Vedikheritage

A simple guide to the festival of Sri Ganesh and the significance behind this celebration. #Visarjan, #change, #origin, #tradition Link to the Ganesh Puja for beginners: https://vedikheritageblog.wordpress.com/2023/09/17/ganesha-chaturti-puja-vidanam/

 Today was celebrated as Guru Purnima by devotees of Hindu, Bhuddist, jain and Sikh faiths. Why do we celebrate this day as Vyasa Jayanti ? Why is Vyasa Maharshi important to us? Watch to learn abt about this great teacher.

Why do we celebrate Guru Purnima?

It is a public holiday in Bharat, but hardly anything is taught about it in schools. So, most of us just know that it is an extra day of holiday. Why should some ancient Hrshi's birthday be celebrated by us? Atleast Gandhi and Nehru were in our Independance sttruggle and their birthdays have some relevance to us. But, Veda Vyasa Jayanthi means nothing to the hindu of Bharat.

This is the reason, this day gained more traction as Buddha Purnima, even though we have very few Buddhists in India.

Among some others, the modern version of honouring all teachers as gurus has recently caught up. Like teacher's day, people believe this to be a Bharatiya version of teacher's day. While, honouring teachers is a very integral part of bring a Hindu, is this the original purpose of this day?

So, let us see why we celebrate Guru Purnima.

Hindus, Buddhist, Jains and Sikhs celebrate this festival, as a day dedicated to honouring their Gurus. Hindu Gurus like Shankaracharya, Madhavacharya, Sai Baba, Sri Krishna (because of Bhagavat Gita teaching) are also venerated on this day. Yet, among Hindus this is only known and followed by some persons following certain religious institutions like the Ashrams or Matts for the various Gurus. To the lay person, a Guru is either a teacher or a fake Sanyasi fooling people.

Guru Purnima has still not been understood. Let us clearly look at this day.

Shri Dharma Shasta or Ayyappa, is a very popular deity in the southern parts of India. While many shrines dot the Kerala state where He is the most favoured deity, Ayyappa temples have followed the Keralites into other southern states as well.

In the story of Hrshi Bronchi from the Skanda Purana, the Hrshi angers the Devi by ignoring Her. She retaliates by removing all power from his body. What is the deeper significance of this instance. Come explore the symbolism of this puranic story in this 4th episode of this 5 part series.

0:10  Introduction to puranic storytelling

01:31Why was Parvati Devi angered?

01:54 Reason 1

02:34 Reason 2

03:54 Outgrowing desire

04:39 Reason 3

05:08 Importance of the World

Image credits:

Instant rice Kurukkuthurai: Marudhuskitchen

Modakam & pickle: Masterchefmom.com

Cake slice: butternut bakery

Pizza:Slice of pizza bangalore

Pole vaulter: Pixabay-domeckopol 

The complete chant is played twice in this episode. Once with lyrics in 3 languages for you to chant along, second time with meanings in the 3 languages. Like other compositions by the famous Guru Shankaracharya, this too talks of the esoteric nature of the divine, in this case, it is in the form if Shri Ganesha.

Ganesha Pancharatnam is a composition by the 8th century Poet/Philosopher Saint Sri Adi Shankaracharya. It is a very popular stotra in Southern parts of India. 

Pancharatna means 5 gems, usually denotes 5 verses in the praise of a deity.  Sri Shankaracharya is renowned for his revival of the Hindu faith and the establishment of the 6 popular faiths. At a time when there were over 2oo different faiths and practices around India, he amalgamated the practices and “established 6 main Sects”- Shan-matha-stapanam. The 6 Sects since followed are:

 Sri Shankaracharya also composed famous works of poetry in praise of these main deities. This is one such composition.

0:10 Verse 1

0:35 Verse 2

01:00 Verse 3

01:26 Verse 4

01:52 Verse 5

02:16 Verse 6

2:51 Meaning in 3 languages

Ref links:

Sanskrit meanings:

https://kksfusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Ganesa-Pancharathnam-Lecture-Notes.pdf

https://greenmesg.org/stotras/ganesha/ganesha_pancharatnam.php

Hindi meanings: 

https://www.sanatanatva.com/articles/shri-ganeshapancharatnam-mudakarattamodakam

The quest to decode the story of Hrshi Brnghi in the Skanda Purana continues.

In the Skanda Purana Hrshi Brnghi is seen disrespecting Parvati Devi and only venerating Shri Shiva. Is this a perpetuation of patriarchy?

What is Moksha /Liberation? Why do Yogis prefer to disengage from the world?

These questions are answered in this episode.

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Video of fire: Pexels Videos 2715412(Gam01-Pexels)