Dakshinamurthy – Applied Indology

The word daks meaning, to be able or strong and Daksina means able, clever, straightforward, donation to the priest, to place anyone on the right side as a mark of respect, south and southern. Dakshinamurthy literally means ‘one who is facing south (dakṣiṇa)’ in Sanskrit. According to another school of thought ‘Dakshinya‘ means Karuna in Sanskrit or kindness (benevolence). So this manifestation of Shiva is a benevolent teacher who accords wisdom to seekers of salvation. Dakshinamurthy Upanishad belongs to the Krishna (black) Yajurveda. It is a Shaiva Upanishad, which glorifies Lord Shiva in his aspect as Dakshinamurthy, the world teacher.

In every Shiva temple the stone image of Dakshinamurthy is installed, facing south, on the southern circumambulatory path around the sanctum sanctorum. He sits under the auspicious vata vruksha facing the south direction to give knowledge. The Daksinamurti Upanisad, which is in a dialogue format between Savanaka Rishis and Markandeya, gives a clear imagery and salient features of Daksinamurthy.

Sri Dakshinamurthy guides the cyclical courses of srishti (creation), sthiti (preservation), samhara (amalgamation), tirobhava (suppress on) and anugraha (revealing true knowledge). As we know, Indian tradition and culture revere the teacher or Guru much like God. Sri Dakshinamurthy is also worshipped as the ultimate Guru who truly illuminates the world with cosmic knowledge that lights the soul.

Amongst all gods in the Santhana Dharma, Shiva is the only one sitting facing south. The great seer Ramana Maharshi said : one meaning of Dakshina is efficient; another meaning is ‘in the heart on the right side of the body’; Amurthy ’means Formlessness’ . “Dakshinamurthy Stotra” in Sanskrit, means the “Shapelessness situated on the right side”.

In spiritual traditions, Dakshinamurthy is perceived as the First Guru. The Yogis call him “Adi Yogi” and the Naths call him “Adi Nath”. The Sampradayas belonging to Veda, Tantra, and Agama, all trace their origin to Sri Dakshinamurthy. Iconographically, he is depicted in various forms like Yoga Dakshinamurthy– the teacher of Yoga and Tantra, Veena Dakshinamurthy– the teacher of all arts, and Vyakhyanamurthi– the teacher, who is the source of all scriptures, and imparts all knowledge.

Sanathana dharma teaches us that Brahman manifests as a human teacher to impart Knowledge. Thus, the tradition speaks about how Lord Brahma imparted Manu Smriti to Rishi Manu, how Lord Vishnu manifested as Veda Vyasa to divide and arrange the Vedas, and how Para-Brahman itself manifests as a young boy “Dakshinamurthy”.

“Matrudevo bhava, Pitrudevo bhava, Acharyadevo bhava” equating mother, father, and the teacher with Ishwara (Brahman) is a well-known and deeply ingrained wisdom in Hindu tradition. Dakshinamurthy is the depiction of Lord Shiva which illustrates Him as the supreme cosmic teacher (Adi Guru) and is a facet of the Lord as the guru who enlightens one with Jnana (knowledge) that elevates and enriches.

The Dakshinamurthy form of Lord Shiva upholds Him as the Supreme Teacher of yoga, knowledge, Natya and even music. This imagery of Dakshinamurthy is reflected in the ritual and art, thus, creating a a wide canvas of Indian art and culture. The rich treasures of knowledge in the Shastras become accessible when He appears as Dakshinamurthy. The first substantial historical record about Dakshinamurthy is in Suta Samhita of Skanda Puranam.

Dakshinamurthy is believed to teach through para vak, which is a divine speech form not audible to worldly ears and resides in the silence. Ordinary expressions are not needed to grasp the teachings of Dakshinamurthy who explains the true meaning of Brahman naturally. The concept of Dakshinamurthy mentioned in the Rig Veda was the transformation of Rudra into the giver of gifts. The Dakshinamurti Upanishad elaborates on the aspect of medha Dakshinamurti imparting knowledge to the Rishis and Sadhus.

The story of Apasmara is varied in the various puranas.

The story that intertwines closely with Nataraja is the Skanda Purana. In the Skanda Purana, the Rishis of the Deodar Forest perform rituals and start to think of themselves as gods. To humble these arrogant Rishis, Shiva takes the form of Bhikshadana, an attractive young beggar and Vishnu becomes Mohini, his wife. While the Rishis fall for Mohini, the women wildly chase Shiva.

