Sukhakarta - Radiant Joy of the Ganesha Chant

This Hindi prayer describes Lord Ganapathi as sukha karta (one who does and brings good) and a dukha harta (one who removes all sorrows and evil). This great God looks after the health and well being of all His devotees.
Song from the album "Maha Ganesha - Sonu Niigaam"

Sukhakarta hai swarupa tera tum dukhaharta nischit ho
Sukhakarta hai swarupa tera tum dukhaharta nischit ho
Swami gajanana bhakto ke hridkamlo mein tum baste ho
Swami gajanana bhakto ke hridkamlo mein tum baste ho

Sri gajanana jai gajanana sri gajanana
Sri gajanana jai gajanana sri gajanana

Prithvi jal aakash vayu agni ish gan ke adhipati ho
Prithvi jal aakash vayu agni ish gan ke adhipati ho
Nrigunatwa ke pancha mahabhutatmaka aasaya ganapati ho
Nrigunatwa ke pancha mahabhutatmaka aasaya ganapati ho

Param tatwa jo siva kehlaye uski hi pratimurat ho
Param tatwa jo siva kehlaye uski hi pratimurat ho
Siv-sakti sammilana sambhaba saktitrayatmak swami ho
Siv-sakti sammilana sambhaba saktitrayatmak swami ho

Siddhiswar ho riddhiswar ho sarv guno ke nayak ho
Siddhiswar ho riddhiswar ho sarv guno ke nayak ho
Sarv guno mein baskar bhi nirbarchya brahmatatwatmak ho
Nirbarchya brahmatatwatmak ho…

Agya jano ke hitkari sansari jano ke tarak ho
Agya jano ke hitkari sansari jano ke tarak ho
Sarvgunatmak hokar bhi omkar brahma bhi tum bhi ho
Sarvgunatmak hokar bhi omkar brahma bhi tum bhi ho

Sri gajanana jai gajanana sri gajanana
Sri gajanana jai gajanana sri gajanana
Sri gajanana jai gajanana sri gajanana
Sri gajanana jai gajanana sri ga janana

Ganesh Smaranam - Invocation of Maha Ganesha

Ganesh Smaranam is a shloka in praise of the various virtues of the Elephantine God – the ocean of knowledge and the one who brings prosperity and happiness on Earth – to remove all obstacles from our paths and enable a happy and fulfilled existence.

Song from the album "Maha Ganesha - Sonu Niigaam"

Vakratunda mahakaya suryakoti samaprabha
Vakratunda mahakaya suryakoti samaprabha
Nirbighnam kuru me deba sarbakaryesu sarvada

Sumukhaschya Ekadantaschya kapilo gajkarnakah
Sumukhaschya Ekadantaschya kapilo gajkarnakah
Lambodaraschya vikato bhignonasho ganadhipah

Dhumraketu ganadhaksheyo bhalachandro gajananah
Dhumraketu ganadhaksheyo bhalachandro gajananah
Dwadasotani namani yah patheth srinuyadapi

Vidyarambhe vivahe cha prabeshe nirgame tatha
Vidyarambhe vivahe cha prabeshe nirgame tatha
Sangrame sankate chaiba bighnastashya na jayate

Suklam baradharam devam sasivarnah chatubhrujam
Suklam baradharam devam sasivarnah chatubhrujam
Prasannabadanam dhyayet sarbo bighnopashantaye

Namashtasmey ganeshaya brahmavidya pradayine
Namashtasmey ganeshaya brahmavidya pradayine
Yashya gashtya yate nama bighna sagara sosane

Yannama grahana deba api mangala mapnuban
Yannama grahana deba api mangala mapnuban
Riddhi siddhi pradataram
Riddhi siddhi pradataram
Tam namami gajananam
Tam namami gajananam

Ganesh Kavach - The Shield of Ganesha

Through this beautiful stotra, we (His disciples) bow and pray in front of Lord Ganesha (also referred as the Lord of Peacock) to provide us a kavach or shield of his divine countenance and powers. His kavach also shields our minds from evils; his blessings extend from the individual to entire society to make this world an abode of good and all that is virtuous.
Song from the album "Maha Ganesha - Sonu Niigaam" ...

