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The Cosmic Dance
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Subject: The Cosmic Dance
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From: Chandan Bandopadhyay <cbando@lynx.dac.neu.edu>
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Date: 14 Nov 1995 02:50:44 GMT
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Approved: srh <srh@rbhatnagar>
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Article: 544 of soc.religion.hindu
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Newsgroups: soc.religion.hindu
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Organization: none
Shubhashita IX
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The Cosmic Dance
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....... The Dance of Shiva symbolizes not only the cosmic cycles of
creation and destruction, but also the daily rhythm of birth and death
which is seen in Indian mysticism as the basis of all existence. At the
same time, Shiva reminds us that the manifold forms in the world are
maya-not fundamental, but illusory and ever-changing -as he keeps
creating and dissolving them in the ceaseless flow of his dance. As
Hinrich Zimmer has put it:
His guestures wild and full of grace, precipitate the cosmic
illusion; his flying arms and legs and the swaying of his torso produce
- indeed, they are - the continuous creation-destruction of the
universe, death exactly balancing birth, annihilation the end of every
coming-forth.
Indian artists of the tenth and twelfth centuries have presented Shiva's
cosmic dance in magnificent bronze sculptures of dancing figures with
four arms whose superbly balanced and yet dynamic gestures express
the rhythm and unity of Life. The various meanings of the dance are
conveyed by the details of these figures in a complex pictorial
allegory. The upper right hand of the god holds a drum to symbolize the
primal sound of creation, the upper left bears a tounge of flame, the
element of destruction. The balance of the two hands represents the
dynamic balance of creation and destruction in the world, accentuated
further by the Dancer's calm and detached face in the centre of the
two hands, in which the polarity of creation and destruction is
dissolved and transcended. The second right hand is raised in the sign
of 'do not fear', symbolizing maintainece , protection and peace, while
the remaining left hand points down to the uplifted foot which
symbolizes release from the spell of maya. The god is pictured as
dancing on the body of a demon, the symbol of human ignorance which
has to be conquered before liberation can be attained.
Shiva's dance-in the words of Coomaraswamy-is 'the clearest
image of the clearest image of the activity of God which any art or
religion can boast of'. As the god is a personification of BRAHMAN,
his activity is that of BRAHMAN's myrand manifestations in the world.
The dance of Shiva is the dancing universe; the ceaseless flow of
energy going through an infinite variety of patterns that into one
another.
Modern physics has shown that the rhythm of creation and destruction
is not only manifest in the turn of the seasons and in the birth and
death of all living creatures, but is also the very essence of
inorganic matter. According to quantum field theory, all interactions
between the constituents of matter take place through the emission and
absorption of virtual particles. More than that, the dance of creation
and destruction is the basis of the very existence of matter, since
all material particles 'self-interact' by emitting and reabsorbing the
virtual particles. Modern physics has thus revealed that every
subatomic particle not only performs an energy dance, but also is an
energy dance; a pulsating process of creation and destruction.
The pattern of this dance are an essential aspects of each
particle's nature and determine many of its properties. For example,
the energy involved in the emission and absorption of virtual
particles is equivalent to a certain amount of mass which contributes
to the mass of the self-interacting particle. Different particles
develop different patterns in their dance, requiring different amounts
of energy, and hence have different masses. Virtual particles, finally
are not only an essential part of all particle interactions and of
most of the particles' properties, but are also created and destroyed
by the vacuum. Thus, not only particles, but also void, participates
in the cosmic dance, creating and destroying energy patterns 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. Hundreds of years ago, Indian
artists created visual images of dancing Shivas in a beautiful series
of bronzes. In our time, physicists have used the most advanced
technology to portray of the patterns of the cosmic dance. The
bubble-chamber photographs of interacting particles, which bear
testimony to the continual rhythm of creation and destruction in the
universe, are visual images of the dance of Shiva equalling those of
the Indian artists in beauty and profound significance. The metaphor
of the cosmic dance thus unifies ancient mythology, religious art, and
modern physics. It is indeed, as Coomarswamy has said, 'poetry, but
none the less science'.
By: Fritzof Capra
From: The Tao of Physics
3rd edition, page: 242-245
Chandan
cbando@lynx.neu.edu
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* "This life is short, the vanities of the world are transient, but they *
* alone live who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive" *
* - Vishwa Vivek *
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