Subispeaks

Subispeaks

January 25, 2006

Thoughts for the day

Beginning with Lord Ganesha

I felt great this morning having unusually risen at 4:30 AM. It is pretty cold outside with temperature in 30s. Fortunately, our home is comfortably heated.

It is my practice to begin the day by praying to Lord Ganesha- called by many names such as Pillayar, Vinayaka, Vigneswara, Ganapathi and so on. According to our ancient scriptures, He is the one who clears obstacles. In Chennai, almost every street corner has a temple for him. In some of them, there are two idols of Ganesha that led me to think why two of them. Do you know why? Let me leave the readers to think about it.

There is also the practice of doing "Thoppikaranam" before the Pillayar. It is a unique exercise wherein one holds both the ears with crossed hands and move the body up and down (is there a single word for it?). The story goes that Ganesha pulled out the Chakra from his uncle Vishnu's hand and put it in his mouth. Vishnu pleaded with Ganesha to return the Chakra- you know how hard it is to extricate anything from a child! Eventually, Vishnu did "Thoppikaranam" - In Sanskrit, "thorpi" means hands, and "karnam" means ears- Ganesha started laughing and out came the Chakra. Vishnu grabbed the Chakra and vanished.

So much for now. Enjoy the day.