vishNu sahasranAma

[Vaidya Sundaram]

namaskAram.
 IF you will notice Ram, the word to word translation does not say anything
about Lord Ganesha - Lord who wears a clear white clothing (suklAm bharadaram),
who is omnipresent (vishnu), who has the colour of the moon (sashi varnam), foru
hands, (chatur bhujam), smiling and pleasant face, and may he remove all
obstacles.
 Usually a lot of people also say the following mantra right after the first:
yasya dviradavaktraadyaaH paariShadyaaH paraH shatam .
vighnaM nighnanti satataM viShvakasenaM tamaashraye
 Here you are praying to vishvaksena to remove obstacles. It is Mahavishnu who
is usually associated with vishvaksena.
 I guess the fact that always, we pray to Lord Ganesha first to remove obstacles
has brought in this thinking. So I dont see a reason to suppose, one way or
another, that the suklAma bharadharam ...slokam refers to Lord Ganesha in
particular. In fact I have seen a few people say that the reference to chatur
bhujam makes it clear that it is Mahavishnu and not Lord Ganesha, since in a lot
of other places, Lord Ganesha is associated with His elephant face and hence
considered to have five hands (including the trunk).
 It will be interesting to note that our Acharya of Kanchi, HH
Chandrasekharendrasaraswati swamigal in his book Deivathin Kural (Words of God)
discusses at length a particular sloka by mannargudi periaval. An amazing prayer
to lord Ganesha, which is very poetic and instructive as well. HH's discussion
on this four line sloka runs to well over 45 pages!! I will try and summarize
and post it later.

bhava shankara desikame sharaNam
Vaidya.

----- Original Message -----
From: Ramabhadran T. Srinivasan <bhadran at ECN.PURDUE.EDU>

> On Tue, 8 Jun 1999, Savithri Devaraj wrote:
>
> >
> >  Meditation on vishNu
> >
> > Om SuklAm baradharam vishNum SasivarNam. caturbhujam
> > prasanna vadanam. dhyayet sarva vighnopa SAntayet
> >
> > For the eradication of all obstructions, I meditate on vishNu who is
> > wearing white cloth, who is the color of the moon, who has four arms
> > and who has placid expression on his face.
> >
>
> Namaste.
>
> Isnt this slokam propitiating Lord Vignesha instead of vishNu (as in
> mahavishNu)? One who removes all obstacles (vignam = obstacles) is
> Lord Ganesha. Hence this prayer is for Him and then it proceeds with the
> other verses.
>
> Om namO bhagavate vAsudevAyA
>
>
> ramabhadran