Sacred is dance—at no time was dance not.
Humanity dances because that is how we are informed, transformed, and transmuted.
Instruments used for Bharatanatyam sacred dance are the mridangam and cymbals. A violin or ghatam and flute could also be lovely additions. With or without them, you might consider arranging for authentic India incense and oils to be burned safely within your Sacred Dance Studio.
Imagine you can create and destroy anything with a simple gesture, blink, or expression. Begin standing and facing east, with most of your weight on the left leg, the right leg placed behind the left, and your palms facing upward and held together slightly to the left in front of the hip. Gaze at your palms as you gently reach up to your right. You have a warm smile on your face. Step to the right with the right leg, and bring your arms up high over your head, palms joined. Step the left leg across the front of the right foot, and bring the arms back down to the left hip, palms still joined and facing upward. Your gaze follows the palms. Keeping the palms to your left side, step with the right foot so that the heels of the feet are touching and legs are straight. Then, holding that position, deeply bend your knees. Straighten your knees, and bring the palms up to chest height, with elbows bent. Then, leading with your left elbow, with the left ear leaning toward that left elbow and with the palms upward and fingertips touching, lift the right foot and place it behind you to turn counterclockwise, keeping the elbows out, fingertips touching, and palms facing up. Hold this configuration, and keep stepping behind you as you complete a 360-degree turn.
The Trimurti, or trinity of G-d, was creation, sustainment, and destruction. These were embodied by personifications of Brahma as the Creator, Vishnu as the sustainer and protector, and Shiva as the destroyer or transformer. These three deities all had the meaning of three in One. They were the different forms or manifestations of One entity, the Supreme Being. Brahma was the Dharma, the Cosmic Principles, and the Ultimate Reality.
Many ancient Indian peoples carved sculptures of Lord Shiva, also known as Nataraja, in sacred dance poses of the Bharatanatyam into temples. In them, he was remembered as dancing within a circular arch of flames that represented the cosmic fire that both created and consumed everything. The circle represented the cyclical nature of life. The fire also represented the positive and negative aspects of life, the feminine and masculine energies. Shiva is known as the destroyer aspect within the Trimurti, the Hindu trinity, with Brahma and Vishnu. Shiva was one of the supreme beings that created, protected, and transformed the universe. Goddess Shakti was said to provide the energy and creative power of each aspect of the Trimurti. Shakti and Shiva were aware of the power of sacred dance to create, harvest good, and reimagine.
Drawing on deeply rooted knowing and the examples of energy that created the universe, you now know the power you have within your body temple. The ability to change any circumstance you find yourself in, any faulty or limiting beliefs you hold, and any desire to enable your thinking to advance onto higher planes is found within this power. When talking or thinking about something that causes you to consider changing or acknowledging your growth, what comes to mind? How have you changed in your Spirit or your awareness? Of course, please consider everything within a loving and compassionate context appropriate to the circumstances and for the greatest positive impact to enable you to harvest another aspect of your Spirit. You see, harvesting the Spirit is an ongoing process, and that means it’s never finished—at least while evolving on earth. It’s the proverbial onion that keeps peeling layers. Like Shakti and Shiva, we seek to dance on that lotus petal of realization. Make some notes in your journal.
As you review yesterday’s dance, think carefully about the circumstances that may be holding you in time and space and the path behind you that has led you to this place in your Practice. As you have a sense of complete acceptance, envision the path ahead, loosely and generally. Now, after completing the 360-degree turn, feet are parallel on the floor, knees slightly bent. Reach the palms forward and gently upward. Step forward with the right foot, and bring the left to join it. Slightly bend your knees, keeping the palms out in front of you. Stand straight, then quickly curl back the toes on both feet. Do that stepping sequence again, and then place the right foot way behind you, bending the left knee. The palms now face upward with the elbows close into the body; the torso leans forward, and the head gently bows. Remaining in the lunge, holding the hands with palms up out in front of you, gently lean backward, taking the head back too. Your arms will naturally rise. Then lift the right foot, and cross it to the left of the left foot, keeping it behind; step backward on it, bringing the feet together by moving the left foot back. Simultaneously, bring the arms to a soft curve with palms up, fingertips touching, to return to rest at the left hip.
As depicted in the renderings from ancient India, Lord Shiva’s upper-right hand, while in a mudra called ḍamaru-hasta, holds a drum, which stands for life and creation. Lord Shiva’s upper-left hand holds fire, which is about creation and destruction. A cobra is depicted uncoiling from Lord Shiva’s lower-right forearm, and the palm of the lower-right hand is in the abhaya mudra, relieving fear and supporting the appropriate use of dharma. The lower-left hand bends downward at the wrist, and the palm faces inward toward his body. It points toward the raised left foot so that it’s diametrically opposite to the lower-right arm. He has two eyes, plus a “third eye” on his forehead. His eyes represent the sun and the moon, whereas the open third eye is supposed to be the Inner Eye to wisdom and self-realization. The three eyes together lead to wisdom via the three guṇas of sattva, rajas, and tamas. Nataraja dances on a demon, which symbolizes that sacred dance leads to victory over the distractions and delusions of this world. The pleasant face of Shiva represents his calmness despite being immersed in the contrasting forces of Universe and his energetic dance.
Sattva (goodness, constructiveness, harmony), rajas (passion, activity, confusion), and tamas (darkness, destruction, chaos) are present in everyone and everything. It’s which of them leads that’s different. The combination of these guṇas makes up the character of someone and acts as one’s fate. When in right balance, the guṇas are threads woven together, producing the great reality or the composition of the Divine in one’s life.
Research the Divine Qualities and see what you find. Which of the three guṇas have you used to harvest your Spirit? Remember that those represented in tamas are Divine Qualities when incorporated to make appropriate change or respond to situations when needed. Which of the Divine Qualities would you like to continue amplifying to harvest the great reality within you or your community?
Review yesterday’s sacred dance. Now, gently reach the palms up to your right, and, with a warm smile, gaze at your palms. Step to the right with the right leg, and bring your arms up high over your head, palms joined. Step across the front of the right foot with the left, and bring the arms back down to the left hip, palms still joined and facing upward. Your gaze follows the palms. Do a slight jump onto the right leg, and bring the heels together, forming a V on the floor. Bring the upward-facing palms with fingertips touching back to the center chest area. Breathe here for a beat, then step forward on the left foot, turn your head toward the direction in which you’re stepping, keeping the fingertips touching. Bring your right foot down behind the left to propel you in a circle counterclockwise with the elbow leading. Repeat, stepping to the left with the right foot behind the left propelling you around until you’ve turned 360 degrees, and bring the feet back to a V shape with the heels touching. Bend your knees, and bring the palms back to the chest center.
