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.