Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Am I religious?

I performed for a small private gathering in Jaipur in the beginning of this month. A lovely vibrant Iranian lady with a lovelier English accent (I told her so, and also that my most favorite accent was that
of Penelope Cruz) asked me after the performance, "How religious are you?” This was in the context of her experience when she saw me perform Sridevi that evening, a choreography masterpiece of Surupa Sen
that Mavin Khoo wanted to learn the instant he witnessed it.

Simple questions like this stump me at best of times. I made up an answer that was convincing to my ears, yet as a serious practitioner of Indian Classical Dance, which for the rest of the world is religious, I had never thought of the significance of my religious inclination in the context of my dance. My response was "In fact I am not religious at all. But I am given to my dance completely. Therefore, I love and BELIEVE everything it stands for and portrays. This dance is steeped in religion, it tells tales of Gods and Goddesses, and even flirtation, sensuality, and erotica in this dance is textured with divinity and spirituality."  In retrospect I find my answer to be completely true.

I AM NOT RELIGIOUS AT ALL. I do have an altar in my room at Nrityagram and one at home. The one at home is maintained by my maid who is supposedly untouchable (my mother has a grave problem with it). I love the way she arranges flowers of different colours in the altar around the Buddha and Ganesha sculptures. I have these two deities because they happened to be given to me as gifts. I have no time for them because I spend almost no time at home. I have a Kaali (I have it because it was a gift to Surupa who is frightened of its eyes), a Buddha and Saraswati (a great street vendor was successful in selling
them to me in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka) and a Ganesh (a gift from the original sponsors of Odissi Gurukul at Nrityagram - Raymonds) in my Nrityagram altar. I simply love the ritual of decoration with flowers
and the fragrance around it. I light an agarbatti whenever I feel the room could do with a little fragrance and the lady who cleans my room arranges three flowers everyday as instructed by me. I chant mantras
like "Sahanaa Vavatu...", "Purnamadah...", Om Bhur Bhuvah...", " Om Namah, Omkaara Rupaaya..." after I finish my daily routine of fitness exercises, and I try to concentrate on the meaning of these powerful
words while allowing my body to relax. I chant, "Angikam Bhuvnam...", " Saraswati Namastubhym..." before I begin my first class of Odissi and try to be true to the meaning. My focus becomes stronger and more concentrated when after the chanting I offer my salutation to the Mother Earth and the sacred space of my dance hall through the dance ritual called "Bhumipranam". Anyone who understands Sanskrit will know that these chants, though of Hindu belief, are more symbolic than religious.

However, when I start dancing to words from The Puranas or classic texts, there is no doubt in my mind about why so much devotion? Or am I a believer of Vishnu, Shiva or Shakti? Or whether I identify with
Radha's devotion for Krishna? Why Krishna, the biggest Casanova, who has just made Radha wait for him a whole night while having a good time with the other woman, must be treated with a different shade of
anger that is governed by yearning and longing of the "Atma"(soul) for "Paramatma" (Infinite). In fact my struggle is to immerse in the truth of it, believe it completely and own it as if it is mine. I work at it until I feel the sensation of that belief under my skin and sometimes while performing, my ownership of that belief becomes so strong that it makes my hair stand. It is a trance like state and it is true as death in that moment.

Dance is an awesome medium, which has opened channels of realisation for me about myself and the universe. I experience a lot that I am unable to express in words. Simply reading the same would have taken a long time for them to seep into my consciousness as they have through dance. Dance makes it possible for me to absorb through layers of physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual simultaneously. And therefore, the experience stays with me forever.

While performing a composition like Sridevi, Shivaashakam, or Ardhanaariswara, the choreography (I have only Surupa Sen's brilliant choreography as reference) requires me to portray the deities in question as experienced by a devotee and at times as the deity Himself or Herself. Unimaginably everlasting and blissfully suspended is the experience of the magnificence of divinity however slight and momentary...

And yet at the end of the day I believe that I am not at all religious.

5 comments:

  1. it's really nice to be able to read about your perspective as a dancer - when i met you and your group here in richmond i really wanted to ask you questions about your experience.. i look forward to reading more of your essays. ive posted a link to your blog on my own page. thanks for the light and inspiration you share.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bijoyini, it was really nice to read about your insight. i too think in the same way. In fact, i was pondering about this for a long time when i discivered that i am not religious but a spiritual seeker. i did a solo dance production on my experience of this kind of transformation as a dancer in 1999 called 'Punaraavritta'. thanks for sharing your experiences ....parwati dutta

    ReplyDelete
  3. When one is immersed in the work they do, so much so that, they don't even have A single thought about the self and the only thing that exists in the world is the work they are doing, then that itself is the real worship. The death of ' I ' is the origin of bliss. All the religions and mantras etc are means to the above experience. Hence, this makes you utterly religious and your god is DANCE :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. it's really wonderful to read about your perspective and about your experience.i look forward to read more.Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  5. After having seen the breathtaking performances, Ms. Satpathy, it is a pleasure to discover your blog and learn more about your journey!

    ReplyDelete