Identify the legend: How Shiva tricked the human soul to jump into a body.

April 10, 2008 4:13 PM

I am trying to identify/verify the existence of a legend told to me by a friend. Goes something like this:

Human soul, free of body for some reason.

Shiva to soul: Go back into body!

Human soul: No way, I am not going back to this trap of suffering and pain and ignorance! I want to be freeeeeee!

Shiva: Go!

Soul: No!

Shiva starts playing flute.

Soul wants to dance but has no body!

Soul: Damn it!, Jumps into the body so it can dance.

Shiva: Who's your daddy now, bizatchi!

Soul in body, dancing: Ai ai ai ai ai!

The End.

Identify legend, please! Could be another god, we all know Indians have lots of them!

posted by andreinla to religion & philosophy (3 answers total)

I'm not sure that it's a specific legend. It sounds more like a general paradigm for many Hindu myths, a metaphor for the "existence as suffering" / "body as perpetually flawed container for the soul" idea.
posted by Rykey at 5:21 PM on April 10, 2008

Seconding Rykey. Shiva is associated with dancing in general, but he's usually the one doing it.

we all know Indians have lots of them!

You probably mean Hindus have lots of them.
posted by shazzam at 5:30 PM on April 10, 2008

Nataraj. He is Shiva's dancing emanation. His four hands and the things he is holding as well as the placement of his legs and feet symbolise various Shiva characteristics. His dance is rendition of the five principle manifestations of eternal energy — creation, destruction, preservation, salvation, and illusion.

From About.com:Hinduism "Fritjof Capra in The Tao of Physics beautifully relates Nataraj's dance with modern physics. He says that "every subatomic particle not only performs an energy dance, but also is an energy dance; a pulsating process of creation and destruction…without end…For the modern physicists, then Shiva's dance is the dance of subatomic matter. As in Hindu mythology, it is a continual dance of creation and destruction involving the whole cosmos; the basis of all existence and of all natural phenomena."

(Hmm, is this like a place where religion, science and poetry could meet...?)

Andreinla, it sounds as though the tale you heard could be derived from more complex Hindu mythologies and text, simplified say for children.
posted by Kerasia at 10:27 PM on April 10, 2008