Hinduism

Ganesha Chaturthi to bring success

Chelvatamby Maniccavasagar

Every Hindu temple has a sanctum dedicated to Lord Ganesha. Hindus bow their heads in reverence and make their first offering to Lord Ganesha in all ritualistic worship. Be it pilgrimage, wedding, yagan or housewarming, Lord Ganesha is the first deity to be worshipped at the beginning of any ceremony.

Vinayaka, Ganapathy, Vigneswara and Pillaiyar are some of the common appellations given to Lord Ganesha, the God with an elephant head.

The bulky body of Lord Ganesha stands for the cosmos in its entirety. The huge pot-belly signifies space containing all things and beings of the world. The trunk represents the sensitive reception of stimuli and cognition. It also signifies the faculty of discrimination. His broad ears signify that he hears everything communicated to him.

They indicate omniscience. The three eyes of Lord Ganesha represent the moon, the sun and fire which in turn indicate the three phrases of creation, sustenance and destruction. The third eye is a symbol of intuitive knowledge.

Powers

Lord Ganesha has four hands, which signify supernatural powers. In one hand, he holds passa or rein which represents the creative and sustaining faculty. He holds an Ankusa or the whip which denotes the destructive phase of cosmos. The third hand holds a dish of Modhaka (a globular sweet meat). This signifies that he distributes the consequences according to the actions of the Jeevas.

The fourth hand represents “Abhaya”. He gives protection to the deluded, caught in the world of petty happiness and sorrow. Further, Lord Ganesha uses his little mouse as his vehicle.

All beings high and low, big and small are the vehicles of the Divinity enshrined in the hearts. The little mouse also stands for time. God is beyond time.

The mouse also personifies the evil qualities like anger, pride and selfishness. Lord Ganesha riding on the mouse shows that he keeps the evil passions always under check.

Poojas

Furthermore, “Ganesha Chaturthi” is the traditional Jayanti of Ganesha which is usually observed on the forth day of the new moon in the month of Aavam. The puranic version of this Jayanti speaks of the auspicious Nritya Ganapathi as having come at the beginning of this age when lay night of Brahma was dark and still with peace everywhere. It says, “suddenly there was a little rustling, a feeling of expectancy and through the still night the great God appeared in the form of OM to create the world. The vibrations of OM were followed by a beautiful soft light, the first dawn heralding a new sun”. The sound of OM was embodied in the form of Ganesha and was called by his numerous names namely Vinayaka, Vigneshwara, Ganapathy etc. He is the Lord of beginners, the very embodiment of the material universe and presides over the intellect. He is venerated with deep affection by every Hindu.

In fact, “Ganesha Chaturthi” is a day filled with piety and thanks-giving and a day of rejoicing, seeking Ganesha's Blessings for the removal of all impediment, while devotedly singing and chanting his name. “Chaturthi” is widely observed both in India and Sri Lanka, but with difference. In Sri Lanka, the Chaturthi observances are different to those of India. Elaborate abhishekams are done with thousand and one each shells known as “San Gaabhishekam”. The garlands used on this occasion are made of Aruham Pully and the prasaadam is essentially Modhalean.

Common form of worship

A common form of worship of Lord Ganesha is rapping at the forehead with knuckles and pulling earlobes with crossed hands. This act helps in the purification of the Naadis.

The Pradakshanam (Circumbulating the Deity) and prostration signifies pranava in action whereas the protraction denotes complete surrender at the feet of Lord Ganesha. Smashing coconut at the steps of the Deity after the Pradakshanam shows that the hard nut of ego should be cracked and got rid of before God and subsequently prostrated for complete surrender.

The camphor that is burnt in first of Lord Ganesha signifies that we are to burn our illusion or Ego with the fire of true knowledge and leave no residue so that we may merge with God. Indeed, we the people living in this “Kali Yuga” hope and pray that Lord Ganesha shows His universal love and compassion so that we may be bathed by His divine glory and spiritual splendour to overcome the present agony prevailing in this country and acquire spiritual attainments, peace and happiness.

