Shiva
Nataraja
Lord of the Cosmic Dance
The famed mythologist, Joseph Campbell, commented on
Shiva Nataraja:
The upper right hand of the dancing god holds a little drum shaped like an
hourglass, the rhythm of which is the world-creating beat of time, which draws a
veil across the face of eternity, projecting temporality and thereby the
temporal world.
The extended left hand holds the flame of spiritual light that burns the veil
away, thus annihilating the world and revealing the void of eternity.
The second right hand is tin the “fear-dispelling” posture, and the second
left, lifted across the chest, pointing to the raised left foot, is in a
position known as “elephant hand,” signifying “teaching”, for where an
elephant has gone through the jungles all animals can follow, and where a
teacher leads the way disciples follow.
The left foot, to which the “teaching hand” points, is lifted to symbolize
“release,” while the right stamping on the back of a dwarf named “Forgetfulness”
drives souls into the vortex of rebirth.
The dwarf is gazing in fascination at the poisonous world-serpent, representing
thus man’s psychological attraction to the realm of his bondage in unending
birth, suffering, and death.
The god’s head, meanwhile is poised, serene and still, in the midst of all
movement of creation and destruction represented in the rhythm of the rocking
arms and slowly stamping right heel.
His right earring is a man’s, his left a woman’s, for he includes and
transcends opposites.
His streaming hair is that of a yogi, flying now however in a dance of life,.
Among its strands is tucked a skull, but also a crescent moon, a datura flower,
from the plant of which an intoxicant is distilled, and finally, a tiny image of
the goddess Ganges – for it is Shiva, we are told, who receives on his head
the first impact of that heavenly stream as it falls to earth from on high.
From the mouth of a double-headed mythological water monster called a makara the
flaming aureole issues by which the dance is enclosed; and the position of his
head, arms, and lifted leg with this frame suggests the sign of the syllable OM.
(Source: Campbell, Joseph. 1974. The Mythic Image. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
University Press.)
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