Ananda Marga Spiritual and Social Practices
Edited by Taraka ad Ac. Acyutananda Avadhuta

Kaosikii

Human beings are sometimes affected by various diseases; and frequently they are faced with various difficulties with respect to their saddhaná. These impediments may or may not be major. For instance, small diseases like liver trouble may cause problems from time to time, and to remove these types of hindrances, I invented the kaosikii [“the expansion of mind”I dance on the sixth of September 1978.
Kaoikii comes from the Sathskrta word kosa, meaning “sheath” or “cell” or “layer” of the mind. Kosa can also be translated “inner self”. Thus kaosikii is the dance that gives proper expression to the inner self. It is a psycho– spiritual dance designed by Bábá in 1978 particularly for women (though men should practice it also). It is as important as tándava.
The dance consists of a series of eighteen movements performed in rhythm to the chanted mantra Bábá náma kevalam. Along with each physical movement, there is a specific psychic ideation.
Kaoikii exercises all the glands and limbs from head to foot. It keeps the spine flexible. It promotes regular menstruation in women. It also eases childbirth. In women, it has twenty– two specific benefits, including the cure of kidney, gall– bladder and liver diseases — making it an indispensable practice for health and vitality. In women and perhaps in men, it increases longevity, keeping the body fit even until the age of eighty.
First the dancers do namaskára, then the dance begins. The dancers raise their arms straight overhead, in a vertical position, with hands folded, signifying, “Now I am trying to establish a link with Parama Purua.” Then the caller gives the opening command “Dancers ready,” and sets the dance in motion by chanting the words dhin, dhin, dhin, dhin, dhin, at which time the dancer’s body bends three times to the right and then two times back to the original upright position, while the dancer steps first with the right foot behind the left foot, then with the left foot behind the right foot, etc. (This is the same as the alternating step of lalita marmika, except that here the dancer steps on the ball of the foot that is placed behind, rather than on the toe. Dhin signifies that the dancer is stepping on the ball of the foot, not the toe or the heel.)
While bending right and left, “The bending of the body should be at a 45– degree angular projection” — that is, 45 degrees down from the vertical axis of the erect body.
While bending right, and then back up, the dancer ideates “I know the right way to request You.”
The above is then repeated, this time to the left, rather than the right. The dancer ideates “I know how to fulfill Your demands.”
Then one bends forward and touches the ground and straightens up (dhin, dhin, dhin), with an ideation of complete surrender.
Then one bends backward (dhin, dhin, dhin) and again straightens up, with the ideation “I am ready to face all troubles that may come.”
In the final two movements (accompanied by the caller saying tá, ta), one stomps first the right foot, then the left foot, on the ground. (Ta signifies that the dancer is stepping on the heel of the foot.) The ideation is “0 Lord, I repeat Your rhythm.”
After the first round, a rhythmic Bábá náma kevalam is substituted for the dhin ‘s and tá ‘s.
The upper part of the body is at all times, except when bending forward, kept straight from the waist to the fingertips, care being taken to keep the arms straight at the elbows (so that the arms almost touch the ears).
As clothing in a public performance, a woman should wear a chocolate– colored or maroon sari and a green blouse, and a man should wear green shorts and a chocolate– coloured or maroon shirt.
The last of the Sixteen Points is CSDK. “K” stands for “Kiirtana, Tá,idava and Kaosikii”.