SRI MAHAGANAPATI MEDITATION

A N I N - D E P T H G U I D E

By Sri Atmananda
email : maakash@md4.vsnl.net.in

Let us pray to the lineage of Gurus from Lord Dakshinamurti to (one’s

own Guru), to dispel the clouds of darkness by the winds of grace.

In the usual procedure of imparting mantras during initiation,
it is typically the Mahaganapathy mantra that is first given to
the seeker by the Guru, along with the Gurupaduka and Bala
mantras.
The process of meditation begins with imagining the form of
the deity as described in the meditation verse, called the
dhyana sloka. The dhyana sloka of Mahaganapathy describes
His ten-armed form (eleven including His trunk), with His
Shakti (wife), Siddhalakshmi, seated on His left lap. She wears
lustrous ornaments, and embraces Him with one hand while
holding a lotus in the other. The weapons in the Lord’s arms
are (sequentially clockwise, from the right lowermost arm to
the left) the pomegranate, mace, sugarcane, trident, and
discus; and (descending now from the left uppermost arm)
lotus, noose, blue lily, paddy and a broken tusk. In His trunk is
a jewel-studded ornamental pot filled with nectar.
What follows is a method to help us to visualize
Mahaganapathy’s form while chanting His mantra, which con-
sists of 28 letters in the Sanskrit alphabet:

