Through choreography, Nalini, of Nalini-Kamalini duo, brought out the intricate relationships between a yogi and a dancer and explained how yoga is the art of uniting the soul with the Supreme. By UK Banerjee
Patanjali, the father-figure of yoga — who is surmised to have lived five thousand years ago — was very analytically minded. This is proved by not merely his seminal work on Yoga Sutras, which is a compendium of both spiritual and physical aspects of yoga, but also from his objective forays into ayurveda medicine and Sanskrit grammar. later with passage of time, yoga began to be viewed from two independent angles — as an esoteric form for attainment of self-realisation and as an amalgam of pure psycho-somatic exercises. While this bifurcation is frowned upon by many from the cognoscente, not all yoga-gurus mind this separation. Take, for instance, Swami Nityabodhananda who was an Australian chemical engineer and who, after a successful material life, took to the ascetic order. He is of the view that no harm is done by isolating the spiritual yoga meant for the believer and by leaving the psycho-somatic yoga to others — regardless of their affiliation to any faith.
Yog Parv: Festival of Yogain the context of performing and visual arts, did seem to steer clear of this bifurcation. The evening speaker Sandhya Purecha had trained in Bharatanatyam under Acharya Kumar and video-recorded all the 108karanas according to Abhinaya Darpana by Abhinava Gupta. She had researched in angik abhinaya (physical expressions) from Kavikulaguru Kalidas University. Purecha made a brilliant summation of the first four chapters of Bharata’s Natya Shastra, stanza by stanza, placing their meanings and nuances alongside its ace commentary, Abhinaya Darpana. According to her, Bharata’s natyakalpa (dramatic imagery), used in dance and drama both, is only a saakar (concrete) form of the path leading to the yogic chittavritti-nirodha (stilling and silencing of mind).
The other speaker of the evening was Nalini of the famed Nalini-Kamalini Kathak-duo. In a choreographed presentation on yoga, she (and her disciple) depicted Kathak-dance movements. In order to justify the basic message and outcome of yoga practice, her dance-presentation showed vividly the symmetry, balance and breathing technique maintained in dance, and how classical dancing was dynamic yoga. She pointed out, “Its outcomes regarding personality development, physical fitness and healing through dancemudras, hand gestures and movements have been acknowledged.”
In a concurrent presentation, Nalini elaborated, “During my tutelage under Jitender Maharaj, I came to discover that there is a common feature among a yogi and a dancer. Knowingly or unknowingly, they all practice yoga in the daily life. During their sadhana (practice), they improve the elements of achar (action), vichar (judgemment), ahar (food-habit) andvyavahar (behaviour). The statue of lord Nataraj is a yogic posture, too, depicting the similarity between dance and yoga. Continuous practice of these mudras benefits human body freeing it from disease leading to a healthy life.”
“Yoga is the art of uniting the individual soul with the supreme, of uniting the bodily nerve-centres like kundalini shakti lying dormant in the muladhara chakra with Shiva in the Sahasra chakra. All practices that help in the attainment of this goal of self-realisation are part of yoga. As dancers, we practice both sharirik (physical) and ahyatmik (spiritual) yoga, and enjoy positive results. In consequence, we generally avoid ageing and remain active and energetic,” she concluded.