nācahiṁ lagana pisāca pisācini jōvahiṁ. 50.
49-50. ‘Tell me what you have heard about the groom which has made you so
mesmerized by him. Let me hear what is so charming and wonderful about that fellow
who has no ‘Gunas’ (known and quantifiable qualities), no ‘Maan’ (measurements,
limitations), no ‘Jaati’ (without any known family lineage or great pedigree) or known
parents.’
[Lord Shiva is not an ordinary God, but Brahm, the cosmic Consciousness, in
a personified form. Hence, it is indeed true that Shiva has ‘no Gunas’ because Brahm
has no specific attributes. He is beyond the three Gunas known as Sata, Raja and
Tama Gunas that dominate the rest of the creation in some ratio. Being Brahm, Shiva
is neutral, and therefore his character equilises all the three Gunas.
Similarly, being Brahm personified, Shiva has ‘no Maan’—meaning having
no measurement; he is ‘eternal and unborn’. This also implies that he no family
lineage or parents. In fact, he is the Parent of the entire creation.] (49)
‘Look, he (Shiva) eats by begging, sleeps in the cremation ground on ash left
after cremation (or has ash smeared all over his body), dances naked, and he is
watched on by ghosts and phantoms as he dances (i.e. he lives in the company of
ghosts and spirits).’
[Lord Shiva is an ascetic. An ascetic is supposed to beg for meals and not hoard
anything for himself.
His living in the cremation ground has two meanings—one is that he sees death as
the fact of life and therefore remains aloof from all worldy attachments and
attractions, and second, by living in the cremation ground he utters the holy name of
Lord Ram in the ears of a dying person so that all the sins committed by the dying
man are nullified and his soul can get emancipation and salvation. This fact is
endorsed in Ram Uttar Tapini Upanishad.
Shiva dances not because he is mad but because he is ecstatic in the bliss obtained
by remaining lost in meditation and existing in a transcendental state of
consciousness. This dancing form of Shiva is known as ‘Nataraj’, the cosmic dance of
the Supreme Being.^1
The presence of ‘spirits’ around him implies that ordinary people cannot
understand his state of mind and level of existence, for it is understandable only when
one leaves the level of gross existence that revolves around the physical body and
rises above to the level of existence in which the ‘spirit’, the soul, lives, which is the
state of ‘transcendental existence’ when one obtains absolute bliss. This is why Shiva
dances, and this is why his dance is observed by spirits and not human beings with a
gross body.] (50)
[Note—Similar idea is expressed in Ram Charit Manas, Baal Kand, Doha no. 79
along with its preceding Chaupai line nos. 6-8.
(^1) Nataraj—One of mystical forms of Lord Shiva is known as the ‘Nataraj’
(pronounced as ‘Nut-Raaj’). The word ‘Nat’ means to dance, and ‘Raaj’ means a king
or an expert who knows the secrets of any kind of art. So, when Lord Shiva performs
his cosmic dance he is known as ‘Nataraj’. This mystical form of Lord Shiva is
known as the ‘Nataraj’ because it represents the Lord’s cosmic dance that symbolizes
both the destruction and the creation of the universe, and it reveals the cycles of death
and birth. Since one dances only when he is extremely happy and ecstatic, this
Nataraj dance of Lord Shiva indicates that the Lord is extremely blissful and ecstatic
in self-realisation. This pose is for the welfare of the world, and to tell the world how
one enjoys total bliss upon self-realisation. In the pose of Nataraj, the ‘King of Dance
Forms’, Shiva is giving darshan (divine viewing) to his beloved devotees within the