With his Sacred Dance Meditation, Shiva destroyed the illusory world of maya and transformed it so that spiritual power and enlightenment were revealed. Maya in Sanskrit means “magic” or “illusion,” and “originally denoted the magic power with which a god could make human beings believe in … illusion. By extension, it later came to mean the powerful force that creates the cosmic illusion that the phenomenal world is real.… Maya is thus that cosmic force that presents the infinite Brahman (the supreme being)”* as the world we see, touch, smell, and hear. Maya tricks people by hiding their real natures, their Self, from them, which is mistaken for the ego. In reality, the Self is identical with Brahman. The mind tells us we are humans passing through life, rather than immortals. This makes us unable to overcome our limitations.
Consider whether what you see in the space around you is real or illusionary.
The ancients in India taught that maya was perpetuated by giving in to desires that don’t lead back to spiritual awareness and wakefulness. Desires for security, wealth, love, fame, and correctness are all among them. Giving in to them creates attachments, which lead to difficulties, keeping the mind in a state of agitation. With a disturbed and unsteady mind, we can’t see clearly or discern truth from lie. We become prisoners of our own actions, desires, and attachments. Freeing ourselves from maya and remaining wakeful is the essence of the spiritual path, regardless of which sacred approach one takes. Yet some remark, “It’s all just an illusion, so there’s no need to worry.” They engage in spiritual bypassing—that is, using spiritual beliefs as a way of escaping and shirking responsibility or deluding themselves.
Do you desire to be deluded? How do you delude yourself?
Reflect on yesterday’s “Meditation and Practice,” and review yesterday’s dance if you need to. Reach the palms forward and gently upward. Step forward with the left foot, and bring the right to join it. Take a slight knee bend, keeping the palms out in front of you. Stand straight, then quickly curl back the toes on both feet. Repeat that stepping sequence again, and then shift the weight to the right leg and deeply bend the knee. Rest the ball of the left foot just next to the arch of the right foot; the left knee is also bent. Smiling, tilting your head to the left, and gazing straight ahead, touch your fingertips together and hold your palms toward your chest. Hold this pose for a breath. Then, step on the left foot, and turn your head to the left, keeping the fingertips touching. Bring your right foot down behind the left to propel you in a circle counterclockwise with the elbow leading. Repeat stepping to the left with the right foot behind the left, propelling you around until you’ve turned 360 degrees. Bring the feet together and, keeping your palms upward and fingertips touching, tap the left foot in front of you, and bring it back to standing. Tap and hold the right foot to your right, resting the ball of the foot on the floor and bending both knees. Turn your head in the direction of the right knee when you put the ball of the foot down. Hold here for a beat, and then bring the feet together. Repeat twice from the point of tapping the left foot forward. Repeat once more, but hold the pose for five beats or so, and tilt the head to the left.
The snake that sits at Nataraja’s waist is Kundalini Shakti, which represents the cosmic power that lives in all of us as the representation of Brahman and the opposite of maya. Nataraja’s dance wasn’t abstract. It was happening in each person, at the atomic level, moment by moment. Lore proposed that the creation of the worlds, their maintenance, and the obscuration and liberation of human Spirit are acts of Nataraja’s dance.
Dharma becomes the reflection of maya, with its cosmic law underlying every right action and social order. Dharma refers to rta, a power that glues and upholds the Universe and supernatural societies. Dharma is the power that makes us wakeful people and gives us the willingness to pursue and show forth the Divine Qualities. We have the capacity to live from the active Kundalini Shakti, or its equivalent, in our understanding of awakening, and we have the duty to do so to harvest our Spirits.
Review the sequences of the sacred dance given on August 4. Shift your weight to both feet, bring the arms up over your head in circular fashion with the palms facing each other, bring them down to your heart chakra area, and bow your head. Keeping the palms held steady, walk, with an exaggerated bending of each knee, counterclockwise in a large 360-degree circle. Lift your head, sweep the arms up and to your sides, palms facing each other to reach over your head and meet at your crown chakra.
Rta is the eternal, cosmic, and moral order. For the peoples who lived in the Indus Valley, rta encompassed the idea that there was basic truth, a harmony, or system of the Universe. That was considered an aspect of being on earth and was a part of Divine order.
In understanding our need to remain wakeful, we can think of rta as representing the eternal and inviolable laws of nature. This includes the precision on which the stars and planets rotate, the assuredness of the sunrise, the way the rivers flow to the oceans, and so on. Rta allows us to see unity in our differences within the cosmic order. By adhering to the basic truths of rta, by practicing harmony and Divine Qualities as eternal and inviolable laws, life on Earth moves in the upward direction. At the same time, the fact that the days come and go on their own and that the natural laws are unchanging allows us to point our attention to that which is eternal inside of us, in our fellow travelers, and in what we manifest in harvesting our Spirits. How do you reconcile rta with maya? Make some notes in your journal.
Combine and practice the sequence of sacred dance choreography given from August 1 to August 5 with the goal of memorizing it. After you have done that, try to consider the leaders of this world (current or previous) who represent Divine Qualities. Hold them in your body-mind as you practice Sacred Dance Meditation today.
Anrta was the opposite of rta for the people of ancient India. For them, anrta represented complete disorder and confusion. The path of anrta goes against the natural laws and causes disease and death. The Lord of the Dance exhibited ways of dealing with this by sacredly dancing on an individual with this energy.
Compound words containing anrta point to falsehoods, untruths, deceptions and lies, broken promises, and a temporary body without permanent existence. Because human beings may live in a dualistic reality, the notion of anrta is contrary to rta. If a person chooses to follow a course rife with falsehoods and untruths or deludes another with practices arising from anrta, then that person’s life is said to be shrouded with darkness. But we all know that some people on this planet seem to be anrta incarnate. They don’t display real care or the nature of Divine Qualities.
What do you say of those individuals? How do you consider them? In terms of what to do about them, how can they be reined in to rta? How do you apply dharma? Jot down some ideas in your journal discussing how you have countered (or will counter) anrta in Spirit harvesting.
