1. C MY K C MY K
SUNDAY
AN OTHER REALM DECCAN CHRONICLE ■ 24 JANUARY
II
2010
■■
DIVINE
GROOVES
Dancing away to
spiritual glory mental, spiritual or psycho-
logical – are all part of the
energy constructs that define
A QUESTION human life. Our energy
OF BALANCE depends largely on the energy
levels of those around us. A
In Indian dances, the gloomy body in a group tends
spirituality of the art to make the other bodies sad
revolves around the two ■■ CYNTHIA and restrained, whereas a
cosmic dancers — WINTON-HENRY happy, cheerful, jumping,
Vishnu known as Natvar dancing body – an ‘alive’
E
or hero of the dance and ven body — transmits that same
Shiva known as Natraj the energy to those around. What
most better way to show you’re
or king of the dance.
Their interlude balances
the creation of Brahma.
reli-
gious among
us have for-
alive than by dancing.
My experiments in dance as
a mode of pursuing God start-
Mind is an
gotten that
dance is the
primary mode of worship in
many cultures across the
ed almost 20 years ago. I was
sitting in my living room and
had just finished reading a
book about a 20th century
action that
world. Whether it’s the tribes
of Africa or those of Native
America, Shinto priests in
woman who had conceptu-
alised the ‘Church of Divine
Dance’. Suddenly, I felt this
can be
Japan or even devout Hindus
in India, one might find it
hard to locate a culture where
the art of dance hasn’t
surge of energy go through
me. That feeling was like
nothing I had ever experi-
enced before and it made me
stopped
assumed a sort of mythical feel connected to the divine. ■■ PARAMAHAMSA
significance in auspicious Today, I feel a sense of liber- NITHYANANDA
ceremonies. ation and a connection with
A
There is so much of song God every time I dance. simple
and dance at family gather- When a group of people set and
ings like engagements and out to dance together, the straight
weddings in India. Ever won- cumulative effect is similar to under-
dered why? It’s because danc- that of a mass prayer session. standing is: mind
ing spreads cheer through its The unrestrained, unbridled is not an object, it
THE SPIRITED ART OF sheer physicality. In fact, the flow of positive energy from is an action.
TWIRLING TO Shinto priests, when they one dancer to the other, trying People ask me,
ECSTASY
DANCE IS A were once asked about their
philosophy, actually said,
to consciously connect their
energies, letting go of inhibi-
‘How to stop the mind? How to
go beyond the mind?’ I can say
TIME-HONOURED “We don’t have so much of a tions and surrendering to the that this is a Frequently Asked
The Mevlevi and Jerahi philosophy, we just dance.” art — if anything that Question — FAQ!
sects of Islam are two CRAFT THAT ALLOWS So, what exactly elevates requires this level of immer- I tell them, mind is not a thing
communities who use dancing as a way to finding sion cannot be equated to to be fought with. It is not a thing
whirling as a devotional THE PRACTITIONER TO oneself and God? Dancing is spirituality, then I don’t know to destroy it. It is an action.
tool in a spiritual group
event known as a Sema. It FIND THE SPIRITUAL about going back to the
basics – the fundamentals of
what can. Just imagine that you are walk-
ing. If you don’t want to walk,
transforms the practitioner
into an enhanced state of
CONNECTION WITH HIS physicality and understanding
one’s body and the way it is
As told to Ragamalika
Karthikeyan
what do you do? You just sit. Let
us say you are talking. If you
awareness and a sort of
ecstasy.
FELLOW BEINGS AND THE connected to the rest of the
world, which has a resonance The writer is the co-founder
don’t want to talk, what do you
do? You become silent.
UNIVERSE to spirituality. The experi-
ences that we have every day
of Interplay, a philosophy
aimed at unlocking the wis-
In the same way, mind also is
an action. If you don’t want to
— whether they’re physical, dom of bodies think, don’t think, that’s all! But
our mind says, ‘No, I have tried
many things. I have tried many
Kumbh kaleidoscope
times. It comes back again.
Just think: it is you who’s doing
it. Is there anybody else doing it
inside? No. And it is a simple
action. So when you don’t want
it, just stop, that’s all!
If you say that you have tried
and that after some time it comes
infrastructure items put in back, it means you wanted it to
place for the mela. All are start again. That is why it started.
branded “Kumbh 2010”. If you understand that it was
Bardhan is expecting lakhs YOUR decision to start it again,
of devotees every day and is you will take responsibility for
ready with temporary hospi- your decisions and take the right
tals, safai karamcharis, securi- decision — to stop it. Let us take
ty cameras and 16,000 men in the whole responsibility upon us.
uniform. Understand: the mind is just
Bardhan says he would like one portion of your brain. Most
to take a dip in the Brahma often we think our mind is bigger
Kund on April 14 but smiles than our brain. With your leg you
and adds, “It won’t be possi- can do many things. Walking is
Amrit was one of the 14 ble”. He will be busy orches- one action of your leg. You can
ratans that emerged after trating chakravyuhs for the 1 kick or play or also run with your
Samudra Manthan. crore devotees queuing up for leg. In the same way, thinking is
Demons demanded their a dip. just one action of your brain.
share of amrit but the gods Standing crowds get restive Mind is just one action of your
didn’t want to share. When and stampede is always a fear. brain.