Knowledge and consciousness in Hinduism

K S Sivakumaran

The Hindu sages found that the mind was the root cause of everything. Therefore they confronted it boldly and refused to identify themselves with the Mind. In the wake of Knowledge, Mind disappeared. And with it all desires that torment the humankind. Then freedom came to the sages. The ecstasy of feeling of ONE and ONE only in themselves was experienced by them.

The phenomenal world around them completely submerged them beyond all possibility of recognition as separate beings. The Hindu religion and all its teachings are aimed at this ideal freedom and realization. God to the Hindu is an experience of the highest spiritual consciousness.

That Super-Consciousness will not come by Karma (whether good or bad) nor is it possible to free ourselves by rituals and worship. Knowledge alone could dispel ignorance. Time and time again we are reminded of it. But we, lesser mortals pay no heed to this teaching unless we are forced to think and reflect by some catastrophe or the other.

As we know “I” or “Mine” should go away if we were to realize the “whole”. If we are not prepared for that renunciation – then Religion will continue to be a convenient institution only to pamper our vanities. Let us now look at another aspect of Hindu Life ---Consciousness.

Whatever the norms of religion that the Hindus might have had their one object was to find the source of this phenomenal world.

They discovered the sources by self-analysis and found that it was the Almighty which they called God. In the process of introspection they also discovered that the mind is capable of functioning at different levels.

We learn from the Yoga Sutras as explained by scholars that four different centres of activity are mentioned. They are called - Chakiram, Swarpanam, Chuluththi and Thuriyam.

When we are fully awake it is called Chakkiyam. When we are dreaming it is Swarpanam. When we are fast asleep it is Chuluththi. And when we are fully aware while apparently unconscious it is Thuriyam.

As we ourselves know the first three stages are within the experiences of everyone. When we are wide awake this world and the objects in it are real. In the dreaming stage this world is lost completely.

Another world appears with another Ego acting our part and of which we are aware. In the third stage there is neither World nor Ego. The simple reason for this is that we are able to recall the dreamless sleep we enjoyed the moment we come back to our waking stage.

The conclusion arrived at after experiencing these stags of existence was that there was something which was aware of these stages as a witness and not changing with the changes apparent in all three stages.

To be aware of changes there must be something which is changeless. That changeless something is called Aatman, identified with consciousness.

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Thirukkural – Apple of Gold in a network of silver

Chelvatamby Maniccavasagar

Thirukkural is a poetic composition of great antiquity in the Tamil literature. Many great minds have shed their powerful radiant light on this gem and justly famous classics of Tamil literature.

In its essence Thirukkural is a treatise par excellence on the art of living. Thiruvalluvar the author diagnosis the intricacies of human nature with such penetrating insight, perfect mastery and consummate skill absorbing the most subtle concepts of modern psychology, that one is left wondering at his sweep and death.

His prescriptions, leavened by godliness, ethics, morality and humaneness are sagacious and practical to the core. They cut across castes, creeds, climes and ages and have a freshness which makes our feel as if they are meant for the present times.

The uniqueness of Thirukkural is that the noblest thoughts are expressed with master strokes of elegance and charm, imaginative splendour and poetical grandeur. Thiruvalluvar postulates a comprehensive code which would meet the realities of all major situations that life gives rise to.

Reality

Aspiring for a classless society is the ideal, but the existence of the rich and the poor classes of men is a reality. Further, Thiruvalluvar appeals to both of them to conduct themselves in a certain ethical way towards each other so that they may lead a harmonious way of living.

He exhorts the rich to give to the poor and mitigate the poor man's hunger and he also advises the wealthy to give alms to beggars without hiding and in the same breath asks the beggars not to feel angry when the rich man refuses to give. According to Thiruvalluvar, wealth is important for all of us and so he asks men to create wealth through righteous ways.

