SAI SRI GANAPATI BAPA MORIA (Lord Sri Ganesh Festivel is On 23.08.2009)

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SAI SRI GANAPATI BAPA MORIA (Lord Sri Ganesh Festivel is On 023rd August 2009 2008) Charity is the ornament for hands.Truth is the ornament for speech.Listening the scriptures is the ornament for ears. Spreading the happiness is the ornament for eyes Improving the lot of needy is the ornament for nose Digesting the thoughts is the ornament for tongue. Where is the need for other ornaments? Today is the first day of Lord Ganapati Vinayaka, Who is coming to our dwelling from His Celestial Abode with lots of Fun Fair & Gaiety with upbeat drumming, music, and dance. Every one is in a colorful attire sprinkling colors, rejoicing & thanking Lord Lambodara for being with HIM for peace & prosperity to prevail not only in the house of the dwellers but through out the world. Lord Modhka is being carried on the individual shoulders, cycles,

autorikhsa, taxi, car, or in Chariot type vehicles depending upon the weight & size of the Lord. Let get drenched ourselves in the Satwik mood in carrying Lord Vinyayka on our shoulders & transferring all our worries on the shoulder of the Lord, who is all in all in spreading the Happiness around, who has been endowed with full powers by Lords of Lord. Lord Ganapati is Siddhi Dhaataa & Mata Saraswati is Buddhi Dhaatri. Siddhi refers to all things & gains that can be achieved in the World, while Buddhi refers to all knowledge available in the Universe. Thus we seek fulfillment of our actions in the form of results as well as fulfillment of our need for knowledge, to achieve these; we worship Lord Ganapati & Mata Saraswati before we embark upon any task or initiate a new project. "Agajaanana padmarkan GajananamaharnisamAnekadam tam Bhaktaanam Ekadanthamupasmahe"

'Him I worship day and night, the one with a single tusk, who is like the Sun on seeing whom the Lotus face of Mother Parvati expands, & who blesses His devotees in many ways'. LORD GANESHA¢S NINE SACRED NAMES Ganesha: 'Ga' stands for knowledge; 'Na' for deliverance & 'Sha' indicates that He is the only Master who can give both. Ganesh GayathriOm Eka Dantaya VidmaheVakrathundaya DeemahiTanno Danthi PrachothayaathOm Shanthi Shanthi ShantiEkadanta: Eka' means first & 'Danta' means prowess. He has the Supreme Power. Heyramba ¡Hey' refers to people in suffering & 'Ramba' implies affording protection. Hence, He protects those in difficulties. Vighnanayayaka: 'Vighna' is obstacle & ' Nayaka' is the destroyer. He is the destroyer of difficulties. Lambodara 'Lamba' is long & swinging & 'Udara' to the stomach. He is the one

with a long & swinging stomach. Soon after His second birth with the elephant head, Lord Vishnu followed by the other devas, lovingly dedicated to Him a huge spread of delicious dishes as 'Naivedya' & He fondly ate everything as a result of which His belly became large, long & swinging. Shoorpakarna 'Shoorpa' is flat & rectangular basket with one end open, used for sorting out stones & Husk from grains. Karna means ear. He has large ears to ward of difficulties, evils & sufferings of His devotees. Gajanana ¡Gaja' is an elephant and' Anana' is face. He is the one who has the face of elephant. Guhagraja 'Guha' is Skanda, the second son of Lord Shiva and so Ganesha is His elder brother. Modhka 'Modh'. Lord Ganapathi offers Modhka, the rice cooked balls to seekers to realise Infinite. Lord Ganapathi or Lord Vinayaka or Lord Vigneshewara, is second son

of Lord Shiva & is described as the Supreme Leader (Vinayaka) or the Leader of Ganas (Ganapathi) or Lord of all Obstacles (Vigneshewara) . The very names indicate or reveal that since He is Master of all actions in the World outside, no Hindu rituals or auspicious act is ever undertaken without invoking Him. With His grace, no undertaking can fail. Lord Ganapathi represents a man of perfection & fully realized Vedantin. Western are shocked to notice that Hindu revere a Divine Form which is so ridiculous & absurd. To a Vedantic student, since his path of Knowledge is essentially intellectual, he must have a great head to conceive & understand the logic of dealings & truth can be comprehended only through listening to a teacher. Therefore, Lord Ganapathi has large ears representing continuous and intelligent listening (Sravana). Apart from Sravana, he must reflect (Manana)

upon what he has heard. His intellect must have depth, width & discriminative power (Viveka) in order to accommodate the entire world of plurality with large degree of perfection. The trunk coming down from the forehead of the elephant face has got a peculiar efficiency and beats all achievements of man and his ingenuity. Here is a tool, which can uproot the tree or pick up a small needle lying on the ground. No mechanical device developed by a man can perform multifarious activities. The discriminative power in us can only discriminate between two factors, good or bad, that too, at times, is colored by our desires or vasanas. Sri Vinayaka had lost one of his tusks in quarrel with Parasurama, the great disciple of Lord Shiva. This broken tusk indicates that a real Vedantic student of subjective experience is one who has gone beyond the pairs of opposites (Dwandwa-adheetha) He

