Shiva Mahimna Stotra

Shloka 16

Meaning:  Being struck by your dancing feet the earth all of a sudden becomes bewildered thinking that it is going to be destroyed. Even Lord Vishnu’s domain gets shaken up in fear by the broken planets hit by the dancing movements of your mace-like arms. Heaven feels miserable when its edges get beaten by the end of your untied hair. O Lord Shiva! You dance to protect the world, but truly your mighty form creates all the troubles.           

Reflections: My friend’s daughter was learning Bharata Natyam, and she decided to have an Arrangetram, the graduation dance performance, after two years. She started practicing dances in her living room.  After a day or two, her father took a few days off from his work and finished his basement so that his daughter could practice her dances there. He told me that he was worried about his living room floor which may give in, all the pictures on the wall which may fall, and a few fragile glass decors may fall and break.

If a young daughter’s dance can create such havoc in a house, what to talk about when a mighty universal form of God starts dancing in the universe. In the scriptures, the Lord’s universal form has been described as follows. They say that Its body is the whole universe, the earth is Its feet, space is Its naval, the wind is Its breathing, the sun and moon are Its eyes, directions are Its ears, and Its head is beyond this universe.  This whole universe is only a quarter of Its form, the other three-fourths form is invisible.

In this Shiva Mahimna shloka, Shri Pushpadanta identifies Lord Shiva with the Universal Form of the Lord, so we can feel and imagine Him dancing as a human being. He asks us to imagine what happens when the Lord’s huge feet strike the earth. Definitely, the earth feels that it is going to be destroyed. Also, imagine His long powerful mace-like arms moving around in space hitting and breaking the planets and His untied hair moving in space reaching out to the end of this visible universe and breaking its edges. Actually, Lord Shiva dances to protect the universe, but His Mighty Form creates havoc in the universe.

There is a legend that a demon wanted to destroy the whole universe. He started doing severe austerity to please Lord Brahma, the Brahman’s form that created the universe. At one point, Brahma had to reveal to the demon and ask him what boon he wanted. The demon asked for a power by which he could destroy the whole universe. Brahma was in trouble. He cannot refuse to give the boon as he had promised him. Brahma wanted to buy some time. It must have been morning.  Brahma told the demon to come to the Brahma Loka in the evening and ask for this boon.  Brahma said that this was his only chance to get that boon. Then, Brahma ran to Lord Shiva for help. Lord Shiva told Brahma not to worry. He said that he would come to the Brahma Loka in the evening and take care of the problem. Before evening, Lord Shiva came to the Brahma Loka and started dancing. Lord Shiva’s other name is Nataraja, the King, or the Lord of Dance. There are famous images of Lord Shiva as Nataraja. His dances included their dramatic aspects. Lord Shiva performed beautiful and engaging dances. The demon came to ask for the boon, but he was overwhelmed by Lord Shiva’s dances and forgot all about the boon. The evening passed and the demon lost his chance for the boon. Thus, Lord Shiva danced to save the universe.

These stories and the images of Lord Shiva’s dance are symbolic. Actually, all activities of the universe are like Lord Shiva’s Lila, or Play, or Dance. Some acts look pleasant to us and some look unpleasant. We enjoy the pleasant acts. But when we see unpleasant acts, we get scared or upset and complain to God why God is acting that way.

Sri Ramakrishna says, “You ask why? Brahman (God) does not act in consultation with others. It is Brahman’s pleasure. Brahman is self-willed. Why should we try to know the reason for Brahman’s acting this way or that? You have come to the orchard to eat mangoes. What is the good of calculating how many trees there are in the orchard, how many thousands of branches, and how many millions of leaves? One cannot realize Truth by futile arguments and reasoning.”

Every act in this universe has thousands or millions of reasons. How can we understand all these reasons with our limited minds? Sri Ramakrishna said that five gallons of milk would not fit into one-gallon bottle. Every day tons of research papers are published in thousands of fields. Most of them solve a problem or two, but these solutions raise more questions or problems. This is what Sri Ramakrishna refers to as counting the trees, branches, and leaves. Coming to the orchard is having a human life, and eating mangoes is to realize the Truth, the Ultimate Reality and get fulfillment in life.

This does not mean that when we see someone suffering, we just think that ‘it is God’s play’ and we become insensitive and inactive. We must try to remove the suffering of the people to the best of our ability and if we cannot do anything, we pray to God to remove this suffering. This will connect us with all, and it will lead us to Oneness, which is the Truth.

Thus, this shloka teaches us to become aware of the Mighty Universal Form of God and to realize that all the activities of the universe are nothing but God’s dance or play (Lila).