we are not talking about an individual dancing. You might have noticed that in the depiction of Nataraja, there is a circle around him. The circle is always the symbol of the cosmos because when anything moves, the most natural form that happens in the existence is a circle. Anything that happens by itself is a circle or an ellipsoid – which is a slightly distorted circle –because a circle is the shape of least resistance. The planet, the moon, the sun, these are all circles.
This is why the circle around Nataraja symbolizes the cosmos. He is a cosmic dancer. That is how he is always described. This is not about an individual dancing across the cosmos. We say the cosmos is in a dance and the dance is guided by a certain intelligence. Since we are individuals and we understand everything as separate life forms, we individualize it as Nataraja for our own perception. The word “Shiva” literally means “that which is not” or “that which is nothing.” It is nothing, it is empty space, but it is dancing. Because it is dancing, everything is happening.
▵ Nataraja: A Significant Form of Shiva
The Nataraja form essentially comes from Southern India, particularly from Tamil Nadu. It represents the exuberance of creation, the dance of creation which self-created itself from the eternal stillness. Nataraja standing in Chidambaram is very symbolic because what you call as Chidambaram is just absolute stillness. That is what is enshrined in the form of this temple.
Learn More:
▵ 10 Forms of Shiva Explained (Isha)
▵ Shiva as Nataraja: The Cosmic Dancer (Isha)