As we come to the end of the week and close this entry point on harvesting the Spirit, approach your Sacred Dance Studio and Sacred Dance Attire as you embody the principles of wakefulness, dharma, rta, and the Lord of the Dance. As you engage in the full Sacred Dance Meditation from this week, realize that you may experience mental, physical, and spiritual transformation as you destroy old beliefs and create new and more challenging adventures for your Soul.
For the ancients of India, jnana, which means “knowledge” in Sanskrit, focused on a cognitive event that couldn’t be mistaken. It was described as a total experience with the Supreme Being that set the Soul free from the transmigratory life and the polarities this imposes upon thought. This experience of jnana overcame ajnana, or the false understanding of reality, that kept the Soul from seeing clearly. Knowledge, that one’s Self was identical with the Ultimate Reality, as acquired through Sacred Dance Meditation, was sought after through Lord Shiva’s sacred dance.
Jnana as spiritual knowledge and wisdom denotes knowledge of the Self, an inward experience of the Absolute Reality inseparable from the Divine. It is knowing one need not experience pain or suffering but instead can come from a place of total Awareness. In harvesting our Spirit, we must be diligent in acting from that realization.
The glitz and glam of the world may promise to transform you. In addition, chasing the latest spiritual craze drives many down a dead end. Instead, a calm approach to knowing the truth lies within; a slowing down of activity and a simple inward focus, rather than an outward one, propels you.
The Whole World in Your Hands—Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
Energy in the body can be collected and harnessed, pointed in the direction you wish to go.
A sari with pleats and a sash around the waist can serve as this week’s dance attire, along with jewelry, such as bright earrings, necklaces, and bracelets. You can mark your third eye if you like. Feel free to paint the palms of your feet and hands with a henna dye, if you’d like, in a design or other inspiring mark. An Odissi orchestra includes a pakhawaj musician (most often the guru), a singer, a flutist, a sitar or violin musician, and a manjira musician. So, you might find music that includes a pakhawaj or barrel drum, a bansuri or an Indian flute, a manjira or a set of small cymbals, and a sitar, a long-neck lute. You may wear bells on your ankles too.
Stand facing east. Acknowledge energy radiating out from your chakra energy points, and envision it reaching to the Universe’s farthest corners. Bend your knees slightly, and place your left hand on your left hip and your right hand on top of it. This will cause you to twist a bit toward the left side of your body. Look to your left, over your left shoulder; hold this position, and shift your torso left, right, left. Hold the position for four breaths, with your hands still on your hip and looking toward the left. Your face is gently smiling. Blink your eyes five times, then shift only your eyes, looking left, right, left, right. Return to the standing position.
The people of the Indus Valley recorded their sacred dance poses in sculptures within Odissi Hindu temples. An Odissi Sacred Dance Meditation included an invocation, nritta (pure dance), nritya (expressive dance), natya (dance drama), and moksha, which portrayed emancipation of the Soul and spiritual release for human beings. This dance used body mudras, which balanced energy and negative behaviors, or directed and activated emotional and spiritual energy created through routine and mature Sacred Dance Meditation. It encompassed one’s view of G-d and seeing the Self in relation to G-d.
Hand mudras draw on elemental energies from each finger. The thumb draws upon fire; the index finger draws upon air; the middle finger brings in the power of ethers; the ring finger brings the power of earth; and the pinky finger is representative of water. By combining concentration and activating the elemental forces within our bodies as connected to the Universe, we can therefore create the energy we need to balance ourselves and to harvest our wants and ways of being (explained subsequently). The question is, what do you ultimately want, and how does that relate to your way of being? Before answering, note that some people have said being in a state of wanting isn’t equivalent to the state of manifesting; instead, the idea is to imagine having something as the key to receiving. Also, consider that “haves” are never exhausted: the desire for more arises immediately upon receiving, as part of the human condition.
Review the August 8 entry if needed. Keeping your hands on your hips, shift your weight to the left foot, and drag the ball of the right foot slightly behind you. Tap the floor two times, and then drag the ball of the foot around to your side and then to the front of you, making a large semicircle. When your right foot arrives in front of your body, balance your weight between both feet, and bend both knees. Bring the hands from their position on your hip to the front of your body, crossed at the wrists, left wrist on the bottom. Bring your thumb and ring fingers to slightly touching, with palms facing upward. Try to keep your fingers close together in this mudra. Remain with knees bent in the position for four breaths. The left foot is flat on the floor, and the right foot is resting on the ball of the foot, heel lifted. Tap the right foot on the floor with the ball of your foot, keeping the knees bent and hands in mudra body pose.
The sacred dance used Nritya Hasta or pure dance mudras—full body and hand mudras—to effect spiritual change. At this time in ancient India, the people believed that gods and goddesses danced to express the dynamic energy of life. The image represents Shiva as the Lord of the Dance, choreographing the eternal dance of the Universe. A dance of love and passion filled with the Divine, Odissi was the dance of Lord Shiva.
Indian Sacred Dance Meditation originated from the teachings of the Lord of the Universe. From it came the notion of bhava, which is the center of spiritual feelings and affections, as well as the heart and everlasting Soul (the true Self). We can understand bhava as intuition. Attuning to intuition (or hunch, inner voice, calling, or sense of needing something more than surface answers) can provide guidance and insight into what is important and beneficial to the true Self. An example is feeling a deep sense of spiritual wellness through all activities. That means we “have and be” based on listening to and acting on our inner guidance and aligning with Divine Qualities, which evolve over time.
Review the entries from earlier this week if you’d like. From the bent-kneed pose you left off in, bring the right foot close to the left foot so that your weight is evenly distributed on both feet and your knees remain bent. Unfurl your wrists, but keep your mudra hands so that the right arm lifts upward and the left arm is brought down and slightly behind your body, with palms facing away from your body. Your gaze is toward the right hand. Hold this position for four breaths. Then stand with your knees slightly bent. Bring your right palm to rest on your right hip, and place your left palm over the right.
The sacred dance in ancient India was built around the chauka and the tribhanga. The chauka is a masculine stance that equally balances the weight of the body, imitating a square in geometry. The tribhanga is a feminine pose holding the weight on one foot, with bent knees, hips jutted out, and a tilted head. Sacred dancers emphasized the duality of the masculine and the feminine through chauka and tribhanga to praise the gods.
