India is the only place where our gods must dance. If he cannot dance, he cannot be a god.
Shiva is Nataraja, he is the king of dancers and everybody else is a dancer. Why this is – is because the phenomena of creation, the closest analogy you can give to that is, it’s like a dance. Today modern physicists are using those words that, ‘Things seem to be in a dance.’ Dance means there seems to be no logical coherence to it. But if you observe it closely enough, there is a very deep system to the whole process.
This dance of creation, which self-created itself, from the eternal stillness, in trying to represent the exuberance of creation, we call this dimension as Natesha or Nataraja, which is one of the most significant forms of Shiva. Because creation is a dance, we said the divine is a dancer.
So when we say, ‘Shiva is Nataraja,’ we are not talking about an individual dancing. That is why the circle around him, the circle is always the symbol of cosmos. Because the most natural form that happens in the existence when anything moves, is a circle. Anything that happens by itself is a circle. The planet is a circle, the moon is a circle, the sun is a circle. Everything else is a circle because circle is a shape of least resistance. So that is why the circle around Nataraja is symbolizing the cosmos – he is a cosmic dancer, that is how he is always described.
You can experience the dance or you can become the dance. You can experience the aesthetic of the dance by simply watching it closely, or you can dance. But you want to understand the dance, there is no such thing. These are the only two choices you have. If you experience the beauty, of the dance by observation, by looking, we will say you are a seeker. You may be called a scientist but still you’re a seeker, you want to know what it is, so you are paying attention. If you pay attention to it, you become a seeker. If you become the dance, you become the divine. You become a yogi. That’s a choice you have.
