Vinayaka and Hanuman

Very close to my office there is a famous temple Madya Kailash.  This temple has a unique deity called the "Aadhyanta" prabhu.  As given in the image by side, the deity is a merge of half vinayaka and half hanuman.

I have heard my granny mention many times "Pillayar pidikka koranga mudinjadu" (You start making a Vijayaka and it ended as hanuman).   For a long time, i believed it is actually a critic of my work,  may be she intended/used it that way always.

Later, from my wife's bhajana circle, understood that for a bhajan recitation always starts with a Vinayaka bhajan/sloka.  All the other deities continue after that, finally finished with a Hanuman bhajan.  That made litte more sense,  but the question always lingered why that way.

A very interesting blog entry by ThingBigBlog author Who is vinayaga?, kindled some thought.  Further analysis definitely provided more evidence.

Vinayaka	Brain
Grey in color (elephant)	Called the grey matter
2 big ears	2 big lobes on either side
long trunk	Trunk shaped Medulla
Solves all troubles	When you think through all your challenges are overcome

"Adi" means first or origin, sticks well with Vinayaka the symbol of brain (where the thought originates).

"Antha", how does that associate with Hanuman?  What would that be?  A further analysis brought the most obvious to light, "No thought is productive, unless it results into an action".  Action !!!, that is the word you would associate Hanuman with in the whole of Ramayan too.  He jumped the sea to seek sita, one immediate thing that comes to my mind.  As a an animal, monkey is also an impatient creature that rests too less.

That fits exactly in the puzzle.

I am really amazed by the amount of symbolism that is built by our ancestors into our daily life.
Lets have the blessings of "Aadiantha" purshan and have a very productive life filled with vibrant/positive thoughts and concrete actions.

Mylapore car festival - a view point

"ஊர் கூடி தேர் இழுத்தல்" is a phrase that I  have heard many times.  But, for the first time i got to witness it in great depth.  Truly, it was an awesome experience.

I would like to present two thoughts that still resonating in my mind.

First thought is centered around the following images.

A musicians, leading in the front with all instruments energizing the team and crowd.
The people holding the rope (வடம் ) and pulling the cart to the front.
The enthusiasts with large wooden planks navigating the big cart well over pot holes and corners.

All of them working in tandem with precise sync to make bring the car to its final destination (நிலை).

Though there is a deity statue assigned responsibility (ஆவஹனம்) for guiding the car safely, the manifestation was a super-organism synchronized by the person with flag circled in the next image.

The super-organism had to plan its move for the next 5 meters and re-access.  

No one individual was a subordinate or boss to another, they were united by the common goal to accomplish the goal.  A true symbolization of how a team needs to perform.  

Second thought was more a "Why?" question on the whole event.  

On reflecting on the thought "ஊர் கூடி தேர் இழுத்தல்" phrase re-occurred.  Yes, it was very obvious, any task that as big as a Car festival, requires the entire community to participate for completion.  Occasions such as this, create a means for work together shelving their differences.  

On completion of the big task, a natural happiness cloud sinks in, causing longevity of relationships.  

Thousands of people thronged the streets of Mylapore, the last two days, one thing i found common across all of them.  Everyone had a smile on their face.  Awesome source of energy to sink in when you see  all those smiles.

Wow !! our people had figured the way of living together.

Let's keep the smile going and pass it on :)

PS: Images from google search 

• http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/grand-prelude-to-mylapores-biggest-festival/article3278347.ece
• http://aarbalaji.blogspot.in/2007/04/more-kapaleeswarar-festival-images.html
• Balaji Maheswarar

Hiranyakashyapu and 9/11 US Attack

I recall that news very well in my life.  I was in office with my team when i received the news of Twin Towers being bombed.  Further reading/news revealed that a Flight has been taken and used as means of attack.

The immediate thing that propped up in my thoughts was the story of Prahlad and Narasimha.  In this story Hiranyakashyapu a daemon king performs severe penance towards Lord Brahma.  When Brahma appears before him, he requests for boon of Immortality.  Brahma denies that and requests him to alter the request.  Hiranyakashyapu draws out a big list of clauses for his death

• Must not die inside or outside the house
• Must not die in the hands of a Devas, human or animal
• Must not die in day or night
• Must not die by any weapons
• etc.

Now he definitely had covered all the cases.  Vishnu had other thoughts.  He took the avatar of Narasimha and breaking every single clause laid out finally killed Hiranyakashyapu.

He took form with Lion Head, human body.  Choose of Time of Evening Twilight, and used  his Nails to destroy Hiranyakashyapu.

US is guarded heavily protecting it against most forms of attacks known

• Guard Seas (US Coast guard)
• Guard the Skies
• Strong immigration policies and border checks
• Missile Tracking Systems ( Anti-missiles )
• Research of Space and prevention from Alien Attacks

In spite of so-much protection, somebody did find a way out.

You can only increase the probability of success.   But cannot guarantee it.
 
Remembering the incident at the 9th Anniversary.
May their souls rest in peace.


आकाशात पतिथन थोयम यदा गच्छति सागरं
(Like the water from the sky reaches the ocean)

What does the first Sloka Mean?

Any Pooja performed starts with this sloka.

