Secrets of Mahatandava extracted from [0]

Shiva plunged in deep dhyana on Kailasha while Devi watched him patiently with contentment. She had not known the feelings of lack, discontent or aggression. She did not miss the comforts of Chintamani griha. The snowy mountains or the icy cave meant nothing. Like the blowing wind is not careworn about its destination, like rain that falls cares not where it lands, Devi just existed in the present moment. Moment by moment, six hundred thousand years passed at the end of which, Shiva rose from his seat.

“The time has come, Varanane,” he spoke somberly.
Devi saw a slight but momentary smile on Shiva’s pink lips. In his all-knowing long eyes, she saw a blinding flash and then utter darkness before they returned to being normal. His forehead showed a hue of soft red. The sun dimmed as if shrunk and in the middle of the day, it became twilight. For the first time, she experienced an unknown feeling in her heart. She could not express it but it was anxiety, a sort of paranoia. Of what, she knew not at this stage.

“I can’t explain, Nath,” she said, “but I’m feeling something I’ve never felt before.”

Without answering, Shiva held her in his yogi’s arms. Billions of new planets were birthed in that moment of embrace. Devi’s anxiety didn’t die down though.

“You are about to see what no one has ever seen before, O Devi,” he spoke solemnly. “And you’ll be the only one to see it every time, once every eleven trillion years that I do this. Till now, you’ve been my own creation. Now, you’ll merge in me. Bound by dharma, henceforth, you’ll be born separately and will have to win me back every time. Some elements will re-manifest and some new will form in the new creation. I’ll create the element of fire. You’ll need it to end your life in a future incarnation. Many worlds will need it for sustenance.”

Devi felt a churning in her stomach. She broke out in sweat. Her heart raced. She had never experienced or known any of these emotions ever before.

“What is happening, Lord?” she asked with trembling lips. It was fear she felt but she knew not what it was.

Shiva, the detached yogi, separated her from the embrace and touched Devi on her radiant forehead granting her divine vision to behold his real form. The Mahakala undid his damaru tied to the trident. In two giant strides, he stood far away from Devi, fifteen light years away. Devi felt as if Shiva was still close.

Dimi-dimi-dum-dum-tadik-dimi-dimi-tadik-dum-dum, he began playing his damaru at a slow tempo. With every strike, at a great distance, Devi would hear sounds of rumbling, roaring and loud explosions. These were not the gurgling skies, thunders or lightning, she knew. These explosions were crumbling planets like one kicks at a sand castle. Before any of the lifeforms could take shelter, the planets were shrinking and disappearing like bursting balloons.

Shiva’s body began to expand beyond proportions anyone could fathom. Countless planets went right into his growing form as he continued to grow. He became the Universal body. Trillions of planets settled on his body like pollen in a valley of flowers. Devi trembled. She had no knowledge that her tapasvin Shiva was not just Maharetas, the greatest seed, but the universe itself. The damaru was playing at a faster pace now. Many planets with all their life-forms, oceans, rivers and trees, were being sucked right into him. She saw her own planet along with her palace, nityas, yoginis and yakshinis merging into Shiva. One million human years passed and there was no end to Shiva’s vistara, expansion or his samhara, dissolution. Raising his right hand up in the air, vigorously playing damaru, he lifted his left leg.

Shiva, the Nataraja, was performing his cosmic dance, Mahatandava.

Devi found herself being pulled towards Shiva’s gigantic form. She was no more than the size of a grain of sand in front of the Mount Everest. Before she knew it, she merged right into Shiva.
From Shiva’s body, she saw the dissolution of the entire universe that went on for four million years more. Shiva stayed in his form of Nataraja, the sovereign dancer, the universal body for ages. Over the next few million human years, countless planets released from his body like arrows from a bow. Transformed, new planets. Creation was taking place again. All this while, Devi lived in Shiva bearing witness to what all had transpired.

maheśvara-mahākalpa-mahātāṇḍava-sākṣiṇī
Devi, Shiva’s own feminine and kinetic aspect was the only witness of mahatandava. For, sound is kinetic energy. Sound cannot be static. The vigorous play of damaru created many sounds that lay scattered in the universe for eons. Seventy million different sounds manifested that covered the entire spectrum of all mantras to be ever created.

At the end of the first cycle of dissolution, the new creation took sixteen billion years before the first lifeform appeared. At the end of nearly eleven trillion years from Shiva’s Mahatandava, earth was created in the universe. This was when Devi was born to Daksha Prajapati and Queen Prasuti and married Shiva, she remembered what all she had been through and how long she had waited.
Born from the union of Daksha and Prasuti, made up of the five elements of earth, water, fire, air and ether, Devi was now well aware of suffering, sadness, sorrow and all the other emotions.

“O Virupaksha, the ruler of all energies,” Devi humbly addressed Shiva, recalling the time when all she knew was bliss in her abode, “when I lived in Chintamani griha, I did not know jealousy, envy or any of the negative emotions. I did not know what was suffering. But now I do, and it is very painful.”

Shiva kept his yogic gaze fixed and lowered it a bit more to indicate that Devi could continue talking, his gentle smile on his chiseled face as if carved by the perfect sculptor.

“I have you,” she continued. “I see you and I only feel bliss. But, what about the rest of the creation? I saw infinite planets shooting out of you and billions of such planets have lifeforms. Why do they have to go through suffering?”

“The various elements are in play, Gaure,” The Mahayogi spoke like clouds gathering in the sky. “There’s no suffering, only ignorance. What people call suffering is merely their perspective born out of ignorance.”

“It may well be, Nath, but it’s extremely painful. It makes everything feel worthless. It causes fear and anxiety. People don’t know they are ignorant. What can they do?”
“They must remain connected to the source, the universal energy,” Shiva replied. “For, the source has all the wisdom anyone ever seeks.”
“And, how can they do that?”
“The easiest would be to pick any sound my damaru created. Everything in its current form originated from those sounds.”

0: https://www.amazon.in/Ancient-Science-Mantras-Om-Swami/dp/93...