Metaphor Between Cosmic Dance Of Shiva And Dance Of Sub Atomic Particles

We all know that Nataraja is the dancing form of Lord Shiva and he is considered as the supreme God of "Naatya" - dance. Tandava, the divine dance performed by him is the source of creation, preservation and destruction. But do we know that this dance has an amazing scientific concept hidden in it? Let us close our eyes for a second and think about Atom and its Spin. Can we draw some amazing connection here?? Yes, we can and that is the base idea of this article. It tries to establish the parallels between Shiva's cosmic dance and Subatomic spin.  As usual, I have already found that I am not the only one to look at mythological concepts from a scientific perspective, but there are many many people who have already thought about these ideas. Hence I have website links to share, which can throw a good insight into the subject matter. Let us proceed further......

QUICK VIEW :

Key concept	Shiva's cosmic dance compared with dance of subatomic particles
Spiritual perspective	Tandava, the dance of Shiva ; Lasya, the dance of Goddess Parvati ; the different kinds of dances, Soundaryalahari - verse 41 which talks about Shivasakthi dance.
Views of modern physics	Atoms, Subatomic particles, Movements inside an atom, Electric Universe, Views of Fritjof Capra, Nataraja statue at CERN, European center of Nuclear research
Parallels	Sub atomic particles compared with "Trinity" Gods Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva ; The spin inside atom compared with the cosmic dance of Shiva which is the source for creation, preservation and destruction

Tandava :

The name "Tandava" actually came from "Tandu" an attendant of Shiva, who taught 108 "karana"s to Baratha, the author of "Natya Shastra". "Karana" is the combination of hand gestures with feet to form a dance posture. These 108 karanas are discussed by Baratha in the 4th chapter ("Tandava lakshanam") of "Natya Shastra". 

Tandava symbolizes the cosmic cycle of creation and destruction. It deals with the following five principle manifestations of eternal energy :

• Shrishti - Creation
• Sthiti - Sustenance
• Samhara - Destruction
• Tirobhava - Illusion
• Anugraha  - Grace, blessing

There are many types of "Tandavas". The most famous among them is "Aananda Thandava" which portraits bliss and ecstasy and "Rudra Thandava" which portraits destruction and violence.

See page for author [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Lasya :

"Lasya" is a gentle form of dance performed by Goddess Parvati. It is filled with grace and beauty She performs this dance in response to Shiva's "Tandava". There are two kinds of this dance namely "Jarita Lasya" and "Yauvaka Lasya".

By Kesavan Muthuvel (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Soundaryalahari  (Shloka 41) describes Shivasakthi dance :

Soundaryalahari, is not only a Shloka (prayer) but also a textbook of "Tantra". It describes about many Yantras and gives instructions on Puja and offerings. In that Shloka, verse 41 talks about Shivasakthi dance in Muladhara chakra. According to "Kundalini Yoga" there are six main Chakras in human body where "Kundalini" energy arises from the bottom to the top. In each chakra, Shiva and Sakthi reside in different forms. As such, Sakthi resides as "Samaya" (performing Lasya dance) and Shiva resides as "Aananda bhairava" (performing Tandava dance) in Muladhara chakra. Here it is considered as the creation dance and Shiva Sakthi are termed as Janaka Janani (father and mother). Please click the following link to read the entire text and meaning of this particular verse 41 :

https://sites.google.com/site/soundaryalahare/Home/slokas-41-50

And watch the following video clip (from start to 0.19 seconds) :

Atoms - Basis for everything in the Universe :

Atoms are the tiniest particles which constitute the base for everything in this Universe, from air to water, whale to mobile phone and so on.....Every solid, liquid and gas is made up of atoms. Without atoms, there is no existence of life. Such atoms are further divided into subatomic particles called Protons, Neutrons and Electrons .

