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orlando
14 September 2006, 11:53 AM
Namaste all
By http://www.himalayanacademy.com/resources/books/lg/lg_ch-11.html

Excerpts from Ganapatyatharshirsham,
Translated from Sankrit by Dr. Vasant Lad

Aum! Let us listen with our ears to that which is auspicious, adorable one. Let us perceive with our eyes what is holy and auspicious. With strong, stable body and limbs, may we seek the divine grace and accept the noble order of all our life.

I surrender to you, Lord Ganesha. You are the speaker. You are the listener. You are the giver. You are the sustainer. I am your disciple. Protect me from the front and back. Protect me from the north and the south, from above and below. Protect me from all directions.

You are full of perfect knowledge of truth and awareness. You are full of bliss and pure consciousness. You are truth, consciousness and bliss. You are the absolute awareness. You are full of supreme wisdom and knowledge.

You are the earth, water, fire, air and the space. You are the root foundation of speech. You are beyond the three gunas: sattva, rajas and tamas. You are beyond the physical, mental and causal bodies. You are beyond the three aspects of time: past, present and future. You are eternally established in the muladhara chakra. You have three shaktis: action, knowledge and will.

Salutation to the Ganapati whose seed mantra is Aum Gam. We know Ekadanta, the One-tusked God, the unique God. We meditate upon Vakratunda, the curved-trunk God. May that unique elephant God illumine our consciousness and direct us along the right track.

One should meditate upon Lord Ganesha having one tusk and four arms; holding the noose and goad with two of them; with the other two indicating varada, the giving of boons and blessings, and abhaya mudra, the fear removing gesture; having a mouse as the emblem on his ensign; possessing a big, beautiful belly and large, lovely ears which look like winnowing baskets; having a red cloth and His whole body covered with red sandalwood paste. He should be worshiped with red flowers. He manifests Himself as the universe and is beyond prakriti, matter, and Purusha, the manifest God. One who worships Ganesha in this way forever is the best of yogis.

Prostrations to Vratapati, the Lord of Plenty. Prostrations to Ganapati, the Lord of various groups of Gods. Prostrations to Pramathapati, the Lord of Siva's hosts. Prostrations to Lambodara, the full-bellied God with a single tusk, destroyer of obstacles, the Son of Siva, the Bestower of all Blessings.

He who chants this Ganapati Upanishad will verily get established in Brahman, the pure awareness. He will never encounter any obstacles. He will be happy everywhere. He will be free from the five great sins and lesser ones. By reciting this in the evening, the day's sins are destroyed.

By reciting this in the early morning, one becomes free from the sins committed at night in dreams. Reciting this morning and evening, one becomes totally free from all sins. He becomes totally free from all obstacles. He achieves the four divine ends of life: dharma, artha, kama and moksha: virtue, wealth, pleasure and liberation. Aum Ganesha sharanam, sharanam Ganesha.
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Regards,
Orlando.

Mukunda
24 December 2006, 06:22 AM
Namaste all,

ganapati upanishad http://www.astrojyoti.com/GanapatiUpanishad.htm

How do we understand these kinds of upanishads where demigods like Ganesha etc are glorified as brahman as apposed to Vishnu. Do we have to refer Vedanga's/Brahma sutra ?

1. Om Gam. I bow to Ganapati.

2. You clearly are the tattva. You alone are the creator. You alone are the maintainer. You alone are the destroyer. Of all this you certainly are Brahman. You plainly are the essence.

3. Always I speak amrta. The truth I speak.

4. Protect me. Protect the speakers. Protect the hearers. Protect the givers. Protect the holders. Protect the disciple that repeats. Protect that in the east. Protect that in the south. Protect that in the west. Protect that in the north. Protect that above. Protect that below. Everywhere protect! Protect me everywhere!

5. You are speech. You are consciousness. You are bliss. You are Brahman. You are being-consciousness-bliss. You are the non-dual. You are plainly Brahman. You are knowledge. You are intelligence.

6. You create all this world. You maintain all this world. All this world is seen in you. You are earth, water, air, fire, ether. You are beyond the four measures of speech. You are beyond the three gunas. You are beyond the three bodies. You are beyond the three times. You are always situated in the muladhara. You are the being of the three Saktis. You are always meditated on by yogins. You are Brahma, you are Visnu, you are Rudra, you are Agni, you are Vayu, you are the sun, you are the moon, you are Brahma, bhur-bhuvah-svar.