At its core, bhava is having or receiving an attitude of peace, vitality, and wellness. Feeling a deep sense of conscious rest and spiritual peace indicates what is life-giving to the true Self. We also exercise bhava by setting positive and peaceful intentions for Sacred Dance Meditations and for our general focus on our life. It can be difficult to do this with the constant call of the world. Holding the chauka or the tribhanga can address energies that seek to take us off track, to lead us away from our intuitive paths. Harvesting wants and ways of being boils down to feeling more at rest and at peace than agitated, frustrated, or otherwise off balance. It means stepping away from anything that causes us to fall back into delusions about what we are here on earth for. This doesn’t mean we can’t have tangible goals. It means that the goals are set with the idea of harvesting our wants in relation to the Higher Self and doing our best to know that any wanting arising is an indication of imbalance.
Look to your right, over your right shoulder; hold this position, and then shift your torso right, left, right. Hold the position for four breaths, with your hands still on your hips and looking toward the right. Your face is gently smiling. Blink your eyes five times, then shift only your eyes, looking right, left, right, left. After the eye movement, keeping your hands on your hips, shift your weight to the right foot, and drag the ball of the left foot slightly behind you. Tap the floor two times, and drag the ball of the foot around to your side and then to the front of you, making a large semicircle on the floor. When your left foot arrives in front of your body, balance your weight between both feet and bend both knees. Bring the hands from their position on your hips to the front of your body, crossed at the wrists, right wrist on the bottom. Bring your thumb and ring fingers to slightly touching, with palms facing upward. Try to keep your fingers close together in this mudra. Remain with knees bent in the position for four breaths. The left foot is flat on the floor, and the right foot is resting on the ball of the foot, heel lifted. Tap the left foot on the floor with the ball of your foot, keeping the knees bent and hands in mudra pose.
Chauka means square, which represents a completely stable structure. So, chauka reflects the balanced, all-encompassing, and universal quality of dharma. Body mudras, as we can call them, represent serenity of the Soul. Embodying sacred mudras in ancient India pointed to having transcended the limitations of life and being elevated to the higher realms of being. The reincarnation cycle was over, and transcendence was complete.
Moksha is enlightenment and spiritual release for human beings. It’s a harvested result of repetitive Sacred Dance Meditation, being awakened, and staying awakened through dharma. In this sense, it’s the outcome of aligning wants and ways of being to the point at which you don’t have to think about it anymore.
Now, bring the left foot close to the right foot so that your weight is evenly distributed on both feet and your knees remain bent. Unfurl your wrists, but keep your mudra hands, so that the left arm lifts upward and the right arm is brought down and slightly behind your body, with palms facing away from your body. Your gaze is toward the left hand. Hold this position for four breaths. Then stand with your knees slightly bent. Bring your left palm to rest on your left hip, and place your right palm over the left.
Rasa referred to emotions or a state of mind that could be affected through sacred dance. Ancestors from India believed that by using expressions of the body, sacred dancers gained and provided spiritual insights though movements. Those who were watching them dance gained insights also. Beauty informed the Higher Self and was a pathway to Divine ecstasy. Sacred Dance Meditation drew from notions of sacred beauty to create an empowered aesthetic experience.
In the Indus Valley, the sole purpose of Sacred Dance Meditation was to use Divine beauty to produce rest and relief for the weary and exhausted or for those who felt overrun with grief, or for those heavy with misery, or for people who lost fortunes. It was a vehicle to enlighten and light the path toward a better existence. The primary goal of Sacred Dance Meditation was to create rasa to lift and transport the sacred dancers and people in the temples, into the expression of Ultimate Reality and transcendence.
There are so many beautiful things here on earth, and all of them were Divinely inspired. It’s easy to be in the rush of day to day without really allowing beauty into the picture. What do you consider beautiful? How have you arranged beauty in your home and workspace?
Stand in the mudra pose with hands on the left hip, and walk slowly and deliberately forward three steps—left, right, left—then tap twice with the ball of your left foot behind the right foot. Next, drag the ball of your left foot behind you, then to your left side, and then in front of you. This will cause you to turn to your right. Place your hands on your right hip, and repeat the walks—right, left, right—then tap twice with the ball of your right foot directly behind the left foot. Next, drag the ball of your right foot behind you, to your right side, and then in front of you.
Facial expressions in Sacred Dance Meditation in ancient India portrayed love, happiness, compassion, anger, courage, fear, tranquility, and disgust—the entire range of human emotion. The eyes also portrayed emotions, showing sacred dancers as embodying the character of the god or goddess being represented to move people into moksha. Dancers considered the body and eyes as the external and internal manifestations of the same expression. Without the eyes, the sacred dance would be irrelevant.
It’s been said that the eyes are the windows to the Spirit, since they can reveal a great deal about what a person is feeling or thinking and how that person is doing. And one’s face sends a greeting before anything is said. What a mind is thinking shows up on the face.
You can practice having a neutral facial expression that may be good for certain situations. Yet, your face can become permanently locked in configurations that don’t serve you spiritually. Find rest for your face: relax your forehead, relax your jaw, and soften your thoughts. Remember that smiling and laughing are vital for the Soul and Spirit.
Practice and trance your sacred dance today. Feel the poses, feel the stance of certainty, and feel your Self secure in knowing that where you stand is in the best possible place.
The quintessence of sacred ancient Indian dance meditation was artistic expression, in every part of the body, to harvest the indwelling Spirit. No feelings were ignored, and no circumstance was demeaned. The people were given a way to celebrate themselves and heal from thinking and ways of acting that diverged from self, while guiding them to seek beauty and artistic forms as a practice toward enlightenment.
Focus on your vibrations in your comings and goings; be awake and aware to receive beauty within your body temple. Share this beauty with other Souls as you dance. You can always be at your peak with the Divine dancing with you. In this way, you harvest your “havings” in the present moment and align them with sacred ways of being.
Look from whence you came.
The road less traveled is still a traveled road.
Kathakali sacred dance uses a lot of makeup, headdresses, and masks to create an identity. The masks extend the face, making it larger than life. The costumes and makeup elevate the dancers above their human and mundane selves so that they may transport the audience to the higher realms. Music for this sacred dance includes two drums—the chenda and the maddalam—and cymbals and the ela taalam. Using music or bells on your wrists and ankles is a very good idea. Kathakali sacred dance begins at night and finishes at dawn, when “good” conquers “evil,” as the story goes.
