Happy Pancha Ganapati Day 5!

It is a joyous day. Everyone’s focus is on Lord Ganesha.

At lunch today the Ganapati Kulam shared news. Here is a short list of activities underway in the publications world.

• Palaniswami has been working with a writer who is helping with the editing of our new book on the Parampara to bring some color and culture into the raw manuscript.
• He has also been working with iMovie to find ways to do small video quickly and efficiently for TAKA.
• He says there have been a lot of communications recently regarding requests for permission to re-use our content on the internet for other sites.
• He also spend several hours proof-reading the final galleys of the new book What is Hinduism.
• Kumarswami completed the final work on What is Hinduism.
• Arumugaswami has been working on a major article about the flower industry in India.
• He is also working out the logistics for a huge feature story on Thai Pusam in Malaysia We will sending our correspondent, Rajiv Malik from New Delhi to Kuala Lumpur, engaging a number of photographers and videographers with the help of long time devotee Rohini Kumar in Malaysia.
• Natarajnathaswami has been focused on his next feature story on vegetarianism in various religions for the next issue of Hinduism Today.
• Sivakatirswami spent most of his time this phase on the production side for the What is Hinduism book.
• He’s continuing to work on the web technologies behind TAKA for slide shows, creation and deployment along with numerous other web tasks.
• Sivanadiyar Satya has been working primarily on the new DVD’s of Hindu Art and Ganesha images. He is also our host for tours and helps in the Ekadanta Kulam as well.
• Taskforcer Teja has been working on various projects, scanning and other small tasks to help the Ganapati Kulam.

That is a short list…

Below is small video for you today, giving you a sense of our happy morning on this auspicious Pancha Ganapati day at Kauai Aadheenam.

Thanks to Jutikadevi Sivaraja for sending these pictures of her Ganesha and this poem.. She says:

A most beautiful poem attesting the powers and shakti of Mahadeva Ganapathi, by Saint Auvaiyar Ma:
Cool, fragrant lotus feet
With anklets twinkling sweet,
Gold girdle, flower-soft garment
Setting of the comely hips
Pot belly and big heavy tusk,
Elephant face with the bright red mark,
Five hands, the goad, the noose,
Blue body dwelling in the heart,
Pendulous jaws, four mighty shoulders,
Three eyes and the three required marks,
Two ears, the gold crown gleaming,
The breast aglow with the triple thread,
O being, bright and beautiful!
Wish- yielding elephant born of the
Master of Mystery in Mount Kailasa
Mouse-rider fond of the three famed fruits;
Desiring to make me yours this instant
You, like a mother, have appeared before me
And cut the delusion of unending births
You have come and entered my heart
Imprinting clear the five prime letters;
Set foot in the world in the form of a guru,
Declared the final truth is this,
Gladly graciously shown the way
Of life unfading
With that unfailing weapon, Your glance,
You have put and end to my heinous sins,
Poured in my ear uncloying precepts;
Laid bare for me the clarity
Of ever-fresh awareness;

Sweetly given me your sweet grace
For firm control of the senses five;
Taught how to still the organs of action,
Snapped my two-fold karma and dispelled
My darkness; giving, out of grace,
A place for me in all four states;
Dissolved the illusion of triple filth;
Taught me how to shut the five
Sense gates of the nine door temple;
Fixed me firm in the six yogic centers;
Stilled my speech; taught me
The writ of ida and pingala,
Shown me at last the head of sushumna;
To the tongue of the serpent that sinks and soars
Have brought the force sustaining the three
Bright spheres of sun and moon and fire,
The mantra unspoken asleep in the snake,
And explicitly uttered it;
Imparted the skill of raising by breath
The raging flame of muladhara
Explained the secret of immortality,
The sun’s movement and the charm
Of the moon, the water lily’s friend,
The sixteen states of the prasada mantra;
Revealed to me in thoughtful wise
The six faced form and the meanings four;
Discovered to me the subtle body
And the eight separate modes of being;
The orifice of Brahman opened,
Giving me miraculous powers,
By your sweet grace, and mukti too;
Revealed my Self to me, and by Your grace
Swept away accumulated karma;
Stilled my mind in tranquil calm
Beyond speech and thought;
Clarified my intellect, plunged me
In bliss which is the common ground
Of light and darkness;
Boundless beatitude You have given me,
Ended all affliction, shown the way of grace,
Siva eternal at the core of sound,
Sivalinga within the heart,
Atom within atom, vast beyond all vastness!
Sweetness hid in the hardened node,
You have steadied me clear in human form
All besmeared in holy ashes;
Added me to the congregation
Of your servants true and trusty;
Made me experience in my heart
The inmost meaning of the five letters;
Restored my real state to me,
And rule me now, O Master of Wisdom,
Vinayaka; Your feet alone,
Your feet alone are my soul refuge, yes it truly is!!!
Happy Pancha Ganapati Mahadeva Vinayaka

If you don’t know about this Pancha Ganapati day Hindu festival, please read about it in the following articles on our web sites and listen to Gurudeva explain, in his own words, about this joyous celebration and make plans to celebrate it every year in your home and community:

• Read about it in Loving Ganesha…
• Hinduism Today, Oct-Dec 2004
• And most fun of all: listen to Gurudeva tell about it in his own voice.
• Download the PDF to print out as a guide to Pancha Ganapati.

Today the Rahavendran family went to San Marga to worship at the Narmada Lingam.

We also invited the children in to our offices today and Aarti and Mayuresh are sitting beside Sivakatirswami helping him with captions and photo decisions.

This is Aarti and her mother, Sheela…

Aarti pours water on the lingam.

Aarti is pouring milk on the Siva Lingam, chanting Aum Namasivaya.

Amma comes next

Another pilgrim, Lakshmi, joins them

[Aarti is sitting next to us helping with captions today…]

Aarti says: “Next we go to the water fall and take a picture with my brother Mayuresh posing for the camera.”

Aarti: “Next I almost slipped in the water…”

At lunch today in the courtyard all the monks observed a short arati to Pancha Ganapati…

After lunch Bodhinatha gave every one a gift box of sweets and some warm shawls.

Pancha Ganapati…this is a different style than the Kadavul Pancha Ganapati, with the fifth head on top.

Then in the afternoon everyone enjoyed a puja in the Kadavul temple to Ganesha at 3 PM.

Aarti says: “This is Mayuresh, my brother making faces at the camera.” He is an energetic ,bright spirited 5-year-old.

Chidambaran Sendan from California.

In the publications office today… the Ganapati Kulam is busy, with many projects.

Sivanadiyar Satya completed work on the Ganesha Images DVD… check out some of the images in the slide show below.

Acharya Kumarswami has just completed the final galleys of the new book What is Hinduism…

Sivakatirswami then got busy and is sending all the files over the internet to our printer in Kansas City, Missouri.

Arumugaswami is working on a story about the flower industry in India…