Once upon a time a group of sages decided to deepen their yoga practice as a way to find their inner peace by taking a retreat in a Pine Forest. The sages took their wives and made a camp in the woods where, step by step, day by day they deepened the tapacia of their practice. After some time, the sages were so obsessed by the following of their practice and all the processes they had created and the exact steps of their daily sadhana that they had completely forgotten why they had come to the woods in the first place.
Shiva, observing this whilst visiting his friend Vishnu, said “Vishnu, these sages in this wood are getting really heavy in their practices, so much so, they can hardly see the reason for being there anymore. How about we pay them a visit to remind them of the things they have forgotten?” Vishnu agreed to go with Shiva. Vishnu took his Avatar form of the beautiful enchantress Mohini, and Shiva takes the form of an extremely alluring young man and the pair enter the Pine Forest. On seeing Shiva, the wives are delighted to set eyes upon such as glorious vision and he raises excitement and passion that had long been bottled up over the years in the forest. The sages are alarmed by the behaviour of their wives and even more alarmed by their response to the beautiful seductress, Mohini. They get angry, what are we going to do with this guy who has disrupted our practices, and more than that unsettled our wives?
They turn to Shiva and hurl insults at him. Shiva simply smiles. They get together and decide to throw a bunch of venomous snakes at Shiva.
Shiva tames the snakes in mid air with his voluptuous eyes and catches them in his right hand, wrapping the body of the snakes as garlands around himself.
They hurl fire at Shiva, he opens his left hand, palm facing upwards, and catches the tongue of fire and declares that this fire will become the fire of destruction to burn away the dross, all that which we no longer need.
The Sages are really angry now and totally unable to see Shiva, the very reason why they entered the Pine Forest. After some discussion they throw a Tiger at Shiva. He skins the tiger with the nail of his little finger, and wears the skin as a loin cloth.
The sages take the most powerful demon, Apasmara Purusha, the demon called Forgetfulness, or Heedlessness. Shiva shrinks the great demon and pulls it to the ground. He steps upon the demon. Holding in his right hand the drum of creation the ḍamaru, in the shape of an hourglass He starts to shake the drum. the sound of creation. In his left hand he upholds the fire of dissolution, Samhara, And so we see the balance of creation and destruction, the daily pulse of birth and death.
In his second right hand he takes the mudra of Abhaya, the gesture of fearlessness, of reassurance and safety.
His second left hand traverses the body concealing the heart, with the finger pointing downwards to towards his upturned left foot, representing the revealing of grace leading the way, of anugraha.
Shiva breaks into the dance of Nataraja, the dance of ecstatic bliss, the ananda tandavam, and the energy generated draws a ring of fire around him.The Sages finally recognise the form of Shiva and wake up to their forgetfulness of the practice of yoga.
The dance of Nataraja asks us to wake up fully. To be present and live life fully despite times when we are thrown snakes, or tigers to deal with. Nataraja invites us to join the ecstatic dance, to dance on our demons, to fully acknowledge the practices that no longer serve us well, to turn in and recognise the shadow and burn the dross in the fire of dissolution. To grow stronger, and more resourceful.
Here’s an example of the Ananda Tandavam dance
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