The Glory of Lord Vighneshwara

Chennai City May 27, 1995

Following is a translation of a succinct benedictory address delivered by His Holiness Jagadguru Shankaracharya Sri Sri Sri Bharati Tirtha Mahaswamiji in which He explains how hurdles inevitably crop up in all our endeavours and teaches that the means to overcome the hurdles is a sincere prayer to Lord Sri Mahaganapati.

This Anugraha bhashanam was delivered in Tamil at the Sakthi Vinayakar Temple at K.K. Nagar, Chennai.

Every one of us is always engaged in some activity or the other, none remaining inactive for even a moment. The Lord says in the Bhagavad Gita,

न हि कश्चित् क्षणमपि जातु तिष्ठत्यकर्मकृत्|

na hi kaścit kṣaṇamapi jātu tiṣṭhatyakarmakṛt|

Srimad Bhagavadgita

Even a lunatic is always engaged in some activity. To us, what such a man does may seem foolish, but the fact is that he is engaged in some activity. In fact, he may even consider what he is doing as important. Similarly, everyone in this world is always occupied with some task or the other.

After commencing an activity, we often find that numerous obstacles crop up, hindering the completion of the task. As such, anxiety that a task that we commence should get completed without impediments, is but natural. Our ancestors have aptly said:

श्रेयांसि बहु विघ्नानि ||

śreyāṃsi bahu vighnāni ||

Impediments are much too common when it comes to noble activities that are aimed at doing good to people. We can attribute this phenomenon to the proclivity of humans to not only strive to earn fame for themselves but also to prevent others from earning a good name. As a result of this tendency, one desires the successful completion of one’s own activities, but when it comes to tasks commenced by others, this desire is reversed, for one resents others’ success. Since this mentality is seen in everyone, there will always be someone or the other to create problems in our path.

If a person plans to construct a temple, there will be people who think on the lines of, “I will send an anonymous petition full of complaints to the authorities concerned, and then watch the fun”. If you ask them what they gain from such destructive activities, they will nonchalantly reply, “We do it just for fun! Let us now see how he constructs the temple!” The philanthropist who proposed to build the temple would never have imagined that obstacles of this kind would materialize.

How does one tide over such unexpected obstacles that are placed on one’s path? Is it possible to approach every potential troublemaker and appeal to him to abstain from causing problems? Even if we do, will such people oblige us? The answer to both these questions is “No”.

Let us take the example of an institution with numerous employees. If there is a problem in regulating the activities of the employees or in enforcing discipline or rules among them, it will not be feasible to give instructions or make requests to each one of them individually. The way to solve the problem is to request the intervention of the chairman of the institution, for, when orders are issued from the top of the institution’s hierarchy, the desired objective is achieved without ado.

This world is an institution. God, the Paramatma, is its Chairman. Instead of wasting our energies trying to appeal to mortals around us to stop creating impediments to our good deeds, we should approach God and pray to Him to remove all hindrances in our path. In response to our prayers, the Supreme Lord will thwart the wicked thought in the troublemaker’s mind by inducing aprerana, which will cause him to muse on the lines of, “It is true that I originally wanted to hinder this man’s activity. However, I now realize that he is actually engaged in a noble task. Rather than causing problems, why don’t I try to be of some assistance instead?” Only the Lord can cause such a turnaround in people’s thinking. The Sastras declare,

न देवा दण्डमादाय रक्षन्ति पशुपालवत् |
यं हि राक्षितुमिच्छन्ति बुद्ध्या संयोजयन्ति तम् ||

na devā daṇḍamādāya rakṣanti paśupālavat |
yaṃ hi rākṣitumicchanti buddhyā saṃyojayanti tam ||

What does the statement, “Iswara protects us” mean? Does it mean that Iswara handles us like a shepherd herding his cattle with a stick in his hand? No, what is meant is that the Lord protects us by entering our minds and inducing appropriate thoughts in it. The following prayer finds a place in the Vedas: “May that Supreme Lord who is the sole cause of the entire cosmos and of even Hiranyagarbha, the creator, induce noble thoughts in my mind”.

Noble thoughts generate good deeds while sinful ones have harmful consequences. As such, it is clear that unhindered progress of what we have commenced is indicative of the presence of noble thoughts, which are in turn the effect of the prerana induced by God, otherwise known as God’s grace. Hence, prayer to God before commencing any task is a sine qua non.

We must never forget that in reality, God is only one, though He assumes various forms such as those of Shiva, Vishnu, Devi and Subrahmanya. The Lord says in the Bhagavad Gita,

अजोऽपि सन्नव्ययात्मा भूतानामीश्वरोऽपि सन् |
प्रकृतिं स्वामधिष्ठाय संभवाम्यात्ममायया ||

ajo’pi sannavyayātmā bhūtānāmīśvaro’pi san |
prakṛtiṃ svāmadhiṣṭhāya saṃbhavāmyātmamāyayā ||

(Though I am actually unborn, am the immutable Self, and am the Lord of all beings, I take birth, as it were, through My power of Maya.)

