Re: Opening of Vishnu Sahasranamam...
From the Bhakti List Archives
• 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 raghavanwrote: > 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? -------------------------------------------------------------- - SrImate rAmAnujAya namaH - To Post a message, send it to: bhakti-list@yahoogroups.com Group Home: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bhakti-list Archives: http://ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/ Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
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