Thanks
--Mukunda

orlando
25 December 2006, 10:57 AM
Namaste all,

ganapati upanishad http://www.astrojyoti.com/GanapatiUpanishad.htm

How do we understand these kinds of upanishads where demigods like Ganesha etc are glorified as brahman as apposed to Vishnu. Do we have to refer Vedanga's/Brahma sutra ?


Shri Mukunda,the answer is that such Upanishads are made-man scriptures.
Regards,
Orlando.

Mukunda
25 December 2006, 10:52 PM
praNAm Orlando,

Ganapati upanishad is one among 108 upanishads which are considered to be authorative. Isn't it ??. How are we going decide whether any upanishad is man made or not ? Aren't these upanishad's are verified by Vyasa (Vishnu's avatar).
One must study vedanga's to understand these Vedas/Upanishads which nobody study these days (not me atleast !)
Which upanishad's are authorative and which not ? Has it been stated some where(proof) ? Isn't vedas/upanishads are more authorative than puranas ? Is there any classification among upanishads as satvik/rajasik/tamasik ?

Regards
--Mukunda

orlando
26 December 2006, 05:26 AM
praNAm Orlando,

Ganapati upanishad is one among 108 upanishads which are considered to be authorative. Isn't it ??. How are we going decide whether any upanishad is man made or not ? Aren't these upanishad's are verified by Vyasa (Vishnu's avatar).
One must study vedanga's to understand these Vedas/Upanishads which nobody study these days (not me atleast !)
Which upanishad's are authorative and which not ? Has it been stated some where(proof) ? Isn't vedas/upanishads are more authorative than puranas ? Is there any classification among upanishads as satvik/rajasik/tamasik ?

Regards
--Mukunda

Namaste Shri Mukunda.
Please accept my respectul and humble pranamas.
I request you to read what I told you to read in the vaishnava thread.Please read the questions n.19,20,22,24,25,26 and 27 at http://www.srivaishnavan.com/faq_vedas.html and their answers at http://www.srivaishnavan.com/ans_vedas.html#19

By http://www.himalayanacademy.com/resources/books/dws/lexicon/g.html

Ganapati Upanishad: (Sanskrit) A later Upanishad on Lord Ganesha, not connected with any Veda; date of composition is unknown. It is a major scripture for the Ganapatians, a minor Hindu sect which reveres Ganesha as Supreme God and is most prevalent in India's Maharashtra state.

You asked: How are we going decide whether any upanishad is man made or not ?

Well,Ganapati Upanishad is not found in any ancient, authoritative works. This Upanishad has not been quoted by Adi Sankara or any of the Acharyas, belonging to the other schools of Vedanta.

Shri Mukunda,did you know that there is even an "Allah Upanishad"?in such Upanishad the islamic god Allah is considered the Supreme Brahman.Can you consider such Upanishad a true vedic upanishad?

Please read the links that I gave you(if you didn't still read it).

Regards,
Orlando.

Agnideva
26 December 2006, 08:33 AM
Ganapati Upanishad: (Sanskrit) A later Upanishad on Lord Ganesha, not connected with any Veda; date of composition is unknown. It is a major scripture for the Ganapatians, a minor Hindu sect which reveres Ganesha as Supreme God and is most prevalent in India's Maharashtra state.Hmmm... it is very interesting that the Himalayan Academy takes this position. Ganapati Upanishad (aka Ganapati Atharvashirsha Upanishad) does appear in the list of 108 upanishads (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanishads#List_of_Upanishads), and is listed as one of the 14 'Shaiva' Upanishads. The Ganapati Upanishad belongs to the Atharvaveda. At the end of the link Mukunda gave, it says:
Here ends the Ganapati Upanishad, as contained in the Atharva-Veda.OM Shanti,
A.

Mukunda
27 December 2006, 11:12 AM
praNAm Orlando, Agnideva,

....... a lot of information. ..So one has to very carefull while reading upanishad as well (beware of cooked up upanishads!!) otherwise it would pull people in wrong way.

http://www.srivaishnavan.com/ans_vedas.html#21 says
Modern thinkers divide Vedas into four portions, as follows: Samhita Brahmana Aranyaka, and Upanishads

Question: who(Modern thinkers divide) devided vedas into upanishads, samhitas, aryankas & brahmanas ? Also what exactly mean devided the vedas into four portions => did content change or just reorganizing the original content?