We focus on the hand mudras in this sacred dance. Face the east, and place the weight of your body evenly on both feet, with the knees bent. Your hands are at about heart chakra level with your elbows pressing outward away from your body. Your face is pleasant, with a slight smile. Place your right palm open with index finger and thumb spread and the remaining fingers cupped together, as if receiving a bottle. Place your left hand with palm facing away from you, index and thumb gently touching each other at the fingertips. The remaining fingers are pointing toward the ceiling and are held together. Keep the elbow pushed away from your body and knees bent. Take three breaths, and alternate mudra poses between hands as you rotate the wrists. Repeat the poses by rotation of the wrists until you get the hang of it. Be patient with yourself!
Sacred dance of Kathakali depicted inner characters of the gods and goddesses, whether saints, animals, demons, or demonesses. The depictions of character were tied to those of the three guṇas, as discussed on August 2. The dance also told stories from history. According to ancient Indian beliefs and traditions, human history is cyclical, subject to the world’s evolution and dissolution; each cycle forms one yuga. One yuga has four evolutionary levels, which are Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga, and Kali Yuga. After transiting through the yugas, creation began again, in an endless cycle of evolutions and dissolutions reflecting the spiritual distractions people have the farther they get from the Source.
It’s so easy to be inspired at the beginning of a new spiritual Practice and to really get on a course for positive spirals to the Light. Since you began your spiritual journey or revelatory process, do you notice any phasic patterns to your evolution? In your journal, write down three decisions that you think changed the course of your life. Explain why they changed your life. These can be points when you could have gone a different direction. For example, maybe you took a job or joined a church that led you where you are today. Or maybe you listened to or ignored advice from a friend or relative. If you review your spiritual journey map (see March 28), this may help you to remember some events or decision points and get them down on paper.
Today you start with the arms at heart-chakra height with the hands in the mudra poses. Feet bear the weight equally and knees are bent. Lift the right heel to touch the left knee, and place it back on the floor. Lift the left heel to touch the right knee, and place it back on the floor. Now, rotate the mudras between hands while alternating your feet to touch your knees. Try to get a rhythm where your lifted foot coordinates with the upward-pointing fingers. That is, if your left foot is tapping the right knee, the left hand has fingers pointing to the ceiling. Practice this until you get the mechanics and can do it without too much thinking.
Lord Brahma, the first deity of the Hindu trinity, was known as the god of creation. He was said to have four faces, which demonstrated complete knowledge, and four hands, which represented four aspects of human consciousness. The mind was his back-right hand, the intellect his left-back hand, the ego the right-front hand, and the empirical the left-front hand. In depictions he carried mala beads in the upper-right hand, which symbolized time counted on a complete mala, through which evolution, sustenance, and dissolution occurred. He held the Vedas in the upper-left hand and a water pot in the lower-left hand; Lord Brahma gave grace through his lower-right hand.
The malas, Vedas, water pot, and grace were connected to the Satya Yuga or the golden age of human living, an age of truth and perfection. This yuga had all peace and harmony. The people were awakened; therefore, they weren’t seeking spiritual experiences. Human beings were huge and powerful, honest, virtuous, and very intelligent and learned. They were the supremely blessed. There was no need to work, as riches were for the taking. The weather even participated, making everyone feel good and happy. Religion didn’t exist, nor did disease, fear, and sadness. And sacred dance wasn’t required because everyone was at peace and knew who they were in relation to G-d. Can you imagine such a place and time where there’s peace and tranquility among everyone? Just let that sink in and feel what that’s like.
Review what you’ve done so far this week. Let’s start with the right heel to the inside left knee, followed by the left heel to the inside right knee. Do that three times—right, left, right—then place the right foot down in a wider exaggerated step so you move to your right. With knees still bent, gently stomp in place three times, then repeat on the left. Bring your left heel to your inside right knee, then place the left foot down in a wider exaggerated step so you move to the left. With knees still bent, gently stomp in place three times. Repeat for each side of your body until you get the hang of it. Keep your mudras as you do this, with your elbows pressing away from your body.
Treta Yuga was known as the second Yuga. During this cycle, many emperors rose to dominance and conquered the world. Wars became frequent, and extreme weather, such as floods, tornados, monsoons, and the like, increased. Oceans and deserts were formed. People became slightly agitated compared to their predecessors. They sustained themselves by growing and harvesting through human labor.
The second yuga cycle teaches about another aspect of the Ancient Hindu Trinity: Vishnu, the preserver of life. He was believed to protect lives by adhering to order and truth. He led and encouraged people to be kind and compassionate to all beings.
Vishnu took on many different forms and danced incarnated upon the earth as Rama, Krishna, and Gautama (Siddhartha) Buddha. In paintings and art forms, Vishnu held a lotus flower in his lower-left hand; a mace, which represents the outcomes of action and consequences, in his lower-right hand; a conch shell in his upper-left hand, which spreads the primordial sound of Om; and the Sudarshana chakra discus, the symbol of the wheel of time that stands for a glorious existence, in his upper-right hand.
From the ancients of the Indus Valley, we have an explanation of why the world is a certain way and why we might be going through our experiences. We know that life on earth makes very little sense and doesn’t follow our expectations. But we can also think about the cyclic concept of yugas and apply them to our own growth. We can be aware when “a storm’s brewing” and prepare for it, standing outside of fear. The only sure thing in life is change. So if we don’t hold on too tightly, that will likely lessen the impact when the storm hits. It doesn’t mean we don’t care; it just means we don’t get bantered around by every strong wind. That’s easier said than done.
Repeat the sacred dance done on August 17. We now add the mudras to the wide steps. When you step to the left and right, rotate your mudras. At each wide sidestep, inhale, and exhale as you do the gentle stomps in place. Focus on your hands as you move, keeping your facial expression light, with a smile on your face, and think of the Supreme Deity.
Dvapara Yuga was the third yuga in the transcending order of the cycle of change. Dvapara meant “two pair” or “after two.” In this age, people became tainted with tamasic qualities and weren’t as strong as their ancestors; any actions taken without care of consequences or regard for others was considered tamasic. Tamasic people were self-obsessed, dissatisfied with life, and materialistic. Their three guṇas were out of balance. In communities, physical and mental disease spread, and individuals were discontent and at odds with each other. Persons’ bodies grew and aged, but their emotional and mental responses and capacity to reason remained childish.
