Opening of Vishnu Sahasranamam...

[Guest guest]

Dear Sri Vaishnavas,

 

Everyone is quite familiar with the opening lines of Vishnu Sahasranamam,

which is a salutary verse to Lord Ganesha. The role of Lord Ganesha isn't

quite clear to me, especially when it comes to the tradition of Sri

Ramanuja. I have lived in Bombay for many years, and I visited the Ahobila

Mutt Temple in Chembur on many occasions. This temple is truly charming,

and my grandparents even withnessed the inagural kumbabhishekam of this temple.

 

My query is about a puzzling observation. This temple has a sannidhi for

Ganesha in the prakaram. However, many other temples dedicated to the Lord

do not (at least to my knowledge of the ones I have visited). Does anyone

have any idea why this could possibly be? My knowledge of the writings of

the alwars is limited, so I'm not sure if I am simply ignorant about

something that is scholarly well-known...

 

adiyen Ramanuja daasan,

 

Krishnan

[Guest guest]

Srimatha Ramanujaya Namaha

Dear Shree Krishna,

The opening lines of the Shri Vishnu Sahasranamam is not a salutary to Ganesha.

It is a salutory to Shri Vishwaksenar the senadhipadhi of Lord Shriman Narayana.

We do the Vishwaksena upasanai during almost all our rountine yagnas. And, I

recently heard from one of the best scholars of our time that, Ganesha exist but

he is one of the member of the Siva Ganas and is not the son of Shiva. There is

no relationship between Shiva and Ganesha and I heard that it is not anywhere

specified in the vedas too. In puranas too(the authenticate ones that Sri

Vaishnavas consider) only subrahmanyan is said to be the son of Shiva.

Additional news was the the deity Iyappan does not even exist and the whole

concept of Hari-Haran stuff is an absolute bluff. This could be seen from the

fact that a. There is no history that says about Iyappan b. you could not see

people with any of the names like hariharan or iyappan of age more than 80 or

90. I heard that the concept of Ganesha as a son of Shiva came up after the 10th

century and that of Iyappa came up in the 19th century. Anyways, it is up to the

readers to find out how authenticate this information is and not bounce on me

contradicting this:). Whatever I've said was what I heard. Learned scholars

please correct me. Coming back to your point, it is a salute to Shri

Vishwaksenar who we worship and he has the elephant face. We have Vishwaksenar

in many temples and some have the moolavar with elephant face and thiruman too.

Adiyen Ramanuja Dasan,

Lakshmi Narasimhan

 

-

Shreekrishna Akilesh

Thursday, September 19, 2002 1:40 PM

bhakti-list

Opening of Vishnu Sahasranamam...

 

Dear Sri Vaishnavas,

 

Everyone is quite familiar with the opening lines of Vishnu Sahasranamam,

which is a salutary verse to Lord Ganesha. The role of Lord Ganesha isn't

quite clear to me, especially when it comes to the tradition of Sri

Ramanuja. [...]

[Guest guest]

bhakti-list, "Lakshmi Narasimhan Venkatapathy"

<nrusimhan@h...> wrote:

> Srimatha Ramanujaya Namaha

> Dear Shree Krishna,

> The opening lines of the Shri Vishnu Sahasranamam is not a salutary

> to Ganesha. It is a salutory to Shri Vishwaksenar the senadhipadhi

> of Lord Shriman Narayana.

 

Here I also refer readers to Sri Sadagopan Iyengar's

article on Vishvaksena mentioning this very verse,

written in April of this year:

 

http://www.ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/apr2002/0033.html

 

aDiyEn

Mani

[Guest guest]

Sri:

 

Dear Sri Krishnan:

 

This is a common misconception....

Pls. see the translation of the first two verses:

http://www.ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/mar96/0037.html

 

While it true that the deity in the Chembur Temple is indeed

"eka-dantha" vinayakar (naivedyam is not offered to all except

this deity) and not Vishwaksenar/ Gajananar nita-soori ,

this may not be the right forum to debate the

reasons why it is so.

 

Very often the planning of temples are "influenced" more by

the local donors rather than the appropriate

religious authorities.

 

daasan,

-Shreyas

 

bhakti-list, Shreekrishna Akilesh <sakilesh@a...> wrote:

> Dear Sri Vaishnavas,

>

> Everyone is quite familiar with the opening lines of Vishnu

Sahasranamam,

> which is a salutary verse to Lord Ganesha. The role of Lord Ganesha

isn't

> quite clear to me, especially when it comes to the tradition of Sri

> Ramanuja. I have lived in Bombay for many years, and I visited the

Ahobila

> Mutt Temple in Chembur on many occasions. This temple is truly

charming,

> and my grandparents even withnessed the inagural kumbabhishekam of

this temple.

