Showing posts with label Absolute. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Absolute. Show all posts

21 March 2010

Nataraj Ananda Tandava

If I can't see
The Universe inside of Me,
Still I know it's there...
I've heard that somewhere,
And there were moments when I could feel it.

When I see you
I see It shining in your eyes;
See through Its disguise -
Undressed of illusion,
The Self is awake in a fresh, new dawn.

In this moment,
The marriage of Past and Present,
We draw the Future -
Select the colour
From the palette of possibility...

Then dance with love!
The sounds are coming from above;
Coming from within.
Flute notes emerge from AUM...
Observe the Great Dancer perform!

Oh dance in love!
Witness joy united as One
Though we're not the same.
Yet it's just a game -
The dance and Dancer are inseparable.

Microcosmic dances, a variety,
Expressing unity in diversity
Within the Absolute Choreography.

By Melanie Drury

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Fritzof Capra beautifully relates Nataraj's dance with modern physics in his article The Dance of Shiva: The Hindu View of Matter in the Light of Modern Physics, and then in The Tao of Physics.

He says, "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, 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."

Exploring a deeper understanding of quantum theory, in TheBigView it is told:

"In quantum physics the observer is no longer external and neutral, but by choosing what to observe in a given experiment, will effect the results of the experiment. Through the act of measurement he becomes himself a part of observed reality. This marks the end of the neutrality of the experimenter.

"Heisenberg believes that reality is what can be observed - if there are different observations, there must be different realities, which depend on the observer. Meanwhile, Einstein clearly believes in a reality independent of what we can observe. This supports philosopher Kant's view that, 'Reality is by itself and for itself.'

"Contemplating the subatomic realm seems like a Zen exercise. We have to realise that in spite of the different parts and components, the subatomic world in actuality is an undivided whole, where even the boundary between the observer and the observed is blurred. Object and subject have become inseparable, spatial and temporal detachment is an illusion.

"All things are intertwined and interdependent to an unfathomable degree, just as the particles in an atom are. Although the electrons in an atom can be thought of as individual particles, they are not really individual particles, because of the complicated wave relations that exist between them... thus, in the multiplicity of things there is unity."

And what are we, but subatomic particles of the Greater One, moving together in a Divine Dance?

09 September 2009

Variegatedness


"Bhakta-Chitra!"

So spontaneously these words sprung from your mouth, without even knowing of their existence let alone their meaning. I was stunned.

You were just fumbling, trying to recall the name of that great book of transcendental knowledge that was recorded in the written word more than 5000 years ago in India, the Bhagavad Gita. During our frequent long discussions on religious philosophy, searching for the possible Golden Thread that might unite such different creeds as Achintya Bheda-Abheda Tattva - a school of Vedanta presenting the philosophy of the inconceivable oneness and difference of God and Creation - and Islam, I had mentioned this book and the wisdom it contains on several occasions.

Yet now you said something else, my Algerian friend, words you didn't know but that I recognised as Sanskrit, although their meaning I wasn't really sure of. 

Curious about this seemingly transcendental message, I went about investigating their significance the first opportunity I had. This is what I found:

भक्त bhakta adj. devote
भक्त bhakta adj. faithful
भक्त bhakta adj. devoted
भक्त bhakta m. devotee

चित्र citra adj. strange
चित्र citra adj. wonderful
चित्र citra adj. diversified
चित्र citra adj. various
चित्र citra adj. manifold
चित्र citra adj. in different ways
चित्र citra adj. bright
चित्र citra adj. bright colored
चित्र citra adj. variegated
चित्र citra n. vestige
चित्र citra n. picture

The message that was coming through with those two little words was mind-blowing.

Various types of devotees, variegated faiths, a manifold of different ways of being devoted to the Lord... all creating a strange yet wonderful brightly-coloured picture. 

And we could say that the whole picture, or absolute vision, is that there is variety to enable different kinds of people with different kinds of consciousness to have different kinds of relationship with the One Supreme Absolute. 

In Subjective Evolution of Consciousness, Swami BR Sridhar explains it as such:

"Revealed Truth is distributed in installments according to the capacity of the peaple of the time, place and circumstance. The revealed truth is found in varying degrees in the Bible, the Koran, the Vedas, and the other scriptures of the world. Through this process, the truth is partially revealed in different places of the world in proportion to the thinking and capacity of each particular group of people. The revealed truth is reliable, but still it is modified to fit the persons to whom it is extended. For that reason we find differences in the different versions of the revealed truth. It is said in the Srimad Bhagavatam that medicine may be hidden within candy to treat children. In the same way, the revealed truth may be hidden within the mundane concessions of ordinary religion to help the ignorant class of men."

Nobody is left out, such Love!

Then what by Bhakta Chitra? – The reminder that there is, ultimately, a non-sectarian conception of God, Love and Devotion... and it came through an almost other-worldly message.