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Re: Opening of Vishnu Sahasranamam...

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Mani Varadarajan • September 20, 2002 


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

--- In bhakti-list@y..., vijay raghavan  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?



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