"शुक्लाम्बराधाराम विष्णुम शशि वर्णं चतुर भुजं

प्रसन्ना वदनं ध्ययेथ सर्व विग्नोपाशान्तये ||"

"Shuklambara Dharam Vishnum Shashi Varnam Chatur Bhujam

Prasanna Vadhanam Dyayeth Sarva Vignopa Shantaye"

Meaning (to my knowledge)
In English
शुक्ल (shukla - White) अम्भार (ambhara - cloth) धरम (dharam - wearing)

शशि (shashi - moon) वर्णं (varnam - colour)
चतुर (chatur - Four) भुजं (bhujam - limbs/hands)
प्रसन्ना (prasanna - pleasant/happy) वधनम (Vadhanam - face)
द्यायेथ (dhyayeth - meditate) सर्व (sarva - every) विग्न (vigna - obstacle)
उपशंताये (upashantaye -will go away)
PS: Thanks to Samkritha Bharathi for opening a path to learn Sanskrit (www.samskritabharati.org/sbindia/)

On mediating the one who is attired in white cloth, who is of color of moon, who has four limbs and who has a pleasant face, all the obstacles you face will go away.

As i have been told by my elders at home, this sloka is a prayer to Lord Ganesha.  While uttering this sloka you also have to close your palm and knock your fist against your forehead.  I also have heard and read about some controversy of this sloka referring to Lord Vishnu.  The characteristics described goes well with him too.
Some reference give the meaning "All Prevalent" to word विष्णुम "Vishnum".

With Hinduism having plurality in god and openness for any individual to follow his path, the interpretation of which specific deighty is referred is upto ones interpretation.

I also happen to attend NLP classes done by Only Success (www.onlysuccess.net ).
I recall Praveen talking about state, its true you can't think about bad things and still smile.
Smile is very addictive. How many times have you not responded to a child's smile?  Whatever be your condition, that smile immediately brings you back into a pleasant state.

I strongly believe this sloka is meant to get one into the right state before one proceeds with the rest of the pooja/ceremony.  You recall that pleasant smile of Ganesha or Vishnu or even Child next doors, when uttering this sloka in bright white background to enhance the effect, you are all set to shatter all of your obstacles.

Happy Vinayaka Chaturthi.

Unlearn things faster with your kids

Generalization Exemplified
To capture information from a specific experience and generalize it to apply the knowledge in other future events is a key aspect of learning process.


Do you know what is the red line in diagram on the right?  If you answered another line or small line or line segment, then read on.

We brought our daughter a deck of Animal Cards.  The card deck has cards of the Animal Parent and its young one.  She has learnt to map the Parent with its child.

On a different day, while introducing her to shapes, we drew a line on paper and called out "Line".  She drew the shorter line near it and asked me the question "what is this?".  Puzzled we were answering all of the above answers.  After a smile came the answer "Lion Cub".

Pattern that you may have missed.
Pattern matching is a natural skill set for all individuals.  But keep wondering how i missed this pattern.

Introducing numbers to my daughter.  Ten.. Eleven.. Twelve.. Thirteen.. Fourteen.. Fifteen.. Sixteen.. Seventeen.. Eighteen.. Nineteen.. Tenteen..


Will have to search for the etymology of word "Twenty" won't be surprised if it was derived from tenteen.

Vitamin-D
We got a book that talks about various Vitamins.  This book has been quite handy in getting my daughter to like some stuff pointing to its importance.  On the page of Vitamin D, one of the sources is marked Sun Light.
There popped the question.  How do I eat Sunlight?


Don't miss out these short lived "Momentous" occasions of our Ignorance, while helping your kids with the learning process.  You break several patterns in you and realize there is lots for you to learn.


Happy parenting.

Happy Beach, Sunday Sunrise

Promised my daughter to take her to beach this morning for the sunrise.
Set myself an alarm at 5:40 am. The alarm rang, my hand went out to snooze it.
But the image of my daughter having fun playing with the water and sand on the beach rolled by.
Jumped out of the bed.

Went close to my daughter's ears and called out "Let's go to the beach. Get up".
In a jiffy both of us were ready. It was a cold chennai morning. We still decided to take the bike instead of the car. It was cold initially, but then I was repeatedly telling my daughter "Cold is our friend, and once you make the friendship you won't feel cold anymore.". That worked and she said "Cold has become my friend" at one point.

We were actually late for the sunrise, as the horizon was already lighting up.
Reached the "Valmiki Nagar, 4th Seaward Rd beach". It was pretty calm with only a few people going through the morning walk, Yoga etc.

Now that cold is our friend we had no hesitation in taking off the jacket and pant.
I still wanted to make sure my daughter was ready to get into what i thought was "Cold" water. Decided to have some fun and started playing catch catch game with the waves. Both of us would step closed to the water and run back as the wave would approach. we yelled our hearts out on the beach. I recall from my classes at "Born To Win" that most people associate Beach to happiness. One possible reason could be that, this is one place where you can shout your hearts but still everybody around feels it is alright and sometimes even join you in the shout.

Once i saw that she was ready to brave the water, we got into the water. We got hip deep into the water and let the waves roll onto us. The east horizon was covered with dark clouds and the sun was still behind it. As we were enjoying the waves striking us at different heights, the sun was gaining height on the sky and slowly peeped out from the clouds. The Sun was still orange and there we stood capturing the sight in our eyes.

Back on the sand, I wiped her dry and changed her clothes. My dip and swim was still pending. I really wanted to get into the water. I let my daughter play with the Sand making castle and ventured back into the sea. My confidence of going into the water has increased many folds since the university days, but not much has changed (venturing alone into the water). After walking about 30 feet into the water through the up and downs of the shelf, i wait for a big wave to ride back.

On the way back, introduction of my daughter to Tea and Biscuit in a tea shop was done.
It is the staple food available anywhere in india, if we need make more such experience in the future.

My daughter was singing happy birthday on the way back. Asked her whose birthday is it today.
"It's everybody's" replied her. True, every day is a new day in life.

This has been an amazing sunday morning.
See you again next week Happy Beach.

PS: My first blog published.