O my Ganesha

I offer my humble obeisance to you my Rev. Sri. Sri. Om Swamiji🙏🕉🌺 My humble request to you, please  do make a video  of गणपति अथर्वशीर्ष  in your sweet voice 🙏🕉🦢🐄

Pranaams to my OS family🙏🕉 today is special day for me as the fingers of my heart are flowing with the permission of my Deva Ganesha who is my Sakha, my Father, my Mother , Brother, Sister  and my life would never be able to breathe  without Him. I am because of Him. My Ginoo Baba ( I Love you🌺)

The fascination of my sweet Lord Ganesha took place when I was a little child and Pa would make us listen to His sweet tales. 

Sharing one sweet story which I always loved to carry in my little head as a child all the time and felt His power within me with all the imagination, probably because Ganesha made everything seem so conveniently easy:)

The story of Ganesha

Once, Sage Narada, known for being mischievous, visited Lord Shiva and Parvati at their abode with a mango in his hand. And like we all know, everything that Narada does playfully, leads to something constructive. This time too, his intent was good but the way he implemented his trick triggered a fight between siblings – Ganesha and Kartikeya.

Narada had actually wanted to see who among Ganesha and Kartikeya was wiser. So he gave the fruit to Lord Shiva and Parvati, asking either of them to consume it. But the two refused to eat it as Narada had asked them not to cut it as it would lose its vitality.

So the divine couple decided to give the mango to one of their children. But being parents to both their children, choosing one among the two proved difficult. And hence Narada stepped in with a solution.

Narada asked the two children to travel around the world three times and said that the one who wins the race would be rewarded with the mango. Kartikeya instantly mounted on his peacock to literally go around the world.

Ganesh slowly made his way to his parents and bowed low before them. He then started circling his parents three times. Shiva and Parvati were perplexed and asked Ganesh, “Child, you were supposed to circle the world, so why are you circling us instead?”. The answer they got surprised and impressed them for Ganesh replied, “You, my parents are my universe and my whole world. So if I circle you, it means that I have circled the entire world”. Saying this, he finished his third circle just as Kartikeya reached Mount Kailash after finishing his third trip across the world.

“I won, I won”, yelled Kartikeya. “Ganesh, you are still here, while I have circled the world three times”.

“No my son”, said Lord Shiva, “Ganesh is the winner”.

“But how, he was still  here when I finished all three rounds”, asked Kartikeya with a pout.

Lord Shiva explained what Ganesh did and handed over the fruit to him. Kartikeya was upset that his brother had pulled a fast one over him, but he could do nothing as what Ganesh did was absolutely right and had proved to be much more intelligent than him.

Symbolic meaning – One doesn’t need to go around the world to gain wisdom and understand the truth. One must look within to find the truth.

My venturing into Saadhna, out of sheer excitement :)) He surely knows how to take you on the path🙏🕉🌺

The daily rituals of Mantra that I chanted was” Om Gan Ganapathye Namah” . Wherever and whenever I got the opportunity,  be it travel or in the town shopping , would carry  back with me a Ganesha figure. People would really wonder at the collection of my Ganesha figures. I was at one point  addressed as His biggest fan, totally crazy. I literally had many forms of Ganesha in wooden , stone, brass  , crystal material.

There were some friends who would keep suggesting not to keep too many Ganesha’s in the house for vague reasons . But nothing bothered me to have different forms of my Ginoo ( Ganesha) Baba.

It was the year 2010 , I remember the day when one of my teacher from Rishikesh wrote something about Lord Ganesha on Facebook wall which read, “ Initiating The Ganesha Atharvashirsha Saadhna , only serious seekers on the path contact”. The space was limited to just 10 seekers. Though it meant like strict discipline into the mantra Sadhna, without any clue of it I excitedly called her up that very moment, for I knew her well and had learnt Tarot and Moksha Patam from her around 2006,  and informed her  that I am reaching Rishikesh on the said date( which was after five days). She laughed on receiving my call as probably I was the first one to call up and she consented on my eligibility, though I was hardly into any rigorous practices of Mantra Sadhna, for all I had followed and knew was simple one line Mantras  which many of us do in our day to day routine. My head figured out that it would be a magical Mantra of Ganesha like any other.