One of such numerous forms assumed by the Lord is that of Lord Vigneshwara.

Before starting any task we must first worship Lord Maha-Ganapathy, to ward off obstacles. Even before we commence any worship, we perform Ganapathy Puja. Why, even on the day of Vinayaka Chaturthi, where worship of Lord Maha-Ganapathy is primary, we perform a short Ganapathy Puja in the beginning for the Puja to go on unhindered! It is our deep faith that any work commenced after worshipping Lord Ganapathy will definitely be successful, that drives us to do this.

Bhagavan Veda Vyasa authored eighteen puranas and eighteen upa-puranas, the Ganesa Purana being one of the latter. In this work is contained a description of the various leela-s of Lord Ganapathy.

The story goes that there was once a competition between Lord Ganapathy and Lord Subrahmanya. The quarrel between Them was over the possession of a particular sacred fruit, and it was stipulated that the fruit would go to the one who first completes a trip around the three worlds. Lord Subrahmanya wasted no time in setting off on His peacock to complete the task. On the other hand, LordGanapathy simply circumambulated His parents, Lord Parameshwara and Goddess Parvati, thrice, only to be presented with the fruit as the prize for finishing the race first! Lord Subrahmanya questioned this decision by pointing out that Lord Ganapathy did not even leave the place, let alone go around the three worlds. The clarification given at that point is that since the three worlds are considered as being within one’s parents, Lord Gan apathy’s circumambulation of His parents amounts to His circumambulating the whole world.

Lord Ganapathy has, through this leela, taught us the importance of our parents and also demonstrated to us that they should in fact be considered our supreme Gods. All of us perform puja to Lord Ganapathy, all of us pay frequent visits to His temples. Yet, alas! We do not listen to what our parents say!

There is another episode related to Lord Ganapathy. Lord Shiva blessed the demon Ravana with the sacred Atma Lingam. Petrified, the celestials approached Lord Ganapathy and prayed, “If Ravana manages to take the Atma Lingam to Lanka and installs it there, he will become invincible. He must be prevented from reaching Lanka with it”. Lord Ganapathy agreed to help the celestials.

While blessing Ravana with the sacred Atma Lingam, Lord Shiva had cautioned him, saying, “Once you place this Lingam on the ground, it will not be possible to remove it from that spot. Therefore, do not keep it anywhere until you reach the place where you want it installed”. When Ravana was travelling to Lanka with the Lingam in his hand, the time for his Sandhya worship arrived. Ravana was in a fix, for he had to offer oblations to Lord Surya at that time, but could not place the Lingam on the ground. At this juncture, Lord Ganapathy appeared there in the garb of a small boy. Spotting the boy, Ravana called to him and said, “Come here and hold this Lingam in your hands until I come back and collect it from you”. This was precisely what the Lord had been waiting for! The lad agreed to oblige Ravana, but on a condition. The condition was that the boy would call out to Ravana only thrice, and if the latter failed to come after the third call, he would place the Lingam on the ground. Ravana agreed to the condition and left for his Sandhya worship.

The boy called out to Ravana thrice, deliberately when the latter was offering oblations. As such, Ravana could not come, and as per the condition, the boy placed the sacred Lingam on the ground. Try as he might, Ravana could not remove the Lingam from the spot. Lord Shiva had chosen to reside there in the place that would come to be called Gokarna Kshetra.

The lesson that we learn from this episode is that an evil man must be prevented from acquiring great powers, for such prevention would only amount to protecting the virtuous. In the story, since Ravana was cheated, millions of virtuous people stood to gain. As such, it is not a sin to cheat an evil-minded person when the aim is to protect virtuous people. This is the subtle aspect of Dharma that was demonstrated by Lord Ganapathy.

When we read the life sketches of great souls we learn that they do not have to explicitly spell out how we should conduct ourselves. Their lives themselves act as beacon lights to guide us and to teach us the way to lead a virtuous life. The Lord has mentioned this in the Bhagavad Gita:

यद्यदाचरति श्रेष्ठस्तत्तदेवेनरो जनः |
स यत्प्रमाणं कुरूते लोकस्तदनुवर्तते ||

yadyadācarati śreṣṭhastattadevenaro janaḥ |
sa yatpramāṇaṃ kurūte lokastadanuvartate ||

Whatever a great one does, others follow.

Similarly, it is through His manifestations constituting His divine sport, that the Lord has taught us so many valuable lessons. Moreover, in His manifestation as Lord Ganapathy, He removes all impediments to the good deeds we undertake and bestows great good on us. This is why great saints worship Him.

Someone once pointed out that the form of Lord Ganapathy serves as a perfect illustration of the Advaita philosophy adhered to by Sri Adi Shankara, according to which there is only One without a second. Though man and elephant seem like two different beings, the Lord manifested in the man-elephant form only to demonstrate the fact that both beings are intrinsically one and the same.

May we sincerely pray to Lord Ganapathy, that He bless us with prosperity by removing every possible obstacle in all our undertakings.