Ganesha Chaturthi 2013

Hari Sarvothama Vayu Jivothama
Sri Ganapathy antharkatha Sri Vishwambara murthiyae Namaha!
Sri Sri Raghavendra Gurubyo Namaha

Namaskara Readers,
                                                     It is my bhagya to write an article on Sri Ganapathi on his auspicious day i.e, “Ganesha Chaturthi” which is celebrated throughout Bharatha desha on 9-9-2013(Monday). It is on this day Sri Ganapathi took birth in order to save sajjanas. This article has been written based on my limited knowledge and I sincerely pray Lord to correct the mistakes(if any). 
About Sri Ganapathi:
                                                      Sri Ganapathi is Akashadhipati, Abhimani for Akasha, he is the  Son of Rudra devaru & a great grandson of Lord Sri Hari. He is a Brahmachari. He comes in 18th position as per Taratamya concept of Jagadguru Sri Madhvacharya,along with vishwaksena, ashvini devatas,kubera&seShsa shatasthas. While doing archana we praise him as “Shipra prasadhaya Namaha!” Meaning, he is the one who bless us immediately if prayed with sincere devotion. This is a very important ability and capacity of him. He does the upAsana of vishvaMbhara ParamAtma – having 19 faces and the central face is the Elephant face. He is thus called Gajamukha. As per Gayathri mantra of him starting ‘Vakrathunda Mahakaya..’  here  thunda means face and vakra means one who gives speech to talk about Lord Sri Harih. He has another name called ‘Vignaraja’ means one who removes obstacles and gives way to enrich kundalini power.

Remembrance of two great Haridasas:

• ‘siddhidaayakane vaMdipe’ :

                                                          We have to do smaranae of this great holiness who is known to the entire jagath. The one who protected and did sthapane of Dvaita philosophy. The one who did pooja of Tirumala Venkateswara Swamy for 12 years continuously and left the peeta for King’s parampare to continue. The one who learnt patta from great saint Sri Sripadaraja. The one who did installation of 732 temples of Sri Hanumantha. His holiness did not just install the temple but also installed the philosophy(Harih sarvothama Vayu Jivothama) strongly in the hearts of Satvik jeevas. The one who had many great saints as his shishyas, some of them are, Sri Sri Vadiraja Tirtha, Sri Sri Vijayindra Tirtha, Sri Purandara Dasa, Sri Kanaka Dasa etc.  Ruled Vijayanagara kingdom when Sri Krishanadevaraya got khu-yoga. He was honored by various rulers of the world’s nations,including Delhi Sultanate,Adhil Shah. He was a inspiration for Vaishnava sampradaya bhakthas like Namadeva,Mirabhai,Thukaram etc. His holiness is like great Gem to Dvaita philosophy none other than “Sri Vyasa Tirtha”.
Sri Vyasa Tirtha had composed many granthas, stotras, dasarapadhas and did stapane of Dvaita philosophy. His holiness has composed many songs on Sri Ganapathi and among them is the one which starts with ‘gajamukhane siddhidaayakane vaMdipe sharaNu’. His holiness praises Sri Ganapathi as the Elephant God who gives Siddhi(Success,Perfection) to his devotees and finishes saying “madhvavallabha sirikRuShNagati priya”. Tatparya Sri Ganapathi likes to be humble deovtee of Lord Sri Krishna(Vedavyasa). Click here to know about Sri Sri Vyasa Tirtha.

• ‘sharaNu vidya pradaayaka’:

                                                              Sangeetha pithamaha dasashresta Sri Purandara dasaru has to be thought each and every second in our life due to his contribution to the Dvaita philosophy(Sakshad Narada amsharu), he has composed about 4,75,000 dasarapadhagalu in his life. Let us atleast do smarane of him in this article for a second and get his blessings. He has composed many songs on Sri Ganapathy. In one of his songs, he praises Sri Ganapathy as ‘sharaNu vidya pradaayaka’ meaning, one who gives Vidhya(Knowledge) to all his devotees. Our humble dasaru thus ends saying ‘pakshi vaahana siri purandara viThalana nija daasane’ meaning Sri Ganapathy is the nija bhaktha of Sri Purandara Vitthala. Sri Vyasarajaru had great regards for the works of Dasaru and also kept His works in high pedestal and did puja for many years. Please note Sri Purandara dasa(Naradharu) was guru of Sri Vyasa Tirtha (Prahaladha) and in this yuga due to Lords eccha it happened that Sri Vyasa tirtha has become guru of Sri Purandaradasa. Click here to know about Sri Purandaradasaru in detail.

Ganapathi – devotee of Lord Sri Vedavyasa:
Jagannatha dasa says, “Oh Ganapathi, I pray to you everyday to enable me carry out my functions without obstructions by energizing my manas. Please protect the sajjana-s in this way. You are the one who has the karuNa of vEdavyAsa dEvaru.”  We have to understand here a great rahashya behind this saying from Dasaru. Why Jagannatha Dasaru says Ganapathi has the blessings of Sri Vedavyasaru? Lord Sri Vedavyasaru chose Sri Ganapathi to write the entire Mahabharatha. Lord narrated all the incidents and made Ganapathi to write the maha bhashya Mahabharatha because Sri Ganapathi had the power of remembering capacity.

It is not easy to remember lakhs of sloka [from the mouth of Vedavyasaru] and to write the same accordingly without a stop. Sri Ganapathi did this great work by the blessings of Lord Sri Vedavyasa(Sriman Naraayana). Thus our humble dasaru has told the same in his master piece called Sri Harikathamruthasara which is also called Kannadha Sudha, under Chapter-28 named as “vighnEshvarastOtra saMdhi”.

Please navigate here to learn about this in detail.
The point to note here is that  Sri Jagannatha Dasaru has composed total of 21 stanzas of  vighnEshvarastOtra  saMdhi because Sri Ganapathi comes in the 21st kaksha(i.,e Akasha) and hence he has indirectly composed with this total number.

This shows the wealth of knowledge that our dasaru had with the blessings of Lord.

Why we pray Ganapathi as Ganapathi antharkatha Sri Vishwambara murthy?
Ganapathi does the upAsana of vishvaMbhara ParamAtma – having 19 faces and the central face is the Elephant face. Ganapati is the pratibiMba of vishva nAmaka ParamAtma. He is thus called gajamukha. Vishwa means the external world and bara means one who gives us knowledge, hence the name. If Ganapathi is prayed sincerely then we will automatically fetch the blessings of Vayu antharkatha Lord Sri Vedavyasa.

Why Elephant face for Sri Ganapathy? 
Sri Ganapathi is called by name called Gajamukha because he has face of Elephant. There are several reasons but important are

• Ganapathi does upasana of Vishwambara Murthy(Sriman Narayana) in the face of Elephant hence his face has come like Elephant.
• Sri Ganapathi killed an asura called Gajasura, who was killing the people with Elephant like face.

Let Sri Ganapathy antharkatha Rudra devaru antharkatha  Jagadguru Sri Madhvacharya antharkatha Lord Sri Vedavyasa bless all of us with Gyana/Bhakthi/Vairagya,
—In the service of Sri Hari Vayu Gurugalu,

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Venkatesh Rajendran

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