Bright with ashes besmeared
Shines his holy form-
Perceiving it, with your tears
Shedding in constant steams,
Dance, cobra, dance!
(“VenneeraninjuvilangumThirumeni
Kanneerozhukikandaadupaambe”):
Venneeraninju= spreading the holy ashes over the body.
VilangumThirumeni= brightening of the Divine form
Kanneerozhukikandu= the devotion on Lord that is reflected in flowing tears.
Explanation:
Lord Siva’s body that is applied with holy ashesalways shines. Human mind should be delighted experiencing this and should pour tears. The snake is referred to as devotee’s mind.
Lord Siva’s Divine dance occurs in graveyard. He performs the dance after applying holy ashes from the funeral pyre on his body.Holy ashes give an important message, since it is the residual material of everyone’s death. It implies how meaningless one’s ego towards the material life is.
Holy ashes also represent the status at which the three qualities Sathvagunam, Rajogunam and Thamogunam ceaseto exist. In the material life, every individual will have certain characteristics that can lead to meaningless ego. This attitude paves the way for superiority complex among the people, which is a violation to Dharma. “I am above him and others”, “I am more powerful than him” etc. are such common attitudes boasting their traits.
Everyone’s individual prosperity and dignity ends with the death and that is more visible in the graveyard. It therefore signifies the point at which, all such qualities and egoistic attitudes disappear with only residual ashes. At the same time, Lord Siva exists as quality-free entity performing Divine dance. At the climax of devotion, the tears coming from the devotees when he or she seeLord Siva’s Divine form, the devotee realizes that how small the individual’s existenceis. But when the devotee sees his or her self-existence in Lord Siva, then he would experience the ‘Sivamayam’(Siva in totality) in himself or herself. The tears are the resultant of such bliss. |