A group of Rishis were engaged in dark rituals like black magic because they believed that God can be controlled by magic wands, rituals and mantras. Thus, they have became harmful for mankind and were troubling everybody. The Charm and beauty of Bikshadana also caused the wives of the Rishis to follow Bikshadana. This became a problem for these Rishis and they started to use their magical powers on Bikshadana to no avail. Because Lord Shiva in the of Bikshadana cannot be controlled by these things.

The Rishis intensified their attack on Bikshadana and released dreadful serpents on the Lord Shiva. He wore them as ornaments. They also sent fierce tiger with magical powers.

Lord Shiva tore the skin of the beast with ease and used it as his loincloth / Anga vastra. An elephant later came out of the Yagna Kunda and charged the Bikshadana, but was ripped to death by him. Then the Rishis became highly concerned of the developments and submitted all their powers and gave birth to a Asura named Apasmara.

Apasmara is a figure who represents both ignorance and epilepsy. He is a demon dwarf who is also called Muyalaka or Muyalakan. He has a Asura’s face, but the body of an infant. He has coarse features. Limbs are short. Fingers shorter with the feeling that he cannot make a fist. The eyes are large popping and the general impression is one of a dwarf of limited intelligence. But Lord Shiva effortlessly stepped on the Asura’s back and dances on the dwarf and takes the form of Nataraja, the Cosmic Dancer.

This dance is known as Tandava or the ecstatic dance of Lord Shiva. The realisation dawned on the Rishis. The divine vision removed their arrogance and made them understand that it was none else then Lord Shiva and they had been resorting to bad ways so far.
Shiva then The same legend is retold in the Tamil Kovil Puranam and Kandha Puranam with some differences. This legend is also told in the Sthala Purana related to the Chidambaram Temple. The ceiling of the Shivakamasundari shrine in the Nataraja temple complex illustrates this legend in a series of frescos.

Apasmara reveals our exaggerations, ignorance and makes our movements as jerky as epilepsy. Nataraja, will make our movements as graceful as that of a dancer. Our ignornace will go unnoticed. We can prolong this for as long as we want because Nataraja would be dancing on Apasmara forever, or as long as we want. Thus, Nataraja dancing on Apasmara symbolises suppression of our ignorance and jerky movements whenever we exaggerate our power with Shiva to achieve more.

In order to preserve knowledge in the world, Apasmara could not be killed; to do so would throw out the balance of knowledge and ignorance, as to kill Apasmara would mean attaining knowledge without effort, dedication and hard work. Consequently, this would lead to the devaluing of knowledge in all forms. As Apasmara is one of the few demons destined to immortality, it is believed that Lord Shiva forever remains in his Nataraja form suppressing Apasmara for all eternity. In order to subdue Apasmara, lord Shiva adopted the form of Nataraja, the Lord of Dance and performed the cosmic dance of Tandava. During this dance, Nataraja is the source of all movement within the cosmos, represented by the arch of flames suppressed Apasmara by crushing him with his right foot.

By keeping a firm foot on Apasmara the dwarf demon, Nataraja / Dakshinamurthy protects humankind from at least two layers of ignorance. The two forms of ignorance are:

• The illusion that we are separate from divinity.
• The illusion that the trials of daily life are all that matter.

The purpose of the dance is to release men from illusion of the idea of the “self” and of the physical world. The gestures of the dance represent Shiva’s five activities, creation (symbolised by the drum), protection (by the “fear not” hand gesture), destruction (by the fire), embodiment (by the foot planted on the ground), and release (by the foot held aloft).

That little dwarf represents the ignorant, deluded being, Jiva, who is subject to the triple impurities of littleness (anava), desires and attachments (pasa), and delusion (moha) caused by ignorance. The purpose of Shiva’s dance is to facilitate the order and regularity of the world, and the liberation of souls through an intense transformative process under his twin feet of births and deaths, and duality.

When your ego is silent and subdued, you enter the state of Shiva and cease being a little dwarf. With the vision and wisdom of an awakened seer (siddha), you let life happen, without the desire or the compulsion to control it, manage it or manipulate it. You embrace all your perceptions and experiences without choice, preference, or prejudice. Just as God embraces everything that he projects outwardly with sameness and pervades it as its very essence, you pervade your whole awareness and become the totality of your experience.