Lord Shiva, the final deity of the ancient Hindu trinity, counterbalances the energy of the third yuga. He helps humanity avoid negative desires like greed and envy and opens the way for people to become enlightened and to break through delusions. He was also considered a destroyer, triggering rebirth. In art forms he was often drawn or cast with a serpent around his neck, which symbolizes Kundalini, or life energy.
The Dvapara Yuga can remind you that what you see in our world is not all that unique. Do you know people who are grown but have childish responses to life? Are you that way? Sacred dance gives you a way to deal with people who are out of balance, including yourself. Aside from engaging in sacred dance, know that there is shelter and protection. You aren’t facing the world and its problems alone. But ponder these questions, and make a few notes: How do you protect yourself from conditions across the country and around the world that you really can’t do anything about? How do you protect yourself from adults you encounter every day who exhibit childlike reactions?
Bring the sacred dance all together today. Practice all the choreography given this week until you have it comfortably saved on your body and mind.
In the final evolution of the process of change, people entered Kali Yuga, a time of darkness and ignorance. At this point, the ancient Indian people were chained to their passions and couldn’t remember who they were in Satya Yuga. Society fell into disuse, and people lied, saying one thing and doing another. Knowledge of the Divine was lost, and scriptures were laughed at. People ate poorly. They had no regard for the environment; water and food were scarce. Their health declined, and families didn’t exist anymore. By the end of a Kali Yuga period, the average lifespan was about twenty years.
Perhaps we don’t think of our society as going through phases and getting ready for a new start, forgetting, due to manifestations of self-obsession, how wonderful life was supposed to be. Whether one believes that our universe goes through cycles really doesn’t matter too much. What does matter is that human beings go through them and that in the darkest moments, sometimes, the Light breaks a cycle. But more than that, spiritual spiraling happens due to an enlightened experience that supersedes the previous ones.
Maybe you’ve had such an experience but it was so long ago you might not believe it ever happened. Thus you strive to remember and to keep moving upward. You may be lonely on your path, or you may feel like you’re not progressing or you shouldn’t have come all this way. But you have, and you are! You must believe that you can break the cycle of reincarnation—that is, despite slipping backward and forgetting, staying in a place where your emotions and thinking don’t get in the way of being Divine all the time.
Today you’ll practice the sacred dance and add some of your own flare, and improvise if you’d like, to make the sacred movements yours.
It was said that a kalpa was the period between the creation and re-creation of a world or Universe, being over four billion years long and only one day in Brahma’s life. By this measure, the life of Brahma seems fantastic and interminable, but from the viewpoint of eternity it’s as brief as a lightning flash. At the end of a yuga, the Supreme Being appeared as the Kalki Avata-ra, vanquished the demons, saved his people from their self-obsessions, and thus began the next yuga.
You may feel like you’re dancing sacredly in slow motion, and between each spiritual awakening are hundreds of thousands of millions of kalpas. That’s the idea behind looking for spiritual progress, not perfection—as is being grateful for the life you have. As you wait for a “new world” to be created in you, focus on your evolution, and celebrate the guidance and direction you’ve found. How do you feel the integration with your Higher Self is going?
Again, repeat what you’ve learned of the dance this week, and this time try to find yourself in a trance.
Pralaya means “dissolution” or “melting away.” It refers to a period when the Universe was in a state of nonexistence, which happened when the three guṇas were in perfect balance. It is a time of repose, or a period of rest between manifestations and was often considered the dormancy between two great life cycles. Pralaya is also a resting place between spiritual leaps. Every living entity shifts between rest and activity, so many types of pralayas exist.
The main point is that more pralayas develop within you as you take each leap upward, helping to propel you further in your spiritual quest, because action follows rest. During pralaya, the old thinking and behaving dissolves, but your memory of your previous self is still there. Aren’t you glad you get to rest?
Dedication and devotion bring forth joy.
There is joy in being of service to the Divine and the human beings with whom we encounter.
Enter the Sacred Dance Posture today with your selected Sacred Dance Attire. Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart and your knees slightly bent. Your heels are near each other, but your big toes are pointing away from each other. Get in touch with your neck and shoulders. While pushing your shoulders down and keeping your mudra held with your elbows pressing outward from your body, slide your head to the right, and hold it there for an inhale and exhale. Slide it back to center, hold it there, and inhale and exhale. Slide it to the left, hold it there, and inhale and exhale. Return to center. The shifting can be very small, almost unnoticeable, or larger as you prefer. When you move your head to the right, shift your eyes to the right, and when you move your head to the left, shift your eyes in that direction. As you inhale think of Spirit; as you exhale think of being in the present moment. Repeat until you have a rhythm.
Kuchipudi sacred dance was done in temples and focused on spiritual beliefs and devotion to the gods and goddesses. Kuchipudi began with an invocation of the goddesses of learning, wealth, and energy. The Sacred Dance Meditation included energizing and sprinkling sacred water and burning incense for purification. Men danced the Kuchipudi, emphasized bhakti, and aimed to connect devotees and deities through it. The goal was to invoke immortal joy and salvation.
Devotion is defined as loyalty, dedication, or love for someone or something. We think of it a spiritual path of deep love and commitment to the Divine. We acknowledge it and give it first place in our lives. To our best ability, we acknowledge it in all beings. If we come from this place, we harvest joy. In Sanskrit, this devotion is called bhakti and is expressed through vibrating body mantras and worshiping the Divine through sacred dance. The Bhagavad Gita describes the path of devotion as superior to the paths of knowledge and action. The Bible says we advance because of grace. The Sutras point out that devotion to G-d is pure and egoless. Only when the sacred dancer is free from attachments and focuses fully on liberation and union with the Divine does he or she harvest such joy.
Are you devoted? Are you of a single focus?
Let’s repeat the sacred dance choreography from August 22 for eight complete cycles of breaths beginning on your right. Next, bring your left arm up, and open your mudra palm to the sky as if holding a tray with glasses filled with sacred water. Bring your right arm down to slightly behind your right hip, keeping the mudra intact as you do. Now, add the eight complete cycles of breaths, beginning to your right, with head and eye shifts, as you hold your arms in this pose.
