Gems from the acharya- A Harikatha on Lord Ganesha

This write-up is based on a Harikatha by Smt Sharada Gannavaram ji that I heard recently. The link for this Harikatha is provided at the end of this article. Rasikas will surely enjoy the talk and the music. 

The uniqueness of this Harikatha is the usage of shlokas composed by Sringeri's 34th acharya- Sri Sri Jagadguru Chandrashekhara Bharati mahaswami (1892 - 1954).

Adi Shankara is revered as the "shanmata sthaapana" acharya- the one who established equal worship for the 6 deities- Ganapati, Subramanya, Shiva, Surya, Devi and Vishnu. All these deities are the same, and depending on our attraction for a particular deity, we can choose any deity as our ishta devata.

The 34th acharya has composed verses on all these 6 deities. We begin with a peek into some verses composed by him on Ganapati.

We will look at 3 verses on Ganesha from acharya's works. The first two are from the "Ganesha Stuti Manjari".

Verse 1: (Verse 4 of Ganesha Stuti Manjari)

AadhoraNaa ankusham etya hastey

gajam vishikshanta iti prathaasti

panchaasya-suunur-gaja eva hastey

dhrtvaa ankusham bhaati vichitram etat

Ganesha as "panchaasya suunu":

The acharya exclaims, "Aho vichitram etat!" "What a wonder this is!" What is the wonder?  He says Ganesha is no ordinary elephant. He is unique because he is not the son (suunu) of another elephant! He is "panchaasya suunu". Here, we have a nice wordplay. Aasyam is face. Pancha has 2 meanings. It can refer to the number 5 or it can refer to something wide, something expansive. If pancha is taken as the number 5, it will refer to Lord Shiva, who has 5 faces (Sadyojaata, Vaamadeva, Aghora, Tatpurusha and Ishaana). With this meaning, Ganesha is Shiva's son- panchaasya suunu. We are familiar with this. 

But the pun on the word pancha, with its alternate meaning, makes this shloka interesting. A lion is called "panchaasya" because the lion has an expanded face. As per this, Ganesha, who is an elephant, is the son of a lion (panchaasya suunu)! Normally, the elephant is mortally scared of a lion. We are aware of expressions like "simha swapnam"- even a lion in dream...scares an elephant. But in this unique case, Ganesha is panchaasya suunu, an elephant, born of a lion, as it were. Thus, the opposites- a lion and an elephant come together...in Ganesha!

Ganesha and ankusham:

In the first line, the acharya mentions another wonder. Normally, the ankusham, the spear, is carried by the mahout (aadhoraNaa). The mahout wields the ankusham to control the elephant. But Ganesha is unique because here, the elephant is holding the ankusham! Why does Ganesha hold the ankusham? He controls the mind of all the bhaktas using his ankusham. We see the benevolence of Ganesha, who carefully protects his devotees, by goading them in the right direction.

Verse 2: (Verse 11 of Ganesha Stuti Manjari)

ganDa-sravat-svachha-mada-pravaaha-gangaa

kataaksha-arka-sutaa yutashcha

Ganesha as Gaja-Prayaaga:

The acharya here talks about a male elephant that is in rut. The "mada jala" is secreted and flows down the cheek of this elephant. The acharya says, this "mada pravaaha" is white in colour (svachha) and this flow of mada...is like the river Ganga.  Readers will recall that Ganga ji is also considered "shveta varna" (white in colour). Such a pure (svachha) and white mada pravaaha flows down the cheek of Ganesha.

Next, the acharya focuses on the "kataaksha", the divine gaze of Ganesha. Even here, there is a pravaaha, a torrent. It is a torrent of compassion. He likens the black eye of Ganesha and the ensuing flow of compassion to the river Yamuna (arka sutaa). Readers will recall that Yamuna is considered black in colour. She is associated with Sri Krishna and hence black. Yamuna is also Surya bhagavan's daughter.  Hence, she is "arka (sun) sutaa".

We have seen Ganga and Yamuna. Our curiosity is kindled. What is going to come next?

The acharya says:

jihvaanchaley-gupta-vahat-saraswati-yuta

There is one more pravaaha flowing from the face of Ganesha. What is it? It is the "vaak pravaaha", the flow of speech, the flow of knowledge...from the mouth of Ganesha. This is the river Saraswati, the acharya says. His keen attention to detail is seen here. He intentionally uses the word "gupta"- which means "covered" or "unseen". An elephant's mouth is covered by the trunk- it is "gupta". So too, the river Saraswati is unseen.

The acharya continues:

Ayam aabhaati gaja-prayaagah

Here, the acharya finally ties the analogy together by summarising that on Ganesha's face, we have a "gaja prayaaga"! It is a Prayaaga, a Triveni, a Sangama...where Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati...all of them come together on Ganesha's mukha!

We notice how the acharya uses similar sounding words- "pravaaha" and "prayaaga" to heighten the poetic effect.

Verse 3:

Next, we look at another interesting verse. It starts with the following:

Kamalam-taarkshyam-sarpam nikatey.....kim artham eesha suuno?

Hey eesha-suuno, Lord Shiva's son! Why do you have a lotus (kamalam), Garuda (taarkshyam) and a snake (sarpam) close to you? 

Apparently, the acharya composed this verse during a Ganesha Chaturthi celebration at Sringeri where Lord Ganesha's vigraha was placed along with other artefacts like a lotus and a bird for his sport (kreedaartham). Hence, the reference to a lotus and a bird and a snake in this verse.

The acharya himself answers this question. He says, it is to serve as an aasana, a vaahana and a bhushana for his devotees. The kamala, lotus...is used as an aasana, a seat.  Garuda serves as a vaahana, a vehicle. And sarpa serves as a bhushana, an ornament. We are left bewildered as to why a devotee will need all of this- a lotus as a seat, Garuda as a vaahana etc. The acharya solves the riddle. 

He says Kamala-aasana refers to Lord Brahma. Taarkshya or Garuda-vaahana refers to Lord Vishnu. And Sarpa-bhushana refers to Lord Shiva. Through this, the acharya conveys this message- Ganesha bestows the "tri-murti tulya sthaanam" to his devotees. That is, Ganesha's grace is so boundless, that his devotees become as prominent as the "tri-murtis" themselves!

As we have seen, these shlokas are beautiful. The message and the poetic excellence- make them so endearing!

With this, we pray to Lord Ganesha...that he may bestow his grace on all of us.

References:

Ganesha Stuti Manjari:

https://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_ganesha/gaNeshastutimanjarI.html

The Harikatha that served as the reference:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR-we5RpIZg