The Story of Natarajasana | How Dancer’s Pose Got Its Name

KING DANCER’S POSE (NATARAJASANA) | Shiva as the King Dancer

 

Shiva as Nataraja, for whom natarajasana (dancer’s pose) is named, is a form of the god Shiva as the cosmic dancer, who dances through the cycles of life, death, and re-birth.

 

 

There are many deities in Hinduism, but three important ones make up the “Hindu trinity” called the “trimurti”: Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the preserver), and Shiva (the destroyer).

 

When you see images of Shiva, you’ll know it’s him because he has dreadlocks piled high on his head (called “jata”) typically with a crescent moon as adornment, with a stream of water representing the River Gangga flowing from it. He wears animal skins (usually tiger) and has a cobra around his neck or waist to show he’s overcome death, and he typically carries a trident, to destroy the three worlds (lokas). Oh, and he’s usually blue, a sign of his divinity.

 

 

This idea of “destruction” might make him sound like a bad guy, but instead, it’s an equanimous part of our nature. For one, think of all the bad things that we need to destroy in our lives: hatred, fear, self-doubt, judgment, etc. We can call upon the energy of Shiva to help us in this destruction. But even more so, just as natural as birth and death, beginnings and endings are a fact of life–and Shiva finds the joy in the cycles, dancing through them in what’s called the “dance of bliss” (ananda tandava).

 

You may have seen a statue like one of these at the front of some of your yoga studios:

 

 

 

That’s Shiva Nataraja, doing his dance of bliss. Shiva is considered the original yogi, the one who is said to have brought the practice of yoga to the world, so he’s a good choice in a yoga studio 🙂 The circle of fire around him represents the cycle of life, death, and re-birth (called samsara). He dances joyfully through it, unaffected by the endings and new beginnings, just as we can learn to do. In this depiction, he’s often dancing upon a small person, who represents ignorance and specifically the ignorance that causes our fear of death–this person is a metaphor for how “small” we make ourselves when we fail to recognize our divine and eternal nature.

 

One of my favorite teachers, Ram Dass, used Shiva as an example like this in “Be Here Now”:
“Singing and dancing and insurance, and savings accounts and jobs and responsibility…..

 

 

We get to choose. Will we bear the mundane struggles of life like a heavy burden, or treat them as just another joyful step in the dance?

 

So, when you take the physical shape called natarajasana or king dancer’s pose in yoga, you are embodying Shiva’s dance, this concept of joy through the cycles of endings and beginnings. Physically, it’s a pose that opens the heart, as well as the hip flexors of the raised leg, allowing us to emotionally open to those inevitable changes, while undoing stuck patterns (like sitting hunched over our computers, etc.) As a standing balance pose, it also takes courage–a very small way in which we show that we’ve overcome fear (the root of all fear being the fear of death). In this way, we embody Shiva’s dance of bliss whenever we take this pose.

 

 

If that resonates with you, you might use a Shiva mantra in your meditations, repeating the words (either through song, on japa mala beads, or just mentally as your point of focus in meditation):

 

Om Namah Shivaya

 

“Namah” comes from the same root word as “namaste,” but is a more formal/devotional form of the word, so this mantra simply means “Om (the sound of connection with the universe), I bow to Shiva.”

 

Here are some modern versions on Spotify that are really fun 🙂

Om Namah Shivaya – Deva Premal
Om Namah Shivaya – Jonah Kest
Angel’s Prayer – Ty Burhoe (longer version, mantra words here)

 

If you want to learn more, check out our Gods of Yoga philosophy course and spiritual immersion in Bali.

 

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Note: I don’t know anyone who thinks you need to fully convert to Hinduism to practice yoga, so please don’t feel that you are somehow dishonoring whatever your own faith, religion, or belief system is by taking the shape of the Hindu gods in asana. Rather, learning these stories and/or chanting these mantras provides a deeper cultural, historical, and (if you so choose) spiritual connection to the practice. Depending on your beliefs, it’s your choice how you choose to see the gods–as representations of our OWN divinity, as simple metaphors for various aspects of the human experience, or as similar to Catholic saints or angels, messengers and way-showers of the ultimate divine (God, Ishvara, Science, Nature, Universe etc.) In any way, knowing the stories can help connect mind, body, and spirit, while honoring the tradition from which the practice came.

 

Love all, serve all,

Megan