Radha and Krishna were known in ancient India as the combined feminine and masculine realities of G-d, being the primeval forms of G-d. It was said that Krishna enchants the world, but Radha “enchants even him.” She was the Supreme Goddess. Their sacred dance was considered the highest form of love, symbolizing the Soul seeking Divine love. It’s the unique relationship between humans and the Ultimate Reality. Krishna was revered as the Divine, who could only be reached through Radha, or devotion and love. Radha and Krishna were said to exist symbiotically as they were Radha Krishna.
Sacred Dance Meditation is a devotion, an expression of love for the Divine. The dance carries the messages from you to the listening Universe, and from the Universe to you. It is an expressive act that embodies you and your relationship with your Higher Self. Sometimes we don’t even realize that we are disconnected to our Higher Self; we just assume it’s there and forget about It. The Higher Self in you is the Divine, whom you reach through your increasing awareness of that Indwelling Spirit and allowance of the relationship to flourish. Do you leave your Higher Self? Are you bored with the relationship? If you are, why not try to find some new ways to engage it, such as sacredly dancing in every room of your home or workplace? Or asking a group of people to join you in Sacred Dance Meditation? Perhaps you could learn about a religious Practice that you haven’t studied before. Do you express your adoration and devotion to your Higher Self? Do you realize how it loves you unconditionally and your Soul longs for this love? This is the kind of relationship that fills all holes and makes you whole.
Today revisit the sacred dance choreography given on August 23. After completing the eight head shifts with the left palm up and the right palm slightly behind you, hold the sacred dance position for two breaths. Now lift the right knee to hip level, and hold it for a beat. Then place the foot back on the floor, and do four quick, close-to-the-ground right-left-right-left steps in place. Immediately lift the right knee up to hip level again. The knee lift receives the accent. Repeat this eight times. On the last iteration, close the sacred dance by quickly stepping in place for several breaths.
In ancient India, bhakti was a way to express love for a personal god, goddess, or their representation. In ancient texts bhakti meant participation, devotion, and love for any endeavor, while in the Bhagavad Gita, it marks one path of spirituality and toward moksha. Following bhakti, it was believed, led to salvation or nirvana. Bhakti was also a form of devotional, selfless service: in addition to loving and serving a god or deity, one would also love and serve the Divine in everything and through that realize salvation. According to the Bhagavad Gita, a Hindu religious text, the path of bhakti was superior to both the paths of knowledge and of karma. The ancients in India believed that bhakti served as the foundation for all spiritual and sacred paths.
Understanding bhakti allows us to develop, and modify when needed, a consistent process of nurturing ourselves along a chosen path. Members of structured spiritual traditions who believe in their doctrines are sometimes attached to their chosen god or deity and to their Practices. In other cases, people venture in and out of different traditions, taking what they like and leaving the rest. Some people don’t believe in deities at all. The point is that your sentimental bhakti is yours. Remember your Self in the process, to be of service to your Highest Good always and to be accepting of all spiritual Practices if they serve the good of all. What do you do when confronted with a spiritual seeker who seems at odds with you and your point of view? How can you harvest any spiritual growth from the situation? Gentleness will go a long way, but you might want to reflect on this question.
Keeping the mudra position with the left palm open toward the sky and the right palm slightly behind your right hip, step slightly backward with your right foot, and touch the left heel to the inside right knee as we did last week. Place the left foot down on the floor to the side so that you have a wide stance. Keep your left palm facing the ceiling, and touch the right fingertips to the floor. Rotate your body slightly to face the open space between your outstretched leg and your bent right knee. Then bring your palms together in a cupped position. Hold this for a moment, then do four head shifts with the eyes shifting as well, barely perceptible. Bring the palms together, then move them up and above your forehead. Do four head shifts and eye shifts, nearly imperceptibly. Then sweep your palms away from each other, fanning them down the sides of your body to return to a cupped position in front of you. Place them palms together, bring your left foot in as you twist your body and bring your heels together, with the knees bent, and return to standing position, keeping your palms placed together with the fingertips pointing upward. Do eight head and eye shifts.
Our ancient Indian ancestors had one thousand names of Vishnu. Chanting his names was a form of worship and devotion and was a part of the Sacred Dance Meditation. Vishnu sacredly danced creation into existence with three Sacred Dance Meditations. His first and second dances created earth, air, and humanity, and his third created the manifest Universe. Through devoting to his sacred dance, secrets of the Universe and dharma were revealed to people. His wife, Lakshmi, was the goddess of material and spiritual wealth and unlimited abundance; she infused his dances with an active energy. When needed, Vishnu embodied a portion of himself simultaneously at different locations to disrupt and defeat evil and to protect dharma. Vishnu was omnipresent, free from any attachments whenever he was embodied, and equivalent to Brahman, the supreme deity.
Some say that people can be many places at once, embodied in ways that help the cosmos and bring insight to those they are helping. Releasing the Spirit to travel to places can be easily imagined as you pray for your family, loved ones, and community members, seeing them in your mind’s eye. If you add the caveat of “not my will but Yours” to your prayers, you can be free from attachment and show your devotion to your Higher Power by trusting in the guidance and results. You can remember what it was like for you when you were younger and imagine what you will be like in the future. Some people believe in past lives. So it’s not difficult to imagine that you can be in more than one place at the same time. In the end, the only thing you have control over is devotion to the path and the Divine wisdom of the Universe. How do you devote yourself to your connection to the Divine through prayer? What three sacred dance steps can you align with as you pray?
Stand in your sacred dance position with palms touching and elbows held away from your body. Knees are slightly bent. Reach your palms over your head, keeping them together, and beginning with the right foot take five steps backward. Open your palms and arms outward away from your body, keeping your arms at shoulder height. Lift the right leg with the knee leading high, and step forward with the right foot then, continuing forward, left, right, left, right. With the right foot, place the weight on the ball of the foot with knees bent. Extend the arm away from the body toward the right, arm at shoulder height. The right hand holds the mudra, with the thumb and forefinger touching and remaining fingers pointing toward the sky. The left palm has the fingers pointing downward to the ground, with the arm held out away from your body, slightly below shoulder level. Hold the pose for a moment, as you head-shift and eye-shift, slightly, eight times. Bring the feet together, and return to the standing position, holding the right hand up with palm facing upward and the left arm down near the back of the left hip with the mudra fingers pointing to the ground. Hold this position.