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Om SrIm HrIm KlIm glaum gam
ganapataye varavarada sarvajanam me vasamAnaya svAhA
1. First, while repeating Om, mentally imagine the beautiful
elephant face of the Lord.
2. SrIm indicates the divine couple, Lakshmi and Narayana.
Imagine in Mahaganapathy’s right uppermost arm the discus
of Narayana and in the left uppermost arm the lotus of
Laksmi. They represent Time and the Earth (in its gross
aspect), respectively. This appears to us as the Time-Space
continuum (the sthiti), which prevents an individual from
experiencing the eternal. We can here interpret this as relat-
ing to an individual in the world and his seeking of a Guru to
him experience the unlimited.
3. HrIm indicates the divine couple, Gauri and Sankara.
Imagine in the second-from-the-top right arm the trident of
Sankara, and in the corresponding left arm the noose of
Gauri. They represent the removal of triputi (the three
stages of experience- the seen, the seer and the act of see-
ing) and of desires respectively. This is the annihilation (
samhara), which is the removal of the individual ego by the
grace of a compassionate Guru.
4. KlIm indicates the divine couple, Rati and Manmatha.
Imagine in the third-from-top right arm the sugarcane bow
of Manmatha, and in the corresponding left arm the blue lily
of Rati. They represent pure mind and secret spiritual knowl-
edge, respectively. This may be likened to creation (srusti) of
a new field of experience for the blessed aspirant by the
Guru, in directing him to follow a given path (sadhana) to
attain a constant experience of the eternal.
5. Glaum indicates the divine couple, Bhumi (Earth) and
Varaha (the boar-faced avatar of Vishnu). Imagine in the
fourth-from-top right arm the mace of Varaha, and in the
corresponding left arm the paddy, indicative of Earth’s fer-
tility. They represent action and cycle of life (cyclic in the
sense of sowing, reaping, and again sowing), respectively.
Though this may be likened to veiling of the universal experi-
ence (tirodhana), for an aspirant it is more akin to being led
by the Guru to complete detachment, in renouncing all fruits
of his actions.
6. Gam indicates the divine couple, Siddhalaksmi and
Mahganapathy. Imagine in the right-lowermost arm the
pomegranate, representing different universes stacked like
pomegranate seeds; and in the corresponding left arm the
tusk which represents the fruit of all sadhana, Ekam sat, the
One Truth, which is the experience of unqualified, undivided
Brahman as Bliss. This verily is the grace (anugraha) whereby
the seeker dives into a deep state of samadhi upon constant
practice and the grace of the Guru, who merges into him.
Kadambari
7. Ganapataye is the form for invoking the Lord. Imagine
your head resting upon His feet. This implies a continuance
of the above-noted state of Samadhi.
8. varavarada is a prayer to the Lord to bestow upon us the
best boons and blessings. Meditate here upon the ornamen-
tal pot of nectar held by His trunk. Imagine that He is show-
ering it over you and you are drenched. The best of boons is
the experience of the Unlimited Bliss that leads to immortal-
ity; amruta. This may represent the sahaja state, wherein the
realized one goes about his daily chores but remains aware of
his blissful state always. (The dhyana sloka ends with a prayer
to the Lord – who is the creator, sustainer and annihilator of
the world – to bestow our cherished boons.)
9. sarvajanam me vasamAnaya means “let all people be sub-
jugated to me.” We find the clue for our meditation in the
word “people,” which indicates the Universe. The embrace of
Siddalakshmi can be interpreted as the creative urge and the
lotus in the other hand as the manifest (gross) Earth (the last
subtle element; the result by default of mixing the other
four previous subtle elements). Hence we meditate on
Siddhalakshmi – the Creatrix of the Universe, seated on the
left lap of the Lord – with a firm conviction that the world,
the divine couple and the self are One.
10. Finally, svAhA indicates an offering into the fire (here we
are also reminded of the fire sacrifice, ganapathy homam).
Since whatever is offered into the fire becomes one with it,
meditate upon the above truth and try to be in that experi-
ence for a moment.
Sri Ganesa Aids Sri Lalita Devi in Battle
Bhandasura, overcome with grief at the slaying of his 30
sons by Sri Balambika, commanded his Prime Minister,
Vishanga, to destroy the enemy by any means. So Vishanga
threw a vigna yantra (a mystical diagram that causes obsta-
cles to arise) into the fire-walled fortress; and this caused the
entire army of Sri Devi Lalita to grow lazy and tired. You see,
this vigna yantra had eight powers installed in it – Alsa (lazi-
ness), krpaNa (miserliness), dIna (fear), nidrA (sleep), tandrA
(tiredness), pramIlikA (inability to rest; persistent wakeful-
ness), klIbA (impotency) and nirahamkAra (feigned humility;
lack of self-confidence).
Only Sri Lalita Devi-Kameswari, Her Prime Minister Sri Matangi,
and Her Commander-in-Chief Sri Varahi were unaffected by
the yantra’s power. On request of Matangi and Varahi, Sri
Lalita Devi glanced lovingly at Her Lord Kamesvara. The
mighty Ganesa, with ten arms and his Sakti on His left lap,
emerged from the union of the divine couple’s glance. He
searched inside the fort, found the vighna yantra buried
deep in the soil, wrenched it out and destroyed it.
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He then created six couples like Himself – named rddhi-
Amoda, samruddhi-pramoda, kAnti-sumukha , madanAvati-
durmukha, madadravA-avighna, and draviNI-vighnakart – and
seven lakh (700,000) troops in His form to engage in the bat-
tle. Viewing the mighty forces arrayed before him, Vishanga
sent Gajaasura, an elephant-faced asura, along with seven
akshauhini armies, but they were completely vanquished by
Mahaganapathy. Highly pleased with these heroic deeds, Sri
Lalita conferred upon Ganesa (Mahaganapathy) the boon of
the right to be worshiped before all other deities.
The Philosophical Meaning of the Battle
The Lalita Sahasranama describes the emergence and valor
of Ganesa in two names (77 & 78). In his commentary,
Bhaskararaya identifies Ganesa as Lord of the Gana, which
are the puryastaka: (1) five karmendriyas; (2) five gnanen-
driyas; (3) mana with bhuddi, ahamkara; (4) five pranas; (5)
five bhutas; (6) kaama (desire); (7) karma (action); and (8)
avidya (ignorance). The destruction of Bhanda’s 30 sons (who
Kadambari
represent the ego) was caused by the actions of the ten
indiryas in the three states of waking, sleep and deep sleep
(i.e., 10 x 3 = 30) by Balambika (who represents the constant
awareness of the identity of self with Divine), creating doubt
of the jivabhava (individual ego). The word jiva means the
individual self possessed of the idea that he commands the
above puryastaka. When these ideas are destroyed by the
True Knowledge of the Lord of puryastaka (which is the
knowledge created by ascertaining the true nature of the
self), then there are no qualities left to be qualified.
Let us offer our most humble salutations to the
feet of the Guru, who has guided us in this med-
itation.
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