MAHA GANAPATHIM MANASA SMARAMI -MY KERALA MURAL

Here is my favorite Kerala Mural

of Lord Ganapathi....

I present this mural 

along with Sri Muthuswami Dikshitar's

Sanskrit verse on the Lord...

along with it's meaning in English....

Maha Ganapathim Manasa  

Ragam: Nattai
Talam: Aadhi
Parent Ragam: Chalanattai (36th melakartha)
Aa: S R3 G3 M1 P D3 N3 S
Av: S N3 P M1 R3 S
Composer: Muthuswamy Dikshitar
Language: Sanskrit

pallavi 

mahaa gaNapatim manasaa smaraami | 
mahaa gaNapatim 
vasishTa vaama dEvAdi vandita || 
(mahaa) 

anupallavi 

mahaa dEva sutam guruguha nutam | 
maara kOTi prakaasham shaantam || 
mahaa kaavya naaTakaadi priyam 
mooshika vaahanaa mOdhaka priyam || 



Core meaning: 

Mahaganapathy! My namaskarams to you. I meditate on You, the Great God Ganapathy. You are the one who is worshipped by great sages such as Vashishta and Vamadeva. You are the son of the Great Lord Shiva. You are always adored by 'Guruguha', Lord Skanda. You have a beauty and shine with the brilliance of a thousand 'manmadhas' -  Cuipds. You are the embodment of peace and tranquility. You love great poetry and drama. You have as the vehicle, as a mount,  a small mouse. You love the modhakas, a variety of sweet made of rice and coconut.  I bow to thee. My lord, Maha Ganapathy.

The stories here : 

Mahadevasutham : He is the son of the Great Lord Shiva. How Ganesha was born as the son of Shiva is an interesting story in itself. For the complete story, check out : The Birth of Ganesha : Story

Mahakavya Natakathipriyam: Lord Ganesha is the one who wrote Mahabharatha. This is an interesting story. Vyasa, who wrote Mahabharatha, needed someone who could write as fast as he could recite the slokas of Mahabharatha. He chose Ganapathy as the right person who could do it. Lord Ganesha agreed with one single condition : Vyasa should tell it as fast as he could write it! Vyasa also agreed and put a condition back : Ganesha should write the slokas only after understanding the meaning of the sloka. Ganesha agreed. Vyasa told it real fast and in between slokas, describing the slokas, he would put in one sloka which could have very subtle meaning. This, Ganesha had to decipher and it took slightly more time. This gave Vyasa a little more time to compose the next set of verses and be ready to dictate. Refer this for a little More on Vyasa 

Vyasa is revered for his contributions. He is seen as Lord Vishnu himself. The Vishnu sahasranamam says :

"Vyasaya Vishnu Roopaya,
  Vyasa Roopaya Vishnave"

It is no wonder that for Lord Ganesha accepted such a person's request.

Lord Ganapathy broke one of his tusks to be used as the pen. Elephants love their tusks. The tusk is the pride of any elephant. And yet, Lord Ganesha sacrificed it to be used as the pen to write the great epic. That shows how much love he had for the poetry and dramas. He used the great Mountain of Meru (Himachala) itself as the writing pad.

He uses Mooshika - the mouse as his vehicle. The mouse stands for ignorance and greed. It tries to nibble away at almost everything that it sees. When you pray MahaGanapathy, you will become the master of ignorance and greed as much as Lord Ganesha himself is.







(Verse courtesy-Internet)