divine dance

Osho says " 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 ways 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.

raas

Raas has a universal meaning; it has a cosmic connotation and significance. The meeting of opposite energies is the cornerstone of all creation, of the universe. Raas, the dance of celebration, is the most profound attribute of the mighty stream of creation"." 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 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.

sex

In reality Krishna does not dance as a mere Krishna, he represents here, 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. 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.

dance

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 himself through gestures. 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. 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. Man's collective unconscious is well aware of this language. 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.

today

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. the raas is as relevant today as it was in the times of Krishna More or less every primitive community is aware of the beauty and significance of the raas, of their own kind of raas. They work hard through the day, and at night both men and women gather together under the open sky and dance with abandon for hours and hours. While dancing, they forget their family relationships and mix freely with each other as men and women, and dance madly, as if all of life is meant for dancing and celebrating. They go to sleep only when they are utterly tired, and so they enter into a sleep so deep it may cause non supposedly civilised and non dancing societies envy ".