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The Rg Veda Ganapati

Introduction

Ganapati is the 'Brain' of us. This was my explanation for the stotra starting 'Suklam Bhartram Vishnum'.

http://trikalasandhyavandanam.blogspot.in/2012/02/ganapati-dyanam-invoke-peace-in-our_5759.html


In this blog I would explain the same with respect to the popular Rg Veda mantra that is recited before every  vedic ritual as prayer to Vinayaga.

Rg Veda Mandala 2 Hymn 23.01

gaNAnAM tvA gaNapatiM havAmahe kaviM kavInAmupamashravastamam 
jyeSTharAjaM brahmaNAM brahmaNas pata A naH SRNvannUtibhiH sIda sAdanam 

- Rg Veda Mandala 2 Hymn 23.01

gaNAnAm - For the attendants
tvA - you, thou
gaNapatiM - Friend, Philosopher, Guide of those
havAmahe - Invoke you to grant / Call upon u to grant

The friend and guide of your attendants, Call upon you to grant

kaviM - Intelligence, Wisdom
kavInAm - of the Intelligent, of the Wise ones
kaviM kavInAm - Intelligence (Wisdowm) of the Intelligent (Wise Ones)

The wisdom of the wise ones

upama - highest
zravas - hearing
tamam - the most, ascending, pinnacle
zravastamam - the pinnacles of the faculty of hearing

The highest pinnacle of hearing

The friend and guide of your attendants, Invoke you to grant the wisdom of the wise ones, the highest of pinnacles of hearing faculty

jyeSTha rAjaM - the first ruler
brahmaNAM - that evolved

The first ruler that evolved

brahmaNaspata A nah - the one that leads/guides further evolution to us

The lead/guide to further evolution to us

zrnvann - having heard
UtibhiH - weaved/sewed
cIda - thoughts
sAdanam - seat

Having heard, Seat of weaved/sewed thoughts (or) Having heard the seat that weaves thoughts

Summary

The friend and guide of your attendants, Call on you to grant the wisdom of the wise ones, highest of pinnacles of hearing. The first ruler that evolved, the one that leads/guides our further evolution, having heard, the seat that weaves thoughts.

Ganapati - The Brain

We call upon the brain to grant us the Wisdom of the Wise ones, highest of the pinnacles of hearing.  The pinnacle of hearing is learning. Highest of the pinnacles of hearing is the highest of learning. So here we call upon our brain to bestow us with highest of learning.

Brain is the ruler that evolved to rule over all the attendant organs of our body.  It is the 'first' ruler or the predecessor to all the rulers of the world. It is not just the one that evolved, but also the one that guides/leads further our evolution. So it is uniquely placed. It is the one that evolves others and also the one that is evolved.

Having heard (having learnt), it is the seat of thoughts, where our thoughts are weaved.

Various other Interpretations

In general Upama Shravastamam is interpreted as pinnacle of 'fame'. Zrava is extended from hearing to praise and then extended from that praise to make it as 'fame'.
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Similarly Jyesta Rajam' is interpreted as foremost amongst the foremost. Rajam is interpreted as 'foremost' (in the sense rulers are foremost).

"Brahmanam Brahmanaspata" is interpreted as Lord of the Vedas. Vedas are those that evolved (Brahamanaspata) and Brahmanam is interpreted as Lord BrAhman. BrAhman actually means evolution. Atman when it decided to evolve became BrAhman (evolution). Thus that Supreme Soul manifests as evolution.

"Utibhih Sida Sadanam" is interpreted as "Protect us by seating here". Uti means weaving, sewing and also protecting (weaving gives protection). 'Cida' is thoughts. Often it is ignored or taken as 'sIda' and interpreted as gracious, happily.

The internal Ganapati (Brain)

Thus the conventional meaning becomes "We invite you, the lord of all groups, wise amongst the wise, lord of all Vedas, foremost amongst foremost, whose fame is excellent, be seated and protect us", one that is applied to an external Ganapati.

The real meaning in my view is "The friend and guide of your attendants, Call on you to grant the wisdom of the wise ones, highest of pinnacles of hearing, the first ruler that evolved, the one that leads/guides our further evolution, having heard, the seat that weaves thoughts", one that is applied to the internal Ganapati our brain.

The supreme consciousness manifests in our heart and controls our brain, which evolves us and also evolves.    That does not mean we need not worship/invoke an external Ganapati.  We can and we should.

We should invoke that Supreme Consciousness that is present in the 'Lord Ganapati' to guide our brain and lead/guide us in all our actions.

-TBT

Comments

  1. Excellent post! especially for this generation.

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  2. Good one..Lord Ganapathy came into picture only during upanishads..In Vedas there is no mention of actual Ganesha whom we worship now...Its just symbolic...Like he breaks his own tusk which symbolises that we should break our own ego etc...

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    Replies
    1. Dear Guruprasad, Ganesha = esha of all the ganas = God. There is no mention of a god having elephant face, and big stomach in vedas nor in upanishads...Only puranic pundits have installed such GOD.

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  3. Lord ganapathy is an amazing allegory he has a golden spiral inherent in his trunk (energy which sustains everything)symbolically in his trunk ,few temples in south India /symbol of ucchista ganapathy one could see it ,fact is that all Hindu gods were consecrated by Vedic maharishis,siddhars,greatest yogis,sthapathya maharishis(like Mayan who was a danav)...etc as per the nature of unified field (field of Brahman)and paramanu(Brahman as subtle most particle)......historically speaking lord Ganesha is more than 35,000yrs approximately.

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  5. I apologize if there are any typos. I don't know English and I translate with Google. But I feel the need to thank you for this article.

    These days I started reading hymns from the Vedas and it caught my attention Brahmanaspati which is also called Ganapati. It is obvious that it is the mind that manages the energies.
    But Ganapati also appears as an attribute to other gods: Rudra, Indra, horses (which are actually a symbol of the tendencies with which our thoughts run).

    Beyond that, I want to tell you about the amazement with which I read the Vedas. It is the most authentic spiritual book.
    Everything we read about other religions is infected by the political factor, that is, people seek power using religious ideas, and then the spiritual quality decreases, or even disappears, but conflicts arise.
    The fact that in the mythological stories Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu fight for supremacy, is only the expression of concrete social struggles, of groups that want to impose themselves.
    Fortunately, the artistic adequacy of those who wrote these texts saves much of the spiritual aspect and valuable ideas also appear.

    But in Western religions I have not found anything spiritual, because the political purpose has seized the mystical text.
    That's why I looked for answers in the Orient and came to Vede.

    In Vede everything is pure. There is a place for everyone there. And it gently invites you to look at yourself.

    Although I don't think it's easy for the general public to understand. My knowledge of symbols and archetypes and knowledge of modern psychology helps me.

    I stop at every turn and find in myself the information transmitted by the hymns, and I can only be grateful to those sages who have kept their purpose pure. Everything is so true.
    It just takes intelligence, culture and purity of soul to connect to the Vedas.

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