In fact, man is not just an individual. He is a social being – a citizen entitled to what we have resolved to secure in the preamble of our constitution – Justice – social, economic, political, liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship, equality of status and of opportunity and to promote among them all fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual.

Man's position

Thiruvalluvar defines the pathways for the man to tread to reach the human goals. Man is the architect of his own life and the life of the society. He can create a heaven on earth as great men like Mahatma Gandhi attempted or degrade it into hell as Hitler did, bringing misery and suffering on a global scale. Indeed, Thirukkural is a human document shining as a guideline to humanity to promote human happiness, harmony and peace.

The Thirukkural was written 2,000 years ago and it has been poetically acknowledged by “Mahakavi Subramania Bharathy when he says that Tamil Nadu has attained glory by giving to the world the Thirukkural's author Thiruvalluvar.

Three aspects

Furthermore, Thirukkural contains three parts dealing with three aspects of human pursuits “Aram”, “Porul” and “Inbam”. In fact, such a great literary work, the first among the Tamil classics was translated by several people into several languages namely Suddananda Bharathy, V V S Aiyar, K M Balasubramaniam, P S Sundram and host of others.

In fact, Kambavaruthy E Jeyaraj, who is considered to be a great exponent of “Kambaramayanam has eloquently defined and given several speeches on Thirukkural at Colombo Tamil Sangam and various other places. His lectures are listened by several Tamil erudite scholars and men of eminence. Even the former Governor-General of India and author of Maha Bharatha and Ramayana late “Rajagopalachariar” had said that poet Thiruvalluvar as a great thinker and teacher.

Indeed, no translation seems to render justice to the merits of the original text since Thirukkural is truly an “Apple of gold in a network of silver”. Undoubtedly, Thirukkural is thus a document of universal application.

Annual Festival of Nagar Kovil Naga Thambiran at Point Pedro

G. Arulananthan

The ancient festival of the ancient and historical Nagathambiran temple which is situated in the East of Vadamarachchy District was held on 24/09/2012 after a lapse of 12 years with the hoisting of the flag.

In fact, out of all the festivals which take place in this temple the “Kappal” Thiru Vizha is very popular and devotees from different parts of Jaffna Peninsula will congregate in large number to see this festival which will be celebrated in an elaborate manner in this temple with the co-operation and support of the people of the area.

It is an accepted an acknowledged fact that the Northern region was occupied by Nagas in the ancient days.

Many customs, traditions and forms of worship still prevail which are attributed to them. Veneration of the cobra or serpant worship has been an ancient customs.

In due course, it is surmised, evolved the Hindu worship of Nagathambiran, when the Sivalingam deity is canopied by the hood of a five headed cobra.

During the rule of the Portuguese many Hindu temples in the North have been demolished and churches were built. But, with the occupation of the Dutch, the Hindus were able to breathe a sigh of relief.

The Dutch did not interfere with the religions worship of the Hindus. But, the great patriot and Hindu revivalism Sri La Sri Arumuga Navalar took tremendous effort to rebuild the Hindus Temples according to the Hindu Agamas.

Undoubtedly, our Hindu patriots sacrificed their lives for establishing several temples for the worship of Hindus.

In this instance Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan and Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam also built Hindu temples in Colombo. The Ponnambala Vaneeswarar Temple at Kochchikade, Colombo-13 was built by Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan while the Shivan temple at Modera was built by Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam.

Furthermore, according to historians that Naga Kings are also said to have been dwelling in ancient Kanterodai and Nagarkovil and Nainativu and worshipped serpant and venerated cobras.

The Kappal Thiru Vizha which is celebrated in Nagathambiran Temple has a history behind this. During the Portuguese period, they were involved in business and one day while passing this area the Portuguese sailors unloaded many items from the ship and wanted to continue with this journey, but the ship could not move since there was a beautiful girl inside the ship.

In 2011, Maha Kumbabishekam (Consecration ceremony) was held by the newly appointed Board of Trustees and Mandalabhisekam took place for nearly 48 days. As such, let us pray to Nagathambiran and receive His Devine Blessings.