>

> My query is about a puzzling observation. This temple has a

sannidhi for

> Ganesha in the prakaram. However, many other temples dedicated to

the Lord

> do not (at least to my knowledge of the ones I have visited). Does

anyone

> have any idea why this could possibly be? My knowledge of the

writings of

> the alwars is limited, so I'm not sure if I am simply ignorant about

> something that is scholarly well-known...

>

> adiyen Ramanuja daasan,

>

> Krishnan

[Guest guest]

Dear Sri Vaishnavas,

 

With my limited knowledge I've a doubt regarding this

question. Why are these opening lines attributed to

Shri Ganesha or Shri Vishwaksenar? These lines do not

mention any of them by name. As far as I read, these

lines mean:

 

SuklAm-bara-dhara, He who is clad in pure white

vishNu He who pervades everything and everywhere

Sasi-varNa, He who is of the cool colour of the moon

catur-bhuja, He who has four hands

prasanna-vadana, He whose face is always beaming with

satisfaction.

 

Could we not consider these lines as attributed to

Sriman Narayana Himself as he is the Paramatma and

hence "Vishnua Sahasra Naamam" may start by invoking

His attributes?

 

Please excuse me if I've written or interpreted

anything wrong here. I too had this doubt for a long

time and would like to clarify the same from the

learned Bhagavathas here.

 

Adiyen,

Vijayaraghavan.

[Guest guest]

Dear Sri Shreyas,

 

I read the translation for Sri Vishnu Sahasranamam which you enclosed (and

Mani had mentioned too in his response) and this makes sense to me. I guess

I have seen this opeing sloka used popularly with regards to Ganesha (and it

seems like this understanding is pretty widespread). Thanks for the

clarification.

 

adiyen Sri Ramanuja daasan,

 

Krishnan

-

"Shreyas Sarangan" <sarangan

<bhakti-list>

Thursday, September 19, 2002 5:30 PM

Re: Opening of Vishnu Sahasranamam...

 

> Sri:

>

> Dear Sri Krishnan:

>

> This is a common misconception....

> Pls. see the translation of the first two verses:

> http://www.ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/mar96/0037.html

[...]

[Guest guest]

Dear Sri Lakshmi Narasimhan,

 

Your email has brought to mind several things I have seen for myself in

India, especially with regards to Ayyapan. Not to get off track, the

information about Sri Vishwaksena is quite intriguing to me. Is there any

temple dedicated to the Lord that has a notable shrine to Sri Viswaksena

(aside from Tirupathi)? I guess when I have visited major temples to Lord

Narayana like Tirupathi, my family rush through and we usually miss seeing

other sannidhis as a result (I might have missed having a darshan of Sri

Vishwaksena even while being in quite close quarters!). I actually found a

picture of him online (from Tirupathi's official website) which to me, being

an artist, is immensely helpful. For those interested, here it is:

 

http://www.tirumala.org/images/vishvaksena.jpg

 

adiyen Sri Ramanuja daasan,

 

Krishnan

 

-

"Lakshmi Narasimhan Venkatapathy" <nrusimhan

"bhakti list" <bhakti-list>

Thursday, September 19, 2002 2:50 PM

Re: Opening of Vishnu Sahasranamam...

 

> Srimatha Ramanujaya Namaha

> Dear Shree Krishna,

> The opening lines of the Shri Vishnu Sahasranamam is not a salutary to

Ganesha. It is a salutory to Shri Vishwaksenar the senadhipadhi of Lord

Shriman Narayana. We do the Vishwaksena upasanai during almost all our

rountine yagnas. [...]

[Guest guest]

Dear Sri Krishnan,

 

There is a sannidhi in the prakaram for Sri Viswakshenar in the

Tirumalirumcholai (Azhagar) temple which is near Madurai.

This is the one I know of, there might be many other temples with sannadhis

for Viswakshenar.

 

adiyen,

Anand.

 

 

Krishna [sakilesh]

Friday, September 20, 2002 11:17 AM

bhakti-list

Re: Opening of Vishnu Sahasranamam...

 

 

Dear Sri Lakshmi Narasimhan,

 

Your email has brought to mind several things I have seen for myself in

India, especially with regards to Ayyapan. Not to get off track, the

information about Sri Vishwaksena is quite intriguing to me. Is there any

temple dedicated to the Lord that has a notable shrine to Sri Viswaksena

(aside from Tirupathi)? [...]

[Guest guest]

Sri:

Srimathe Ramanujaya Nama:

 

Dear Sri Vijay Raghavan,

 

This coems from the last part of the opening line:

sarva vigna upashAnthaye, which talks about one who

is responsible for the removal of all difficulties.

