Sadhguru: Dance is an outpouring of human exuberance.
In India, all our Gods... all the Gods who are worshipped, are all dancing Gods.
Dance is a test of your balance in many ways – I'm not just saying physical balance,
your inner balance also is determined.
Michelle Reed: I am just very grateful to have the opportunity to ask you a question today.
My question for you Sadhguru, is – do you, in the Indian culture, have
a dance that is also considered a medicine dance? Or,
you know, do you guys consider dance to be something that
can have healing properties to it? So, thank you so much, and have a safe journey.
Sadhguru: Namaskaram Michelle. Wonderful to be talking to you – a dancer (Laughs).
I must tell you this – my daughter who is thirty now...
just turned thirty, she's a classical... Indian classical dancer.
It's a very intricate and sophisticated form of dance, which largely,
at one time, evolved in the temples of India as a form of worship,
as a form of offering. But today, it is also being done on stage.
So, are Indian dances in some way connected to our spirituality,
are Indian dances in some way healing, or
signify something more than just entertainment? One hundred percent!
Because all the dancers... the classical dancers in India do not treat dance
as an entertainment process; it is treated as a sacred duty and a sacred process.
Well, it's very different from what you have here, but very, very sophisticated
way of movements and offerings and very complex stories being depicted through the dance
So, I would like to send you some videos, so that you can acquaint yourself with that, or you
can look it up anyway on the net.
Having said that, I (Laughs) want you to know this – that in India,
all our Gods... all the Gods who are worshipped, are all dancing Gods.
If they cannot dance, we do not consider them Gods (Laughs). How's that for you (Laughs)?
Because dance is about the exuberance of your physical form. If your
life energies, if your body is in an exuberant way, it will naturally dance.
What kind of dance may be cultural, but essentially, dance is an outpouring
of human exuberance. Where there is no outpouring of life, how can you be...
how can such a entity qualify as God? So, all our Gods are dancing Gods.
So, it is very much deeply embedded in our culture.
But, when we say India, it is not like one thing. India is a vast country
it had over 19,000 languages at one time. Every few kilometers you drive,
you will see people look different, eat different, dress different,
their culture is different, their music and dance is different.
So, we... we're also struggling as to how to preserve all these things, because it's too
complex and too elaborate. But today, quite a few forms are very well,
you know, very much in practice, lot of youth taking to it. And it is on stage,
it is being attended by people, people even pay to watch these dances.
So, there is a whole revival of that in this generation.
It's very important to understand that, if
your body refuses to dance, it's not about whether you can dance or not;
it simply is a question of – do you have life energy spilling out of you or no?
Are you an overflow of life energies, or are you a depleted life?
So, bringing this dimension that we call as dance
into...at a very early age, can be very wonderful to bring balance
to children as they grow up. Because whatever talents,
whatever competences we have... competencies we have,
and whatever genius that is there in every human being can unfold
only if there is balance. And dance is a test of your balance in many ways
I'm not just saying physical balance, your inner balance also is determined.
When you're not balanced, you cannot dance.
So, this is very important for every culture.
It must be brought back. And it's great that you're bringing back
the Native American dances, and I just saw a small video of yours.
I wish we had met. Some time, you must come here to our center in Tennessee and perform.
It'll be wonderful to see you dancing (Laughs). I saw, with all those
heavy bells, it must be quite a effort to do that, but you're doing great.
Congratulations and my blessings to you. Let this culture live.