Mayuresham gunatmanam parambrahma swarupinam
Vignesham bhaktabaradam bhaje meh bhishtasidhaye

Gajanana gajanana vighna vinayak gajanana
Gajanana gajanana vighna vinayak gajanana

Sumukhah patu me vaktram sunetrah patu me drisham
Payad bhalam madashtroh ahamkar vinashakrut

Shrutirupah sada rakhyet sarbatah sa hi me srutim
Vedavakpti me vacham anekapo mukham mama

Skandhou patu balishthoyam hridayam patu me sada
Lambodara udadaram payat patu navim sa vishwasrik

Riddhi siddhipatih patu hasto tabhyam prabatrayet
Karyarth sah swanandah phaladahsyad gurustatha

Kalou mein duritatpatu manah kuryatsa sanskrutam
Parabrahmaswarupatma kuryadwasam sada hridi

Dushtans dandey nityam sajannanam sahayyakrat
Sajannanan preraye nityam ganesho bhakta bhatchalah
Rastratam patu swara drupom viratatshya samhridye
Vishwakalyanakrinatyam sarbakamanprapurayeh

Gajanana gajanana vighna vinayak gajanana
Gajanana gajanana vighna vinayak gajanana

Etad ganesh kavacham bhaktimanyah padhe narah
Sausmimscha yuge nityam ganeshashya prasadatah
Loka kalyanakari syat punatyma swat sunischitam
Sthirachhitah beinityam, ganeshashya priyo bhabet

Gajanana gajanana vighna vinayak gajanana
Gajanana gajanana vighna vinayak gajanana

Sharanam Prapadye - Sacred Prayer of Harmony

Sharanam Prapadye is a tribute to all the virtue of Lord Ganesha, who, through his divine countenance, pleasant appearance and magical powers brings joy and dispels all sorrows from our lives…
This is the first song from the album "Maha Ganesha - Sonu Niigaam"...

Lasantam hi suklendu kantam prasannam
Ganesha namah karam madya swarupam
Chidanand santa swarupam paresam
Tam saumya rupam sharanam prapadye
Tam saumya rupam sharanam prapadye

Lakh divya sanstradi hastesu nityam
Lakh divya sanstradi hastesu nityam
Sada tatparo bhakta dhukham chahartum
Prasidhah sada saumya kasisaputrah
Tam saumya rupam sharanam prapadye
Tam saumya rupam sharanam prapadye

Gajashye sada bhasamanam prasannam
Gajashye sada bhasamanam prasannam
Vahanchantakarenyam bhabaudham aarsham
Puranadisashtresu yadywarnitau bei
Tam saumya rupam sharanam prapadye
Tam saumya rupam sharanam prapadye

Ganesham gunesham suresham paresham
Sada shantamudram prasannam sunetram
Jagadwashtubhasam chidatma swarupam
Tam saumya rupam sharanam prapadye
Tam saumya rupam sharanam prapadye

Vasacchandrabimbam sada yasya murdhirni
Vasacchandrabimbam sada yasya murdhirni
Vahanti sada janhawi sa samipa
Ubhe yasya sadgatya sada santarupe
Tam saumya rupam sharanam prapadye

Tam saumya rupam sharanam prapadye...

The Reasons...

I can’t tell the reasons
Why we see
Lots of cultural differences between cities

I can’t tell the reasons
Why we remember
Our friends more than ourselves

I can’t tell the reasons
Why we remember
Our sweet past with some dear ones

I can’t tell the reasons
Why we wait
For mails of our friends

I can’t tell the reasons
Why we look for
Good comments from someone unknown

I can’t tell the reasons
Why we wait for
A gift from someone near

I can’t tell the reasons
Why we feel
Love is eternal happiness

I can’t tell the reasons
Why we long
To love and to be loved ...

It’s gone (My USA Course Story…)

When life gets better of me, I turn to God for help and most of the time He seems to be there. But I know to the extent to which I should seek help from Him. From the inside of my heart, I hear, "Don’t you think, it’s too much to ask this from Him? He has lots to do other than listening to your problems." I come to my real senses and still ask for a little less and most of the time, that little less goes in favour of somebody else with whom I associate my sad story...

That day was entirely different, I asked for somebody else. God, please save Rohan (Name changed). I did not have any problem if I do not get a certificate from an USA University, but somehow, I had the feeling that it was an important thing for Rohan. God neither helped me nor Rohan. The day was really a sad day for me thinking about him.

We started a course from one USA University, took online recorded lecturers, stayed late night at office to complete assignments and to submit them on-time. Lots of group activities, dividing the work, explaining others any doubts if they had, brain-storming lot of things for a project that we did for that course... and lot more... Everything was good, we were getting good marks in the assignments and that kept us going further with the great pace that we had with the course... We had final exams and there we had in 2 sections; one in-house and one take-home. We did well in in-house exam without much preparation as we were busy in our daily office work. All the things changed as if a big storm came and took away all the hopes we had out of this course when our take-home part was corrected. Coincidentally my answer got matched with Rohan 's answer and it caught Professor's eyes. He asked us to withdraw from the course...

This issue went to office management; they had a couple of mail exchange with the professor and had a talk too. Final decision was to quit from the course and to agree that we did copy of each other's answer (Though we did not mention that in the mail that we sent for quitting the course!).