This is commonly used to refer to Sri Ganesha, whose

other names include Vigneshvara. However, for

Srivaishnavas, Sri Vishvaksena is responsible for

the removal of difficulties. Even during homas, we

invoke Vishvaksena homam first as opposed to non-

Srivaishnavas who would do a Ganapathi homam first.

 

Note that the term vishNum is taken not in the

masculine mode but as a qualifying term and as such

is not necessarily interpreted as refering to Lord

Vishnu.

 

Ultimately though, since He is the antharyami for

everyone, I don't see any difficulty in taking that

these lines to refer to none other than Sriman

Narayana.

 

Interestingly the second set of lines "yasya ..."

which directly refer to Sri Vishvaksena is recited

by all Srivaishnavas but recordings of Sahsranamam

such as that by Smt M.S. Subbulakshmi do not have it.

 

adiyEn madhurakavi dAsan

TCA Venkatesan

http://www.acharya.org

 

--- vijay raghavan <vijayragmcc wrote:

> Dear Sri Vaishnavas,

>

> With my limited knowledge I've a doubt regarding this

> question. Why are these opening lines attributed to

> Shri Ganesha or Shri Vishwaksenar? These lines do not

> mention any of them by name. As far as I read, these

> lines mean:

>

> SuklAm-bara-dhara, He who is clad in pure white

> vishNu He who pervades everything and everywhere

> Sasi-varNa, He who is of the cool colour of the moon

> catur-bhuja, He who has four hands

> prasanna-vadana, He whose face is always beaming with

> satisfaction.

>

> Could we not consider these lines as attributed to

> Sriman Narayana Himself as he is the Paramatma and

> hence "Vishnua Sahasra Naamam" may start by invoking

> His attributes?

>

> Please excuse me if I've written or interpreted

> anything wrong here. I too had this doubt for a long

> time and would like to clarify the same from the

> learned Bhagavathas here.

>

> Adiyen,

> Vijayaraghavan.

 

 

 

 

New DSL Internet Access from SBC &

http://sbc.

[Guest guest]

Dear Sri Vijayaraghavan,

 

Indeed, you have pointed out the most straightforward

interpretation. 'SuklAmbara-dharam' properly refers

to Lord Vishnu himself and not even to Vishvaksena,

and certainly not Ganapati.

Sri U.Ve. Chetlur Srivatsankacharya, the well-known

Vedanta and Vyakarana (Sanskrit grammar) vidvAn,

says that Vishnu is referred to here in his avatAra

as Lord Hayagriva, since Hayagriva is invariable clad

in white and is himself resplendently white in color.

 

A word on Ganapati, the elephant-faced deity commonly

worshipped for the destruction of obstacles. In the

yoga-shastra, Ganapati is the deity of the mUlAdhAra

chakra, the spiritual chakra at the base of the spine.

Since yogic practice commences with this chakra, it

was understood that one must pass through this chakra

(ostensibly through the power of Ganapati) to move to

higher yogic practice. In the mundane realm, this

translated into the belief that one should worship

Ganapati as a remover of all worldly obstacles as well.

 

Be that as it way, it has been well-established in

the Vedanta, Divya Prabandham, and supporting shastras

that worship of the ParamAtman alone secures any

blessing obtainable through worship of any other power

or deity as well as 'yoga-kshema' that are infathomable

through any other means. Hence, Vedanta fills out our

understanding. While we continue to recognize intellectually

that Ganapati is the presiding deity of the mUlAdhAra chakra

and is a destroyer of obstacles, we recognize that the

power behind Ganapati is none other than the ParamAtman

Sriman Narayana so through enlightened worship of the

ParamAtman alone all blessedness is secured, without

taking recourse to any secondary deities. Hence the

initial praise of Lord Vishnu in 'SuklAmbara-dharam'

for the sake of the destruction of any and all obstacles

(sarva-vighna-upaSAntaye). I will not belabor this point

further as it has been addressed by many learned members

previously.

 

|| namaH sarvAtmane ||

 

Mani

 

bhakti-list, vijay raghavan <vijayragmcc> wrote:

> Dear Sri Vaishnavas,

>

> With my limited knowledge I've a doubt regarding this

> question. Why are these opening lines attributed to

> Shri Ganesha or Shri Vishwaksenar? These lines do not

> mention any of them by name. As far as I read, these

> lines mean:

>

> SuklAm-bara-dhara, He who is clad in pure white

> vishNu He who pervades everything and everywhere

> Sasi-varNa, He who is of the cool colour of the moon

> catur-bhuja, He who has four hands

> prasanna-vadana, He whose face is always beaming with

> satisfaction.

>

> Could we not consider these lines as attributed to

> Sriman Narayana Himself as he is the Paramatma and

> hence "Vishnua Sahasra Naamam" may start by invoking

> His attributes?