Goddess Shakti was an integral aspect of every god or goddess, as well as the force energizing the Universe. Every devotional act paid her respect. She was able to summon all primordial cosmic energy to create and change things, people, circumstances, and existences. She was the dynamic Kundalini force thought to move through the entire Universe, liberating those who sought dharma and casting away those who interfered with good. As a living cosmic force, Shakti took on many forms. In addition to being considered the Great Divine Mother, who supplied all Divine feminine power, she was a fierce warrior and the dark goddess of destruction when manifested to destroy demons and restore balance. Knowing that Shakti was there, people were able to feel a sense of joy and sacredly dance in deep devotion.
Devotion allows you to change things. Devotion also requires commitment, which your Higher Self has already given. But you must devote yourself to the path, no matter the circumstances, even when the path gets rough and narrow or when you are depressed, hungry, happy, with people, or alone. Devotion accompanies you in the doubt, darkness, despair, and re-creating, and manifesting. Devotion is an act, but it’s also a position, a dance unto itself, with you and the Divine.
Repeat the same motions you did on August 26, but oriented to the left; so, begin your steps with your left leg, and end with your right hand up.
An avatar was the material appearance or incarnation of a deity on earth. Avatars were true embodiments of spiritual perfection, driven by dharma; they illustrated the divine reality explicitly. Vishnu had avatars who came to both empower the good and defeat evil, thus returning the dharma. Avatars appeared when the Cosmos was in crisis, when evil grew stronger than good, putting the Cosmos out of balance. They restored the balance or moved the Cosmos to the next cycle on the path of re-creation. As stated in the Bhagavad Gita (4.7–4.8), “Whenever righteousness wanes and unrighteousness increases, I send myself forth. For the protection of the good and for the destruction of evil, and for the establishment of righteousness, I come into being age after age.”
Wondering whether a savior is coming to help the people of the world live by the Light is missing the point. The savior is within you. Your acts and behaviors save the world. If every human could act, think, and otherwise live from the place of love and wisdom, and not from selfish desires, our avatar would be easily seen as a material manifestation of our Supreme Being.
Please review the Sacred Dance Meditation and choreography given this week. Practice it until you feel comfortable.
Sri Krishna, the Lord of the Dance, was an avatar of Vishnu who was born in northern India around 3228 BCE. Ancient Indians considered Sri Krishna’s life to mark a passing into the Kali Yuga. In the Sanskrit language, the word krishna means “dark.” At that time the color was an expression of the Supreme Consciousness that was unseen by or unknown to those who were unaware. Because of that, in that incarnation Krishna was the dark-faced, flute-playing god, the symbol of pure love, wisdom, and joy. Krishna was said to have transmitted the wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita to one of his earthly worshippers. With that act he was named as the original spiritual master, or the first guru.
Krishna consciousness became a state of awareness in which an individual danced in complete harmony with the Divine or the ultimate reality of Brahman. As a form of bhakti, the purpose of this consciousness was to devote one’s thoughts, actions, and worship to unifying with wisdom.
To act with Krishna-like consciousness is to free your Soul from the illusion that it’s an individual body and know that all power resides within you. You experience the bliss of your true, eternal nature. Anyone can do this because it’s a common natural ability. Sacred Dance Meditation gives you the tools for stepping outside the ego and cultivating a higher consciousness in service to your Spirit. As an avatar of your chosen spiritual path, as fully representational of the Higher Power with committed devotion, this kind of consciousness is achieved. Others who see you observe this. Your Light arrives before you do, and you become able to sacredly dance through all circumstances. Do you want a consciousness like that?
Today is the day to improvise the sacred dance to make it your own. Give it a try so that it becomes you, to deeply communicate with your Higher Self.
In a spiritual sense, a guru was someone moving people forward on their journey to dharma and out of maya. Several levels of spiritual gurus were in ancient India, ranging in expertise from teachers to masters to enlightened masters. Gurus were often sacred dance meditators. Enlightened masters were highly sought after because they were believed to be able to imbue the Spiritual Seeker with sacred dance wisdom written in the ancient Natyashastra texts.
Spiritual gurus show up in our lives as teachers. They can be loving and compassionate or do unimaginable things to get our attention. They may not entertain our delusions and tell us so in no uncertain terms, or they can be professionals who show up in our lives at opportune moments. They help us open and show us what we cannot see in ourselves. The guru reflects a skillful and awakened mind and reveals the same in us. The knowledge from the guru’s mind is infused with the Light of experience or of a whole lineage of his prior masters. It has the power to cleanse and transform.
Whether or not you follow a guru, you eventually must be your own guide to Source. You learn that the guru is within. Teachers help you see yourself in this way, to move you from maya to dharma.
Trance-dance the choreography given this week.
In the nonseparate way of contemplating the spiritual path in ancient India, Brahman is identical to the Atman, or Self, which is everywhere and inside each living being. It is genderless, unchangeable, and infinite and is the cause of positive change. A connected spiritual oneness informs and animates all existence. Awareness of Brahman leads to feeling and experiencing moksha, self-realization, joy, and a knowing of inseparability from others. But maya dwells with Brahman. Whereas maya is unconscious, Brahman-Atman is conscious. Maya changes, causes confusion in people, evolves, and dies. Brahman is eternal and unchanging and provides an absolute knowing of consciousness. As a metaphysical construct, it’s the unification of everything in the Universe. Within this ideology, humans are faultless, compassionate, and good.
We are connected to Brahman, and Braham allows us to dance with this mystery, helping us to see ourselves as deeply and universally well. With this kind of self-knowledge, we can allow ourselves to shine and devote ourselves to sacredly dancing along our chosen spiritual path.
Review sacred dances given in August, and select one you particularly resonated with. You might want to review the videos and your notes from the week.
Ancient Indians had an extensive and elaborate Sacred Dance Meditation founded on the principles of Brahman and dharma. They considered the human experience and put the sacred dance of Brahman in Lord Shiva and the Sanskrit texts.
Whatever you believe about the way the world or the Cosmos is, know that for years and years, others have had the same puzzles and predicaments, some unimaginable. The world today is really in need of avatars who will dance sacredly in service to bringing Souls across the great divide from delusion to dharma.