The Dance of Shiva

Within the Hindu Pantheon, Shiva is known to be ‘the destroyer’, or transformer, god of death. Husband to Parvati ( a version of Kali), Shiva is depicted as an aesthetic, he lives as a sage at Mount Kailash. Shiva is also said to be the ‘lord of time’ and one who grants many wishes for his devotees. He is also regarded as the most powerful god in hinduism, as well as being associated with the Rudra in the vedic tradition, god of the storm.

If we look at what destruction really is, we see that it can be seen as the first part of creation. Without the clearing of old structures, new ones cannot be placed.

Within the older vedic texts, Shiva is known as fierce but around 800 bc a great philosopher, named Shankaracharya revealed that shiva not only destroyed, but was also a great benefactor to those effected by his destruction. He reasoned that the energy of shiva was not to be avoided and feared, however embraced and consciously directed for the purpose of change within ones environment. 

Shiva is believed to be at the core of the centrifugal force of the universe, because of his responsibility for death and destruction. Shiva is the dissolving force in life, however Shiva dissolves in order to create, since death is the medium for rebirth into a new life. So the opposites of life and death and creation and destruction are both depicted within the stories about him.

He is shown as both an ascetic yogi and a husband / father. These roles are typically mutually exclusive within the hindu society. As a yogi, he is depicted sitting in philosophical isolation and has all knowledge of everything and is the main aspect of life. As a family man, he has a wife, Parvati and two sons. His wife Parvati is known by many other names and is associated with the divine mother. She is seen as the source of Shiva’s creative energy and as a representation of his dynamic energy extending out into the universe. 

Shiva is often depicted as dancing, this form of shiva is known as Nataraj, meaning ‘king of the dance’.

Fritzof Capra in his article "The Dance of Shiva: The Hindu View of Matter in the Light of Modern Physics," and later in the The Tao of Physics beautifully relates Nataraj's dance with modern physics. He says that "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."

This cosmic dance of Shiva is called 'Anandatandava,' meaning the Dance of Bliss, and symbolizes the cosmic cycles of creation and destruction, as well as the daily rhythm of birth and death. The dance is a pictorial allegory of the five principle manifestations of eternal energy — creation, destruction, preservation, salvation, and illusion. 

Within the legends of lord shiva we discover many clues to how we as humans can find balance between spirituality and life here on earth, creative powers as well as destructive powers. Within the stories of shiva we learn the cyclic patterns of the universe and learn to recognize these patterns within ourselves. Patterns that repeat within the universe are clues to aspects of ourselves and our growth here in this dimension. Shiva shows us that our true power lay in our power to transform, not our power to destroy, we are also shown that there is no difference in the two, other then the way we as individuals react to our own and others creations.

Shiva is known as the lord of time, as time passes all things are destroyed to be re-created. As we grow, we must destroy who we were in order to become who we are, then who we will become will destroy who we are. This is showing us the understanding that we are a new person in every moment. With each moment there is the destruction of who we were and creation of who we are.

According to legend, Shiva’s body is made from five mantras, these five mantras. These are represented as the five faces of Shiva and are associated in various texts with the five elements, the five senses, the five organs of perception, and the five organs of action. 

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