To understand raasleela, the dance of celebration, what is first
necessary to know is that the whole of life is a meeting of
contradictory forces, and that all its happiness comes from this union
of the opposites. The very mystery and ecstasy of life lies hidden in
this unio mystica.
To begin with, it is good to understand the metaphysical meaning of
the celebration that our universe is. And then, together, we will go
into the life of Krishna, a complete miniature of this celebrating
universe. Raise your sights and look at whatever is happening all
around in this vast universe of ours.Is it anything other than a
dance, a celebration, an abounding carnival of joy?
It is all celebration, whether it is clouds gliding in the heavens or
rivers rushing to the seas or seeds on their way to becoming flowers
and fruit, or bees humming or birds on the wing or love affairs
between men and women. It is all a panorama of play and dance and
celebration. Raas has a universal meaning; it has a cosmic connotation
and significance.
Firstly, the meeting of opposite energies is the cornerstone of all
creation, of the universe. the whole play of creation, at every level
of life, begins when energy becomes divided into two opposite parts.
This division of energy is at the root of all creation, of all life in
the universe, and with the cessation of this division all life's play
comes to a full stop. When the same energy becomes one, when it
returns to its primordial state, total destruction, the ending of the
universe happens. And when the same energy again divides itself into
two, creation begins anew. Raas, the dance of celebration, is the most
profound attribute of the mighty stream of creation. And creation in
itself is the interplay of polar opposites -- thesis and antithesis.
When opposites collide with each other it results in conflict,
hostility and war, and when they embrace each other there is love and
friendship.
Without the meeting of the two, creation is impossible. So we have
to go into the significance of Krishna's raas in this context. It is
not all that we see when Krishna dances with the gopis, the milkmaids,
but we can see only that much with our gross eyes. Krishna's raas with
the milkmaids of his village is not an ordinary dance, on a small
scale it
really represents the universal dance of creation that, since
eternity, goes on and on. It epitomises the everlasting drama of the
making and unmaking of the universe. It gives you a glimpse of that
divine dance and universe. It gives you a glimpse of that divine dance
and that immense orchestra. It is for this reason that Krishna's
maharaas ceases to have a sexual connotation. Not that it prohibits
any sexual interpretation, but for certain sex has been left far
behind. In reality Krishna does not dance as a mere Krishna, he
represents her, the whole of the male element in creation, known in
Sanskrit as purusha. And similarly the gopis represent the entire
female element, prakriti. The maharaas represents the combined dance
of prakriti and purusha. People who take the maharaas as a sexual
representation of life are mistaken; they really don't understand it.
And I am afraid they will never understand it. To put it rightly, it
is a dance of the meeting of the male and female energies, of purusha
and prakriti. It has nothing to do with any individual
man and woman; it represents the mighty cosmic dance. It is because
of this that a single Krishna dances with any number of gopis.
Ordinarily it is not possible for a single man to dance with many
women at a time.
Ordinarily no man can be in love with many women together, but
Krishna does it, and does it beautifully. It is amazing that every
milkmaid, every gopi taking part in the maharaas, believes that
Krishna is dancing with her, that he is hers. It seems Krishna has
turned into a thousand Krishnas so that he pairs off with each of the
thousand women present there. It is utterly wrong to take the
maharaas, the celebration dance of Krishna, as that of an individual person. Krishna is not a person here; he represents the great male energy,Purusha.
The maharaas is a representation in dance of the great meeting between
male and female energies. But the question is: Why is only dance
chosen as a medium for this representation? As I said this morning,
the medium of dance comes nearest to the mysterious, to the non-dual,
and to celebration. Nothing can express it better than dance. Let us
look at it in another way. Dance is the most primitive form of human
language, because when man had not yet learned to speak, he spoke
through gestures. If one man had to communicate with another, he made
gestures with his face, his eyes, his hands and feet. Even today a
dumb person only expresses self through gestures. Verbal language came
much later. Birds don't know a language, but they know how to chirp
and dance together. Gestures make up the whole language of nature. It
is used and understood all over. So there is a reason why dance came
to centre stage for the raas, the celebration. Gesture is the most
profound medium of expression because it touches the deepest parts of
man's mind and heart. Dance reaches where words fail. The sound of the
ankle bells of a dancer says a lot even where speech is ineffective.
Dance is more articulate than anything else. A dancer can go from one
end of the earth to another and will, more or less, make himself
understood through his dance. No language will be needed to understand
and appreciate him. No particular level of civilisation and culture
will be required to understand a dance. Dance is a kind of universal
language; it is understood everywhere on this planet. Wherever a
dancer goes he will be understood. Man's collective unconscious is
well aware of this language.
To me, the great raas happening in infinite space, with millions of
stars like the sun and moon dancing rhythmically, is not an ordinary
dance. It is not meant for entertainment; it is not show business. In
a sense it should be described as overflowing bliss. There is such an
abundance of bliss in the heart of existence that it is flowing,
overflowing. That is what we call the river of existence. The presence
of the polar opposites in the universe facilitates its flow.
Although Krishna and his girlfriends are no more with us as people,
the moon and the stars under which they danced together are still with
us, and so are the trees and the hills and the earth and the skies
that were once so drunk with the bliss of the raas. So, although
millennia have passed, the vibes of the maharaas are still with us. No
scientists have come forward with a strange Theory. They say although
people come and go, the subtle vibes of their lives and their living
remain suffused in existence forever. If someone goes to dance on the
grounds where Krishna once danced with his gopis, he can hear the
echoes of the maharaas even today. If someone can play a flute near
the hills that in the past echoed with the music of Krishna's flute,
he can hear those hills still echoing it,everlastingly. In my view,
the raas symbolises the overflowing, outpouring of the primeval energy
as it is divided between man and woman. And if we accept this
definition, the raas is as relevant today as it was in the times of
Krishna. Then it is everlastingly relevant ~ OSHO