By The original uploader was Fastfission at English Wikipedia
 [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)
 or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)],
 via Wikimedia Commons

Subatomic particles vs. Trinity personification :

Many world traditions make a mention about "Trinity" with reference to God. Specifically, in Sanathan dharma we have the main trinity, "Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva". We always refer them as Mummoorthy. Similarly, we also have a female version of trinity called "Sarasathi, Lakshmi and Parvati". These female Goddesses are termed as energy sources for the male Gods, to perform their tasks, Creation, Sustenance and Destruction respectively. We also talk about Parabrahmam, the Supreme God, who is beyond everything. The trinity gods are only the acting agents of the Supreme formless God. This can be understood from the popular tamil saying "அணுவுக்குள் அணுவான ஆதாரமே ".....

Now let us apply this philosophical thought to the subatomic particles. If atoms are everything in this Universe, and if there could not be any life existence without atoms. then can we say the subatomic particles are symbolically referred as "Trinities called "Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva???? When we look closely into the properties of the subatomic particles, we can somewhat agree to this concept. Among the subatomic particles, Protons have positive electric charge, Electrons have negative electric charge and Neutrons have no electric charge

Let me share the links which provide a connection between Trinity personification and Subatomic particles. Generally they emphasize "Proton" with positive electric charge as "Vishnu ; "Electron" with negative electric charge as "Brahma" and "Neutron" with no electric charge as "Shiva (but there are variations in these).  Please carefully go through the following links to make your own judgement about this concept. This is just an idea...... an attempt to analyze the deep concepts of philosophy in relation with modern science..

http://www.ishafoundation.org/blog/sadhguru/masters-words/devi-a-dynamic-force/
https://sites.google.com/site/vvmpune/essay-of-dr-p-v-vartak/shiva-lingam
http://rootshunt.com/physicswithreligion/physicswithreligion.htm
http://www.oshoworld.com/tantra_medi/otantra.asp?news_id=39
http://www.crystalinks.com/vedic.html

Atomic Spin :

Look at the above video and observe the movements inside an atom. If we say dance is nothing but movement, everything in this Universe dances, Sun, moon, planets, stars and the smallest of small, atoms too. Not only atoms, but even their subatomic particles move. Without such spin, there is no atom at all. And if there is no atom, there is no life at all.

Fritjof Capra :

He is an Austrian born American Physicist and the founding director of "Center for Ecoliteracy" in Berkely, California. He is also an author of many books. His famous work, "The Tao of Physics" which talks about the parallels between modern physics and eastern mysticism, was written in 1975.
Very recently, he has explained that....

"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. For the modern physicists, then Shiva's dance is the dance of subatomic matter."

http://www.fritjofcapra.net/shivas-cosmic-dance-at-cern/
http://www.indiainnings.in/108Facts/nataraja

Nataraja Statue at CERN - The European Organization for Nuclear Research :

Kenneth Lu [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

This is the statue of Shiva, engaged in dance in the form of Nataraja at CERN in Geneva. This statue, symbolizing Shiva's cosmic dance of creation and destruction, was given to CERN by the Indian Government to celebrate the research center's long association with India. A special plaque next to the Shiva statue explains the significance of the metaphor of Shiva's cosmic dance with quotations from "Fritjof Capra"......

"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 the patterns of cosmic dance. The metaphor of the cosmic dance thus unifies ancient mythology, religious art and modern physics".

(source : wikipedia)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nataraja

Watch this video clip which talks in detail about Shiva's cosmic dance (The introductory Shloka is Vishnu Sahasranama though.....) :

I am not able to provide certain links as they are very long to copy and paste. But if you type "Shiva cosmic dance atom" in google, you can find lots of interesting information about the same. I encourage you all to search and find more details about this beautiful symbolic representation. This is just a starting point where we have got some parallels between mythology and modern science. But I am very sure that more and more science advances, more and more light will be thrown on our ancient philosophical treasures. Thank you all for reading and please don't forget to share your thoughts.


References :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandava

http://www.asianart.com/articles/karanas/
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/Cosmic-dance-of-Shiva/articleshow/10485316.cms
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom
http://zeenews.india.com/news/west-bengal/veteran-artist-captures-lord-shivas-cosmic-dance-on-canvas_1498954.html
http://www.realityquests.info/shiva-dance/
http://www.quantumdiaries.org/2011/11/10/in-the-shadow-of-shiva/