Kadavul Ardra Abhishekam

Today marked the moon's passage into the lunar mansion (nakshatra) known as Ardra. Ardra nakshatra is associated with Lord Siva, specifically with the eponymously named star within it. The star known as Ardra is known as Betelgeuse in astronomy, and is 1.5 billion times larger than our sun. Think about that. Keep in mind that our sun is a million times larger than the size of our earth to begin with. This affords us the opportunity to meditate on the microcosm/macrocosm concept. Lord Nataraja's image conveys the constant activity of our natural universe in His dance. It occurs every millisecond within every subatomic particle. This is Parasakti.

Today's photo captions are the entirety of Gurudeva's third lesson of Dancing with Siva, "What Is Meant by 'Dancing with Siva?'."

Please also enjoy also this quotation from Saint Thirumular on Siva's Dance.

"The thirty-six elements dance. Sadasiva dances. Consciousness dances. Siva-Sakti dances. The animate and inanimate dance. All these and the Vedas dance when the Supreme dances His dance of bliss. The seven worlds as His golden abode, the five chakras as His pedestal, the central kundalini sakti as His divine stage, thus in rapture He dances, He who is Transcendent Light. He dances with the celestials. He dances in the golden hall. He dances with the three Gods. He dances with the assembly of silent sages. He dances in song. He dances in ultimate energy. He dances in souls--He who is the Lord of Dances. Tat Astu."
-- Saint Thirumoolar

\"All motion begins in God and ends in God.\"

\"The whole universe is engaged in a whirling flow of change and activity.\"

\"This is Siva\

s dance.\"'

\"We are all dancing with Siva, and He with us.\"

\"Ultimately, we are Siva dancing.\"

\"The world is seen as it truly is--sacred--when we be hold Siva\

s cosmic dance.\"'

\"Everything in the universe, all that we see, hear and imagine, is movement.\"

\"Galaxies soar in movement; atoms swirl in movement. All movement is Siva\

s dance.\"'

\"When we fight this movement and think it should be other than it is, we are reluctantly dancing with Siva.\"

\"We are stubbornly resisting, holding ourselves apart, criticizing the natural processes and movements around us.\"

\"It is by understanding the eternal truths that we bring all areas of our mind into the knowledge of how to accept what is and not wish it to be otherwise.\"

\"Once this happens, we begin to consciously dance with Siva, to move with the sacred flow that surrounds us, to accept praise and blame, joy and sorrow, prosperity and adversity in equanimity, the fruit of understanding.\"

\"We are then gracefully, in unrestrained surrender, dancing with Siva.\"

\"The Vedas state, \

The cosmic soul is truly the whole universe, the immortal source of all creation, all action, all meditation. Whoever discovers Him, hidden deep within, cuts through the bonds of ignorance even during his life on Earth.\'\"'

Aum Namah Sivaya.

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