Lord Shiva as Nataraja - Page 3

Most of us are concerned about that only😆

Apasmara purusha significance is also noted in Dakshina Moorthy avatara of Lord Shiva. As Dakshina Moorthy, Lord Shiva doesn't speak at all. He imparts the moola jyana by mere drishti. The very beginning of the guru parampara in India. As Dakshina Moorhy several forms are available, predominantly, he is shown with his right foot pressing down the apasmara purusha. It is said that , only guru veekshana can keep the apasmara purusha at bay. Untimely sleep, lazyness, forgetfulness, ADD, ADHD , confusion, arrogance and insolance are the main side effects of apasmara purusha.

If any of you are ineterested, read guru Charitra and Sai Sacharitra, you will understand the significance of Guru and how to keep apasmara purusha at bay.

Lord Shiva is the Adi Guru ! Everything came from him and ends in him. Hence the sanatana word has been attributed to him.

Since most of the posters have covered on the major aspects of Nataraja, let me add a few details on the legends of the holiest of Shiva shrine in South India- Chidamabram - also known as Tillai in Tamil.

Chidambaram has a towering presence in Tamil Puranic Literature. There is hardly a saint or musician who has not stood in front of the deity at Chidambram and sung His glory.

Lord Shiva is considered as the embodiment of the five elements- air, fire, water, earth and space.

There are five specific temples scattered in South India where He is worshiped as the manifestation of a particular element. For instance- in Kanchipuram Shiva is worshiped as the element Earth, in Arunachala He is worshiped as the representative of the Fire Element.

In Chidambaram, Lord Shiva represents the element Space (Akasha). Effectively, it represents the space in our hearts. Hence the name - Chit (heart) + Ambaram (space)

Apart from Sivaratri, the other major festival at Chidambaram is the Arudra Darisanam- celebrated when the star Arudra is in Dhanur Rashi (Dec- Jan). With thousands of fully bloomed lotuses being offered to Nataraja, it is a sight to be seen.

Nataraja's consort here is Sivakama Sundari

Chidambaram was the karma-yoga bhoomi for two great sages - Patanjali and Vyagrapada.

Sage Patanjali is considered to be an avatara of Adi Sesha (Sesh Naag) himself. Once, in Vaikunth, when Lord Vishnu was reclining on Sesha, the serpent noted a blissful smile on Narayan's face. Sesha asked what was it that was making the Lord smile. Narayan replied that he was viewing Lord Shiva's ananda tandva. Sesha said he also wanted to see the cosmic dance of Nataraja.

Vishnu granted Sesha his wish and suggested that he should take a human form and go to Chidambaram where he would get to see Nataraja dancing the tandava. Lord Vishnu also blessed him saying that in his human form, he would become famous as a Master of yoga.

Accordingly, Sesha was born in human form and became famous as the great sage Patanjali.

In Chidambarm, he worshiped Lord Shiva / Nataraja and was able to get his darshan. It is believed that he was taught the principles and intricacies of Yoga by Nandi himself - which he compiled into a book. This later became famous as the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.

The other great sage to appear in the legends of Chidambaram is sage Vyaghra-pada. Vyaghra means 'tiger' and pada means 'foot' . So this was a sage with tiger like paws. So how did he get this name?

Sage Vyaghapada was a great devotee living in Chidambaram who knew only one way of serving the Lord. Every morning he would try to collect as many flowers as possible and offer them to the Lord. If he had any regret it was this- he could not ascend the rocky mountain slopes and reach the peaks where exotic flowers grew. And he also wanted to scale the peaks early- even before the bees touched them.

So sincere was his devotion that when Lord Shiva appeared before him, all that he asked for was the legs of a tiger so that he could climb the mountain peaks easily.