The Dance is the Message

One of the many photos posted by blogger friend Harekrishnaji, on his drives out of Pune and Mumbai this monsoon, en route from Thoseghar to Kas. You can see more of his photographs here.

Incursions of brick and mortar in places that still boast of virgin forests, cascading rivers, and rivers in a monsoon rush across the plains, and nature has a habit of appearing in divine form , nudging us , and sometimes, glaring at us, so we get the message.

Like this bare tree, trying its darnedest best to portray the Shiva as Nataraj........

(in both marathi ad english)

(Fritzof Capra in his article "The Dance of Shiva: The Hindu View of Matter in the Light of Modern Physics," and later in the The Tao of Physics beautifully relates Nataraj's dance with modern physics. He says that "every subatomic particle not only performs an energy dance, but also is an energy dance; a pulsating process of creation and destruction…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.")


(photo by Harekrishnaji)
अनादी काळ
मानवाने आधाशी पणाने
दगडांवर छिन्नीने मारलेले व्रण ,
हिरवाई ओरबाडून
सिमेंट-विटांनी केलेली नाटकं,
नद्या अडवून रागावलेले बंधारे ,
आणि एक
सर्व काही हरवलेला वृक्ष ,
कड्यावर
नटराजाचा आवेशात ,
उरली सुरली हिरवाई ,
गडबडून घरंगळत
कोसळणारी नदी ,
आणि विजायुन्मादाने
वाहणारी नदी
यांची राखण करत
आयुष्याच्या संध्याकाळी ,
तुमच्या डोळ्याला डोळा भिडवत
उभा ठाकतो.....
Avaricious scrapings
by greedy types,
baring
scarred stone
to the elements;
Felling of the green
to accommodate
false
victories in brick and mortar.....
and the desperate river,
blocked by bunds,
raging down ,
in agitated foam,
dissipating
slowly into a flow.

In solitary splendour,
the lone tree
stands,
in the evening of its life,
alone,
bare,
and leafless;
guarding
the riches behind,
in a dance of Shiva.

Creation
must follow Destruction;
and he stands
sentinel-like
doing the cosmic dance,
amidst
few green folks,
at his feet
who seem to understand what he says...