Report by Santanu Ganguly: Tibet House and Benot Behl, arranging the screening of Doordarshan’s “Celestial Dancers of Manipur” at Tibet House, 1 Institutional Area, Lodhi Road, New Delhi on Sunday, June 16, 2013 at 6:30 pm.
Manipuri dances are a unique and joyous form of worship, where the entire community comes together to express their devotion through dance. These dances are not performances but are an essential and integral part of religious practice.
In Indian philosophy, it has always been believed that the aesthetic experience, when one is transported and loses oneself in the beauty of nature or of art, is an experience akin to Brahmananda itself. It is in this moment that the ego, the preoccupation with the self, appears to fade away, and we truly feel that we are a part of the divinity of existence. It is in this manner that the Manipuri worshipper wishes to lose himself entirely through a complete absorption in his dance.
In Indian thought, the material world around us and our day-to-day concerns are considered to be “Maya” or “Mithya”, illusions. We perceive these illusions because of our limited sensibilities. The purpose of the philosophic path is for us to be able to see the truth beyond. To lose our egos and our concerns in the material world: to rise up in awareness, to see the beauty of all that there is around us, to see that all is divine and therefore divinely beautiful…to lose ourselves in adoration of that beauty… One of the greatest embodiments of this exquisite philosophical quest is the Raasa Lila of Manipur.
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| ‘Celestial Dancers of Manipur’ |
In Indian philosophy, it has always been believed that the aesthetic experience, when one is transported and loses oneself in the beauty of nature or of art, is an experience akin to Brahmananda itself. It is in this moment that the ego, the preoccupation with the self, appears to fade away, and we truly feel that we are a part of the divinity of existence. It is in this manner that the Manipuri worshipper wishes to lose himself entirely through a complete absorption in his dance.
In Indian thought, the material world around us and our day-to-day concerns are considered to be “Maya” or “Mithya”, illusions. We perceive these illusions because of our limited sensibilities. The purpose of the philosophic path is for us to be able to see the truth beyond. To lose our egos and our concerns in the material world: to rise up in awareness, to see the beauty of all that there is around us, to see that all is divine and therefore divinely beautiful…to lose ourselves in adoration of that beauty… One of the greatest embodiments of this exquisite philosophical quest is the Raasa Lila of Manipur.
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