Glorious Grace of Yoga Vidya Ganapathi

In the Gane­sha Sah­srana­ma, Lord Vinaya­ka is hailed as “Vig­nara­ja” — the Lord of Obsta­cles. Like a moth­er, Vinaya­ga Peru­man can remove obsta­cles as well as place them, for our very own growth. Across the Indi­an tra­di­tions first obei­sance is always paid to Vinaya­ga Peru­man. The Tamil cul­ture hails him as “முழ முதற் கடவுள்” (Muzhu Muthar Kadavul mean­ing the com­plete and first God).

Shan­ma­ta Sam­pra­daya(six schools of wor­ship) as estab­lished by Adi Sankar­charya also lists the school of wor­ship of Lord Gane­sha — Gana­p­a­thyam as the first of its six branch­es. Many great shlokas and chants too begin with pros­tra­tions to Lord Gane­sha.

At Anaa­di Foun­da­tion, we too begin every day and begin every ini­tia­tive, bow­ing down to Lord Gana­p­athi, who is man­i­fest here as “Yoga Vidya Gana­p­athi”. We per­form abishekam, poo­ja and offer neived­hyam at our ashram every­day. Vinaya­gar Chaturthi is cel­e­brat­ed on the chaturthi or “fourth day” after the new moon in the Tamil month of Avani. At the Ivar­malai Ashram premis­es, today we cel­e­brate Vinaya­gar Chaturthi offer­ing spe­cial pan­cha-abishekam and poo­ja to Yoga Vidya Gana­p­athi.

Yoga Vidya Gana­p­athi, Ivar­malai, Anaa­di Foun­da­tion

Yoga Ganapathi — Manifestation

A few months back, it has been the Grace of Vinaya­ga Peru­man Him­self that we received the beau­ti­ful and pow­er­ful vigra­ha of Yoga Gana­p­athi and estab­lished the Yoga Vidya Gana­p­athi shrine at our ashram premis­es with due process­es.

Mudgala Purana gives the 32 forms of Gana­p­athi and their Dhyana Shlokas. Yoga Gana­p­athi is the 30th among the 32 forms. In this form, Yoga Gana­p­athi is absorbed in mantra japa. His knees are strapped in med­i­ta­tive pose, hands hold­ing a yoga staff, sug­ar cane stalk, a noose and japa mala beads. The col­or of his skin is like the morn­ing sun and blue gar­ments adorn his form.

atha yOga­gaNa­p­atid­hyAnaM || mudgala­pu­rANe || yOg­A­rUD­hO yOga­p­aT­TAb­hi­rAmO| bAlArk­Ab­hash­caM­dranIl­AMshukAD­hyaH| pAshEk­Sh­vak­ShAnyO­gadaMDaMdad­hAnaH| pAyAn­nityaZM yOgav­i­G­nEsh­varOn­aH ||30|| rak­tavar­NaH

The dhyana shlo­ka means:

He has four arms. He is red in colour. His legs are sur­round­ed with the med­i­ta­tion gir­dle (yoga­p­at­ta). He is engrossed in yoga and is strapped in a yoga pos­ture. He looks beau­ti­ful and shines like the ris­ing morn­ing sun. He is adorned with a col­ored robe which is shin­ing like blue sap­phire. His hands hold the rosary, the elbow-rest or the walk­ing-stick (a yoga wand), the noose and the sug­ar-cane stalk.

Śrī­tattvanid­hi (“The Illus­tri­ous Trea­sure of Real­i­ties”), an icono­graph­ic trea­tise com­piled in the 19th cen­tu­ry in Kar­nata­ka, India, by order of the then Mahara­ja of Mysore, Krish­nara­ja Wode­yar III has a col­lec­tion of 32 forms in illus­tra­tion visu­al­ized as per the Mudgala Purana’s details.

Yoga Gana­p­athi illus­tra­tion from the Śrī­tattvanid­hi (Wiki­me­dia Com­mons)

In every sadaka’s path to Yoga and Vidya, many chal­lenges may spring. One can be cer­tain that — with the bless­ings of Vinaya­gar Peru­man all chal­lenges shall be won over. On this aus­pi­cious day, we pray and seek the bless­ings of Yoga Vidya Gana­p­athi for loka san­gra­ha (uni­ver­sal well-being). May Yoga Vidya Gana­p­athi’s Grace guide us in both Jnana and Dhyana.

Aum Tat Sat.

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#chaturthi #ganapathi #vinayaka