has the widest mouth and largest appetite. In Kubera's Palace, He cured Kuber's vanity by eating away all his food meant for entire guests and thereafter started eating away the utensils, Pandal, etc & had still remained hungry, when Lord Shiva, approached Him with baked rice, which satisfied Him. These baked rice are "Baked Vasanas or Desires", burnt in fire of Knowledge & make the eater Satwic in his approach. It is said that the man of perfection has larger appetite for Life and to him every experience, good or bad is the play of Infinite. When such a Mastermind sits dangling his foot down, it is again significant. Such a great Yogi, commands all powers, entire world of cosmos forces are His obedient servants, seeking shelter at His feet & are awaiting for His commandments to be carried out. The small mouse is sitting nearer to Lord Vinayaka and is shivering with

anticipation, but not daring to touch whatever eatables are lying there & is allowed to eat whatever is given to him time and again by Lord Himself. A small mouse alone can create havoc in a barn, completely destroying the food available therein. Similarly, there is small mouse within us, which is the power of desire & can eat away mountain of merit in us & make us a filthy creature as produced on this earth. The Master of the world is riding upon on the mouse, the Desires & controlling the Universe. It is reported elsewhere that when Lord Vinayaka, once was riding on mouse, had fallen off & this scene was looking ridiculous to Moon, who laughed and Lord Vinayaka cursed the Moon that on this day no will be able to look at the Moon & that day is called The Vinayaka Chaturthi. Lord Vinayaka has four arms. In one hand He has Axe, in another He has Rope and in third, He

has Rice Ball (Modhka) & with fourth, He Blesses. Lord Vinayaka chops of all the obstacles of Spiritual seeker namely attachment to worldly objects, emotions, & thoughts & draws attention of the seeker towards the Higher & ties up the seeker with the Rope. He feeds the seeker with Modhka & blesses him continuously until Seeker or Man of Perfection becomes himself the Lord of Obstacles. The above example should clearly bring to the mortal mind that the art employed by Sage Vyasa in his mystical style is to prove to every one of us that we are the creator of the obstacles ourselves & we have to develop ourselves to guard against those pitfalls to reach the Infinite. This is the pictorial account given to highlight as how every one of us is behaving in the world outside with lust, greed, hatred, ego & anger, depending upon the Karmas of the past births & our

involvement in aggrandizing the uncalled for desires, inclinations, vasanas, etc in the present & not realizing that it takes you far away from reaching the Infinite & it may take you billion births for getting Salvation. The seeker must have the subtle sensitivity of a poet, the ruthless intellect of a scientist, & the heart of the beloved in order to enter unto the enchanted realm of mysticism created by poet-seer Vyasa. If we do not have it, then we are making ourselves miserable & are responsible for creating disharmony and chaos in the world outside. Hence, let us improve ourselves first by imbibing the various facets of life as depicted by the Lord Ganapathi than make inroads in improving others. Lord Ganesha is very simpleton & does not believe in pomp and show as professed by Lord Kubera, as the richest person on this earth. If a single modhka is offered to him

in a clay plate, He will gladly accept it, provided it is offered with sincerity, devotion love and affection. Such an offering will satisfy His appetite & hunger. One of the devotees was not having any morsel of food for many months, when the poor soul visited Him with a single blade of grass as offerings, Lord Ganesha was moved by the simplicity, devotion and love of devotee and treated that single blade of grass as one the rarest treasure on this earth. The one who is Giver, what can he expect from us only love and affection with surrender devotion. There are nine names which can be chanted as prayers as follows:- Sri Ganeshaya Namah, Sri Ekadantaya Nimah, Sri Heyrambaya Nimah, Sri Vighnanayakaya Nimah, Sri Lambodaraya Nimah, Sri Shoorpakarnaya Nimah, Sri Gajananaya Namah, Sri Guhagrajaya Namah Sri Modhkaya Namah. Let us chant

these nine names of the Lords of Lord & pray to Him to bring Happiness and contentment in all the houses of His dwellers or not only those who remember Him whole heartedly, but in the World around. There is hardly a day gone where natural calamity or man made disaster is not reported. Man-made things are always destroyed, but God made facilities are always available for the use of the mankind without any cost. We are again being reminded of the secret signals of the Lord for the recent events taken place in Katrina & other areas are fresh in the minds of the Public at large. Let the good sense prevail in the community at large & leaders of the World to bring the trust in the living community to spread the message of the brotherhood in the entire world. Erase your personal exalted ego and behave as human and not as President, Prime Minister or Head of a country in redressing the

human disaster by propagating the Globalization with love, affection, warmth for the welfare of the humanity in the Universe. All acts of worship have a spiritual significance. Now-a-days, people do not understand their inner significance, but give up not only their hair but also waste a lot of money and return home without being any the wiser for the trip. We may install idols and worship them. But should not forget the inner significance of all worship. All external activities are necessary only to help us to get into the spirit of non-duality and experience unity and diversity. Love and sacrifice are very important. Where there is pure, unsullied, selfless, sacred and sublime love there is no fear at all. Giving and not getting is the underlying principle of Spiritual Sadhana. Our heart is full of love, but we are using it only for selfish purposes and diverting it towards God. God

is in the heart and not in the head. The heart is (Prema Mayam) full of love. Not only on these festivals days, but all the days with every moment of our breathing, we should remember that God is one, and all religions uphold the same principle of "One God, who is omnipresent. " We should not have contempt for any religion, as each is a pathway to God. Fostering love towards our fellow-beings, receive the noble love of the Divine. This is the goal of life. LIFE IS VERY SHORT; WE HAVE STILL TO GO A LONG WAY. LET US EVER SMILE TO CROSS ALL THE BRIDGES OM SRI SAI RAM OM SRI SAI GANESHA

Jai Sai Ram

Swamy Mahadevan