Apart from Dakshinamurthy manifesting as a young teacher teaching the Rishis, the traditional accounts are filled with how he also takes human birth from time to time to spread Knowledge. Thus, the Advaita tradition considers that it was Dakshinamurthy, who took Amsha avatara as Adi Shankaracharya in order to revive and re establish Dharma. Similarly, the Nath tradition traces its origins to Lord Shiva, who is called as Adi Natha, from whom Matsyendranatha received Yogic teachings.

Silence of The Dakshinamurthy

Sanaka, Sananda, Sanathana and Sanatkumara, also called as ‘Kumaras’, were born from the mind of Lord Brahma. When Brahma ordered them to procreate, they rejected the orders of Brahma. They were very dispassionate and not interested in material things. They began to think about the reason for existence of something called “Creation”, and also the reason for their very own existence. Several questions sprang from their minds but there was none competent enough to answer their questions. They wandered for about one hundred years. The young Kumaras began to look old with grey hair as their quest for Truth intensified during the period.

The almighty and all merciful Lord Shiva who is the in dweller of all beings decided to enlighten four Kumaras. He himself appeared as a sixteen year old youth under the Banyan tree. When the four elderly Sanakadi rishis first beheld the sixteen-year-old Dakshinamurthy sitting under the banyan tree, they were at once attracted by Him, and understood that He was the real Guru.

They approached Him, did three pradakshinas (circumambulation) around Him, prostrated before Him, sat at His Feet and began to ask shrewd and pertinent questions about the nature of reality and the means of attaining it. Because of the great compassion and fatherly love (vatsalya) which He felt for His aged disciples, the young Dakshinamurthy was overjoyed to see their earnestness, wisdom and maturity, and gave apt replies to each of their questions. But as He answered each consecutive question, further doubts arose in their minds and they asked further questions. Thus they continued to question Dakshinamurthy for a whole year, and He continued to clear their doubts through His compassionate answers. Finally, however, Dakshinamurthy understood that if He continued answering their questions, more doubts would arise in their minds and their ignorance (ajnana)would never end.

Therefore, suppressing even the feeling of compassion and fatherly love which was welling up within Him,He merged Himself into the Supreme Silence. Because of their great maturity (which had ripened to perfection through their year-long association with the Sadguru), as soon as Sri Dakshinamurti assumed Silence, they too automatically merged into Supreme Silence, the true state of the Self.”

By the grace of Lord Dakshinamurthy, the indweller of all, Kumaras have become free from all kinds of doubts. They have become Jnanis(enlightened). They realised that they are ‘Atman’ (‘Self’) alone. Having realized Atman(Shiva) the Kumaras freed themselves from all fetters. They said :

Om nama pranavarthaya,
Suddha jnanaika moorthaye nama,
Nirmalaya prasanthaya,
Sri Dakshinamurthaye nama.

Gurave sara lokaanam,
Bishaje bhava roginaam,
Nidhaye sarva vidhyanam,
Sri Dakshinamurthaye nama.

“Salutations to that Dakshinamurthy, Who is the meaning of the pranava, “om”, Who is the personification of unalloyed wisdom(Jnana), Who is always Pure And who is the epitome of peace. Salutations to that Dakshinamurthy, Who is the teacher of the entire world, Who is the doctor to those afflicted by the disease of birth and death, And who is the treasure house of all knowledge.”

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About Author:
Subhasini BA, is a Screenplay writer, Director, creative director, costume designer and producer, whose work has featured in some of the most prestigious film festivals in the country and internationally. She has collaborated on several film projects juggling different roles. 

In beginning of her career, she worked as Associate director and Costume Designer with the acclaimed director Girish Kasaravalli. She’s written and directed a documentary film on the famed Krishna Temple in Udupi, and also written plays, screenplays for films and short form content for some of the leading technology companies in India, including Microsoft, Akamai Technologies, LAM Research, and SAP. 

With Knowledge in Sanskrit, Subhasini is a seeker of the Eternal Truth / Santana Dharma, writes on dharma. She is passionate about History, Mythology, Philosophy and Spirituality. She believes Dharma is the manifestation of the natural strength of every living soul.
She lives in Cincinnati.

Image Courtesy: The Kandha Puranam

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