Nataraja's Servants

Gate Entrance, Chidambaram Temple, Maha Shivaratri 2012

In the heart of many a devout Shaivite, there is a dream that arises when one sees Lord Nataraja at the most holy Chidambaram Natarajar Temple. It beckons to let go of all else, to devote life to Him alone. There are a few men born with this opportunity. For them, Chidambaram is the center of Lord Shiva's universe. During the daily puja, they believe, a pulse is sent to the far reaches of Earth, the life current without which the cosmos would cease to exist.
  Chidambaram Temple's shakti is unique and magnificent with a divine presence felt so unusually realistic. And priests of this temple are a part of it. They are very close to me. We did not adjoin in any way until great Shivratri when we have entered with them into Shiva-leela. And I am grateful for this inexplicable feeling of affinity with them.
They bring a sense of timelessness to their work, their tradition and the management of the temple. Little or nothing has changed in their ways in the last centuries, even as much of their world has eroded away. They consider themselves to be the slaves, the keepers, the foremost devotees of Lord Nataraja.
A small video about a Temple and its priests from a Michel Wood's documentary "Darshan - An IndianJourney"(1989):
 
Many centuries ago when the maharajas ruled strong, their empires centered around temples rather than palaces, it was of 3,000 priests served at Chidambaram. These days, the dikshitars, reduced to little more than 300 struggle to perform their work and, in some cases, even to survive. How will their problems be solved, and how will their heritage survive, only Lord Nataraja may say. All is His dance, and though some of His steps are fierce, the diskhitars know well it is also an infinite dance of bliss.

OM NAMAH SHIVAYA