Shiva
Dance is very favourite to Lord Shiva, and in the form of Nataraja, he used to perform Bharatanatyam dance in order to maintain peace and prosperity in the universe. During the time of Lord Shiva’s dancing, his divine attendant, Lord Nandikeshwar used to hold the Damaru (Divine musical instrument) on his hand, and he used to play it wonderfully. Likewise, Ma Shakti Devi also used to dance in a fierce form, at the time of destroying the dreaded demons.
Once, Lord Vinayaka also danced happily, after eating lot of Mothakams, from his devotee Sri Kasirajan’s palace. Likewise Lord Muruga also danced cheerfully after killing demon Surapadman. This famous art form gives great entertainment to the viewers and also to the performers, since dancing is also a kind of physical exercise and it would give good strength to our body. Celestial dancers are the divine demi gods and goddesses, and similar to the Bharatanatyam dancers in the earth, they are doing their dancing profession in the celestial worlds.
Similar to Lord Shiva, our favourite Lord Krishna is also a nice dancer, and he used to do dance performances with the Gopikas, who are the staunch female devotees of Lord Krishna, and the dance term of Lord Krishna with the Gopikas is termed as Raslila, and it is derived from the Sanskrit words ras which means “nectar”, “emotion” or “sweet taste” and lila meaning “act,” “play” or “dance.” Thus, it is more broadly defined as the “Dance of Divine Love” or “Sweet act of Krishna.” By divine arrangement, Krishna dances with every cowherd maiden at once, yet each one thinks she is dancing with him alone.
But nowadays, most of the people are interested to watch modern dances like western dance performances, and some of them even visits to the night clubs and pubs, by considering it to be a modern fashion and passion! Some of them even used to criticise Lord Krishna for dancing with his female devotees, the great gopikas, without knowing about the spiritual bondage between them.
“JAI SRI KRISHNA”
WRITTEN BY
R.HARISHANKAR