Indra’s son Jayant was car- So Bardhan has devised elabo- Even when you are silent your
rying the amrit kalash to rate chakravyuhs to hold peo- whole body is functioning. It
hide it, drops of amrit fell ple while the ghats get cleared means that the mind is only one
in 12 places. Of these eight — nothing terribly complicat- part of your brain! Even without
are in swarglok and four in ed, just people going round the mind, the brain is able to
mritulok — Brahma Kund and round in large circles, operate your day-to-day life. The
in Hardwar, Triveni the sun shines bright as the crowd surges at Har Ki Pauri unaware. brain is able to keep you alive.
Sangam in Allahabad, Living your life without having
I
Ujjain and Nashik. Every Continued from page I Above, in the main bazaar, dren and grandparents. t’s afternoon. Devotees are what you call as ‘mind’, is what I
12 years, when Venus and puri, samosa and kachoris are Though it’s still dark, Brahma serving langar of yellow call Living Enlightenment! That
I
Jupiter coincide with the T’S 6.30am on January 13 being fried and arranged in Kund is packed. Early morn- rice. Eve, tall, beautiful is the essence. If your mind is a
Aquarius Sun and the and Hardwar is in its final piles. Shops selling puja sam- ing bathers don’t fuss too with long blond dreadlocks, is part of your brain and you have
Moon is in Aries and rehearsal for the first big agri are open for business and much. It’s 4 degrees Celsius. walking away from the ghats the courage and clarity to switch
Sagittarius respectively, the bath of Kumbh — January 14, loudspeakers mounted on long If faith wavers, concentration in her “bubble”. That’s what it off at your will, then it is your
Kumbh Mela is held. This Makar Sankranti. It’s still poles are crooning, “Maano helps. she does when she’s in noisy, slave; it is under your control. If
is the same planetary posi- dark. There’s a drizzle and an toh main Ganga Ma hoon, naa Pandits arrive with the rising crowded places. Back home in it is otherwise, if it is an industry,
tion that existed when icy breeze. At Har ki Pauri, mano toh behta paani”. sun and the fuss around the Norway she creates soothing then please understand that you
amrit fell on earth. men are hurriedly getting With her back resting on the holy dip intensifies. Some pour ambient music. Sixteen years are a slave to it. Be Blissful!
down to their underwear even wall of Adi Pracheen Ganga milk into the Ganga, others ago, the day she joined Rasta
When Ganga came to as others emerge from Brahma Mandir, Radha, a large mid- offer flowers, rice, coconut, and started back-combing her The writer is an spiritual guru at
earth she asked Vishnu, Kund, vapour rising from their dle-aged woman, sits guarding sindoor. The smell and smoke hair, Eve stopped eating meat the helm of a worldwide
“How will I stay pure after bare backs and arms. It’s 5 one of the entrances to of incense is all over. An old and embraced all religions. movement for meditation and
going to mritulok?” So degrees Celsius and the Brahma Kund. A large wood- pandit says that though today She has been travelling since, inner bliss
Maharishi Bhagirath Ganga, many swear, is at least en box with four legs is her snan is more significant, puja to spiritual places, looking for www.nithyananda.org
promised that every 12 two degrees colder. office and samadhi and a steel helps. It’s precision bombing answers and shanti. This is her
years all the sanyasis of his Rain begins to fall harder. whistle her instrument of faith. that earns him anywhere sixth visit to India but today
family would offer a part Rapid Action Force (RAF) Her eyes are peeled for dirty between Rs 100 to Rs 10,000 a she didn’t find anything spiri-
of their tapasya and punya men in blue gather around a footwear. Everyone is asked to Eve from Norway on a month-long visit thali. tual about the whole affair in In the same
to Ganga and this way her small fire under an over deposit shoes and chappals in to the Kumbh Mela. She’s come in search Chief mela officer Bardhan Hardwar. Just ritualistic
purity would be main- bridge. One of them is on the her box before proceeding to of shanti and some answers. watches all this from his office bathing and noise. But she re- way, mind also is
tained. That’s why lakhs of
sadhus belonging to 13
phone trying to explain, per-
haps to his wife, why he can’t
the holy ghat. She takes what-
ever they give in return. been out of clothes or food.
at mela headquarters. It’s the
first day of the 104-day-long
calls the first day when she re-
ached Rishikesh and stood on
an action. If you
akharas take part in what take a dip in the holy water. After her husband, a wealthy Kumbh Mela for which he and the balcony of her hotel, soak- don’t want to
Y
is called Shahi Snan dur- The RAF has been here since businessman from Delhi, died, ou know it’s Kumbh ti- his team have been preparing ing in the Ganga. That was
ing the Kumbh Mela. January 1. Talk of the weather she fond shakti and shanti me and the crowds since September 2007. He is something else. “I had tears in think, don’t think,
starts. “Beech main mausam “Ma ke charnon main”. That have started arriving in charge of everything — my eyes. It was the most spiri-
As told by Mahant thoda relax hua tha. Par aaj was 13 years ago. She sleeps when the PA system switches security, sanitation, crowd tual place on earth. Very shan- that’s all!
Ravinder Puri, toh ek dum top-most maan on the ghat though her home from bhajans to announcing control, medical facilities — ti area”.
Mahanirvani Akhara lo”, one of them says. is nearby and says she’s never the names of lost friends, chil- and speaks proudly of all the Pix by Sondeep Shankar