lord of the dance...

"Because You love the Burning -ground, I have made a Burning-ground of my heart - That You, Dark One, hunter of the Burning-ground, May dance Your eternal dance."
-Bengali Hymn

this simple sculpture is perhaps the best representation of the supreme being in human history...this masterful work of art depicts shiva as the lord of the dance, nataraj...
the dance of destruction,the dance of creation,the rhythm of life and death...the dance of bliss...he dances to destroy,he dances to create,he dances to dispel all illusion,he dances to enlighten,he dances to set you free...
the fire in the left hand destroys all evil...the damru in the right is the symbol of united male and female energies which are the source of all creation...the right foot rests on apasmara,a symbol of illusion,which is overcome by the lord...the left foot,held aloft,symbolises salvation and the lower left hand points towards it...this foot is also in a different plane than the rest of the sculpture...the lower right hand says 'fear not'...the flowing matted hair show the frenzy of the motion which is the dance that lends its motion to the entire cosmos,represented by the arch of flames around the dancer...
another perspective to this piece of art is offered by Fritzov Kapra,who says "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."
for a more detailed analysis of all the elements of the nataraj click here...


"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…"
-Ruth Peel