“Bharata, the father of ‘Natyashastra’ had to be a tantric yogi! How else could he imagine this gargantuan treatise on natya, out of thin air that too with such a deep knowledge of alchemy?,” says Padmaja Venkatesh Suresh who was recently in the Capital to give a lecture-demonstration on the topic of how Natya profoundly uses the science of tantra, matra & yantra to manifest itself.
A Bharatanatyam dancer, Padmaja believes that the dance we do today, derived from the “Natyashastra”, has a profound background delved deep into the yogic chakras and the shaktic philosophies behind it. Dance was just a different facet, a different way to energise one’s chakras from mooladhara, to the thousand petalled sahasrara chakra, to attain moksha.
Even the basic ‘ta dhittom namah’, the constant beating of feet in araimandi has a relevance as the intention is to activate the mooladhara chakra! Thus, by following the tantric philosophies of using the body as a physical yantra, with the help of vibrations from mantras, a human being can probe down further into the subtlest ‘parmanu’ and discover the divine within.
She spoke on how the word tantra has become synonymous with black magic. In reality, Padmaja says, “Tantra is the connecting force between us and the divine, it is actually the basis of any science, the bedrock for any plan of action. And plans of action can be both beneficent and maleficent. Sadly the maleficent aspect is over glorified.”
According to the dancer scholar, it is Kaliyuga in which people are more incited when ill is spoken about something. It is therefore, the need of the hour to have an in depth research on the magnificence of tantra, matra and yantra mentioned in Indian literature and how without realisation, dancers of classical arts are still practicing them in the subtlest manners, after all dance patterns are procreation of the tantric yantras and their physical forms.
“Natya as a reflection of life in general is the exposition of the paramatman residing in one’s physical form,” said the exponent explaining the process of immersing herself into an abhinaya. She says that if one descends into an abhinaya forgetting one’s whole being of existence, the choreography often ends up being more exhaustive than a pure dance one.
Padmaja said, “I have never felt how Sita felt betrayed, or how Hanuman chews the pearls to find Rama in them. But once a dancer is on stage, the terrible plight of Sita, the maddening bhakti of Hanuman and the righteousness of Rama invades the soul and that is when the ‘rasas’ flow out.”
Unless the divine is manifested in our subtle layers of existence, how else can one feel what they felt, is the unique view offered by her. “Entire ‘Natyashastra’, the science of theatrics, dance and music is all about the rasas or the emotions. And what are rasas other than the juices produced in our bodies while experiencing the natya!” Therefore, says the scholar, all these authors like Abhinavgupta, Bharata, Nandikeshwara had to be an amalgamation of dancers, alchemists, sorcerers, tantrics and rasikas, how else could these shastras precisely assimilate the colours, the sounds, the forms of such metaphysical subtleties?
Thus, Padmaja manages to convince the rapt listeners that the philosophies of Shaktism, Budhhism, Yogis, Shavites, Vaishnavites and many more agglutinate into one when coming to the question of natya. Moreover the manner, in which the precise sciences of tantra, matra and yantra intersperse to create the art of natya, is most stirring in nature, calling up for further researches and scholarly efforts to reinstate the glorious past of our culture.