So I took the flight from Calcutta to Dehradoon and reached Rishikesh a day before getting initiated into the Saadhna.

Once at her place, I discovered that apart from me only one more gentleman had enrolled, ( I guess maybe not many wanted to pursue the Ganapathi Mantra Saadhna ) so we were just two of  us who would be getting initiated into it. The gentleman was from Delhi and a Sanskrit scholar and had  immense knowledge about the scriptures. On the other hand I was a mere layperson who was not much capable of writing Hindi too, though I speak it well, and Sanskrit was a far-away cry .

The pooja room at my teacher’s place was well lit, we performed a hawan together and after Blessing us, to my surprise I was handed over two A-4 size papers with The Ganesha Atharvashirsha Mantra written on it , the front and the back side of the papers were all inscribed with the Mantra print . First look at it,  it took me few minutes to register that a Mantra could be this long and that too reading it in Sanskrit language ( also read powerful Sanskrit mantras). I wondered how many months it would take me to read and learn the whole thing.

My Teacher smiled and she read out the entire Mantra in about 5-6 mins in a flow.  While she was reciting all I could do was to roll my eyeballs on the script of papers, but could hardly catch up with her reciting. The script was tough and too lengthy. After she finished she then asked the gentleman to recite and he though a bit slow perfectly recited it in no time. Then came my turn, and I was numb, my mind felt scattered on that piece of paper and I could barely recite few lines of it. Though with all the help I managed to complete it in almost 20 mins, but bit by bit.  I was assured that with dedication and discipline I would be able to master it.

I was happy but too stressed , for I had taken up something beyond imagination and now I have to fulfill it.

So seeking Ganesha’s Blessings and the blessings of my teacher I got back to Calcutta next day with a very serious expression within. 

And trust me the journey of rigorous Sadhna took place.

It took me almost 2 weeks to learn the whole mantra slowly and good couple of months to memorise it. Every place , every room had pages of Ganesh Atharvashirsha stuck on the cupboards, doors, the script translated into hindi and English to get the right pronunciation and many times I felt  as if Ganesha grinned all the while at this kid reminding me of  my excitement  of the day when I picked up my phone and enrolled myself as a serious seeker and rushed all the way to Rishikesh to find out more about Him. 

But me being  His child, had never learnt to back up on my words, stuck to the discipline for months and years and the Sadhna continues till my last breath. 

The result also was this five foot painting that I made during that period in 2011 . Isn’t He Divine and Sweet:)

त्वं गुणत्रयातीतः।

त्वमवस्थात्रयातीतः।

त्वं कालत्रयातीतः।

त्वं देहत्रयातीतः।

tvaṃ guṇatrayātītaḥ।

tvamavasthātrayātītaḥ।

tvaṃ kālatrayātītaḥ।

tvaṃ dehatrayātītaḥ।

Hindi Translation:

आप तीनों गुणों के (सत्त्व, रजस् ,तमस्), तीनों अवस्थाओं के (जाग्रत, निद्रामय, स्वप्नमय), तीनोंकाल के (भूत, भविष्य, वर्तमान), तीनों शरीरों के (स्थूल, सूक्ष्म, कारण) परे हैं।

Ganapati Atharvashirsha (गणपति अथर्वशीर्ष) its meaning and explanation. Ganapati Atharvashirsha is said to be a part of the Atharvaveda which  is one of the four Vedas. Atharva is made up of two words अ (a) means not and थर्व (tharva) means of unchanging mind. Therefore Atharvashirsha is a hymn addressed prior to any serious adventure, for keeping the head cool and mind concentrated.

English translation:

You are beyond the three qualities (sattva, rajas, tamas), beyond the three conditions (awake, sleepful, dreaming), beyond the three states of time (past present and future), and beyond the three bodies (physical, astral and causal).

You can look up to the text form click the गणपत्यथर्वशीर्ष, Gaṇapatyarthavaśīrṣa on this link

To listen to it, here it is in the voice of Suresh Wadekar 🙏🕉🌺

Wishing Happy Maha Shivratri to all my OS family. It felt good writing about His dearest  son Ganesha today 😊🍃🙏Kush raho aap sab bas yehi Dua  kartein hain 🙏🕉

Jai Ganesha🙏🕉🌺

Siddhika Umesh 🙏🕉