Lambodhara Lakumikara:)

Dear friends , Finally , Pulled myself back into blog-o-sphere. Thanks for ur support and concerns. B4 continuing any further on this post, I offer my respectful obeisances to the Birthday Boy , the Lord of Obstacles, Sri Vighneshwara. Shuklambaradharam Vishnum Shashivarnam Chaturbhujam Prasannavadanam Dhyaayeth Sarvavighnopashantaye All right folks, let us take a brief look at what the great people in the past have to say about this God of wisdom.. If u had taken carnatic music lessons , ur guru (teacher) might have taught u the geetham , "Shree Gana Naatha" . In this geetham , the great sri vaishnava composer, Sri Purandaradasa says that Sri Ganesa is having all the holy men at his feet (Siddha Charana). The greatest of the impersonalists, Sri Adi Sankara has also 2 works to his credit including the Ganesha Pancharatnam , where he says , he who recites the five gems (pancharatnam) every morning will soon be endowed with a healthy life both in the spiritual and material planes. The Sanskrit scholar and one of the tri murthis par excellence, Sri Muthuswamu Dikshithar has composed 8 krithis on the mooladharamurthy. Out of the 8 , five are in the Ghana Ragas of Nata, Gowla, Arabhi, Varali and Sri. You might remember that the Pancharatna Krithis of Sri Tyagaraja are also use the same ghana raga concept. Maha Ganapathim - Nata Sri Mahaganapthi - Gowla Ganarajena-Arabhi Lambodarya - Varali Mooladhara Chakra - Sri One krithi that needs a special mention is "Vathapi Ganpathim" where he adorns him with the beautiful hamsadwani raga. Most of the carnatic music artists like to begin the concert with this krithi on the lambodhara ( the one with a fat belly:) One of my personal favorites is VallabhaNayakasya in Begada. I particularly like MMI (Madira Mani Iyers) rendition...real feast for the ears.. Sri Tyagarajha has also composed a krithi that goes with the name "giriraaja sutha" . Here he mentions ganesha as one with a feet worshipped by the Indras and the others. Of course , there are many other great works on this Mooshikavaahanan not mentioned here including the Vedas (Ganaanaam twa) and puranas ( ganesa puranas) I have left them out for the sake of brevity. From the above references , one could infer that there is something indeed special about Ganesha. There are so many different kinds of interpretations referring to various parts of his body. I would not want to go to such depths but rather bring to the attention that He symbolizes knowledege and the devout seeker would definitely deserve his grace. Of course out of the all the knowledges, one should always try and seek Ganesha to shower the spiritual knowledge on us. Ganesha, who himself is a great krishna bhaktha (acc to Brahma- samhita) will certainly remove the obstacles and initiate one's spiritual journey towards the Parabrahmam. Having said all that, would it be a surprise to find the people in ISKCON believing in Ganasha worship if it would take them one step closer to Sri Krishna?:) SRI MAHAGANATHIPATHAYE NAMA: HARE KRISHNA SARVAM SRI KRISHNAARPANAMASTHU