Let us all offer everything to lotus feet of Bhagavan Sri Krishna

--Mukunda

orlando
29 December 2006, 10:35 AM
praNAm Orlando, Agnideva,

....... a lot of information. ..So one has to very carefull while reading upanishad as well (beware of cooked up upanishads!!) otherwise it would pull people in wrong way.

http://www.srivaishnavan.com/ans_vedas.html#21 says
Modern thinkers divide Vedas into four portions, as follows: Samhita Brahmana Aranyaka, and Upanishads

Question: who(Modern thinkers divide) devided vedas into upanishads, samhitas, aryankas & brahmanas ? Also what exactly mean devided the vedas into four portions => did content change or just reorganizing the original content?

Let us all offer everything to lotus feet of Bhagavan Sri Krishna

--Mukunda

Modern thinkers din't change and didn't reorganiniz the original contente of Vedas.
They only gave different names to different portions of Vedas.
Regards,
Orlando.

yajvan
29 December 2006, 05:17 PM
Hari Om
~~~~~

praNAm Orlando, Agnideva,

http://www.srivaishnavan.com/ans_vedas.html#21 says
Modern thinkers divide Vedas into four portions, as follows: Samhita Brahmana Aranyaka, and Upanishads

Question: who(Modern thinkers divide) devided vedas into upanishads, samhitas, aryankas & brahmanas ? Also what exactly mean devided the vedas into four portions => did content change or just reorganizing the original content? --Mukunda

Namaste,
We know that the Ved was one... it was then divided by Badarayana or known Ved Vaysya. Rik, yajus, sama and atharva ved. There's 3 types of mantras - rk, yajus and sama.

Yajur ( both black or Krishna, and white or shukla as they are called) contain 50% of the mantra's from the Rik Ved, Sama Ved Samhita ,95% from the Rik Ved, Atharva Ved Samhita 20% from the Rik Ved. So , the Rk Ved is the anchor of this knowledge of ~ 20,000 mantra's ( with their repetitions).

We know the samhitha's are the mantra's. Its said that time wore on, this knowledge was almost lost. We know the Divine One assumed the incarnation of a boar and recovered the veda's burried in the depths.
What is this saying? The word boar = varaha which has the meaing of lifting up aroha that which is sacred or vara. So the meaning is the Divine One recovered the buried knowledge in the deep realms of the consciousness ( the waters ).
AS I understand it, the brahmana's are the result of the attempts to recover the lost knowledge. The recovery was in two parts: record the names.details of the hymms (samhita) recited at the various stages in the yajna AND record the steps of the yajna too. The 2nd part deals with the contemplations and wisdom contained there in, which lead to the Upanishads and the aranyaka's.
Upanishads - Upa or near + ni down + sad to sit. Now, sit near to what? Some say the master, Same say sit near to the Truth.
Some even say shad is to shatter or destroy. And one is distroying ignorance. There are 13 core Upanishads of the 108 that are recognized. How so? Badarayana quoted only from these for his Brahma Sutras. If you take the 13 Upanishads they are less then 1/2 half of Rik Ved Samhita, Yet the 2 of the 13, the Chandogya and Brhadaranyaka make up 80% of all the text of the 13. These two Upanishads are core teachings and insights.
The Aranyaka's ( means forest) - and are used for the sadhu that has retired from active life ( one of the 4 ashrama's in one's life). One retires to the forest for their spiritual pursuits. This typically comes in the Surya Dasa of ones life ( after 50 or so). Yet we look to the brahadaranyaka upanishad , and it is the vast forest or knowledge given.

So, if you have 4 veda's with 4 divisions , you have 16 types of books to consider. Yet not all Veda's have 4 divisions e.g. Shukla yajur ved and sama ved do not have the aranyaka's.

The Key theme of the veda is the seeking of and attainment of Truth ( satyam). We need to be new born ( twice born as they say) to get in touch with this knowledge. When established one is established in rta-chit or Truth consciousness. It is also said the deva's are twice born, dvi-janmanah. The second birth is in the yajamana, or the sacrificer, us.

There is a path that one travels and the native is on this journey to come to Tad Ekam ( That One). Along the way there are the devas to assist, and there are asura's too ( these asura's we have not talked much about but are vrtra, vala, the panis, etc). It is within our power to call in the deva's to assist us in this journey - and these are the deva's we hear from the rishi's - Agni ( jataveda), Muruts, Idra, etc all play a role.
More as we talk.

Kumar_Das
13 November 2010, 07:09 PM
I like this recitation

extremely powerful

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BANohb5ixZk