A sure green looking path went to dead-end. We could not complete our journey; the journey, for which we were so excited, so prepared and for which we were working so hard. Life is a great teacher. It teaches a lot in its due span of time. Things change and we move on. I told myself "This is not the end of life, I may get many more similar things in future, so nothing to worry, keep going"...

Don’t know how?

Sky is there
Don't know how,
Stars have changed...

Moon is there
Don't know how,
Moonlight has changed...

People are there
Don't know how,
Behavior has changed...

Temples are there
Don't know how,
Spiritualism has changed...

Rose is there
Don’t know how,
Beauty has changed…

Flowers are there
Don’t know how,
Fragrance has changed…

Love is there
Don't know how,
Purity has changed…

We are here
Don't know how,
Time has changed...

You are there
Don't know why,
You have changed...
Don't know how,
You have changed...

Why do I?

Date: 13th May 2009. It is polling day in Tamilnadu and my office has declared a holiday on account of this. I am at home now. Time: 11 AM. Mom is busy watching her favourite telugu serials on TV which is the last thing that I want to watch on TV. Switched on my laptop and some random thoughts went in my mind, that finally took the shape as the post below:

Do I know her?
Why am I looking for her in every place?
Why do I think that she will be there waiting for the same bus?
Why do I search for her in all the chambers of a train?
Why do I try to find her face in others’?

Do I know that she likes rain?
Why do I wait for heavy rain in this summer?
Why do I think that she will come to me in this rain?
Why do I compare the rainbow with her face?
Why do I look for her smile in all the rain drops?

Do I know that she likes peaceful places?
Why do I look for her in all the temples?
Why any peaceful place reminds me of her?
Why do I sit alone thinking that she will come to me?
Why do I feel alone being in the crowd?

Do I know that she plays with alphabets a lot?
Why do I try to form most of her name from any random name?
Why do I stop at the tea shop named in her name to sip a cup of tea?
Why do I glance at every frame of the shop to find her name?
Why do I look for her name in all the novels that I read?

Do I know that she likes songs a lot?
Why do I hear her sweet voice from each of the song that I listen?
Why do I try to sing all her favourite songs though I can’t?
Why do I see her face smiling with all the words of the song?
Why do I write songs for her though I know, I can’t?

Can they do without me?

Question:

If your organization continues to execute very well while you are away on vacation, do you feel sad that they could do without you, or proud that they could do without you? Likewise, if they stumble when you go on vacation, do you stick out your chest and proclaim, "They can't do it without me!"?

My Answer:

There is a famous saying, "A wise man said, follow me ..., and he followed ...". I feel, the same goes true with great leaders. Leaders truly prove to their position, when they allow others to grow and see them as future leaders.
Now, to answer the question above, if the organization is doing well without me, then I will be happy in the sense that the company has found somebody as eligible as me, and in other way, it has found many ways to progress... I think, that is the way, an organization grows... You make somebody eligible, and you move on to the next level, and there is no end of levels for one's future ...

The Love...

Everyone wants to be loved; it is a natural phenomenon. And most of us have realized that the best way to be loved is to love. It is the give and take philosophy. The purity you show in one way, the same pure love you get from the other end. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Similarly, for every love that you give, you get equal love (re-love!).
Fear is not love, dependence is not love, jealousy is not love, possessiveness and domination are not love, responsibility and duty are not love, self-pity is not love, the agony of not being loved is not love, love is not the opposite of hate any more than humility is the opposite of vanity.

Now, I know, all the readers are thinking what this love I am talking about here…To answer this, let me take few words from one of my favorite author’s article; it is J. Krishnamurthy on Love…

We are not loved because we don't know how to love. What is love? The word is so loaded and corrupted that I hardly like to use it. Everybody talks of love - every magazine and newspaper and every missionary talks everlastingly of love. I love my country, I love my king, I love some book, I love that mountain, I love pleasure, I love my wife, I love God. Is love an idea? If it is, it can be cultivated, nourished, cherished, pushed around, twisted in any way you like… When you say you love God what does it mean? It means that you love a projection of your own imagination, a projection of yourself clothed in certain forms of respectability according to what you think is noble and holy; so to say, `I love God', is absolute nonsense. When you worship God you are worshipping yourself - and that is not love.
Because we cannot solve this human thing called love we run away into abstractions. Love may be the ultimate solution to all man's difficulties, problems and travails, so how are we going to find out what love is; by merely defining it? The church has defined it one way, society another, and there are all sorts of deviations and perversions. Adoring someone, sleeping with someone, the emotional exchange, the companionship - is that what we mean by love? That has been the norm, the pattern, and it has become so tremendously personal, sensuous, and limited that religions have declared that love is something much more than this. In what they call human love they see there is pleasure, competition, jealousy, the desire to possess, to hold, to control and to interfere with another's thinking, and knowing the complexity of all this they say there must be another kind of love, divine, beautiful, untouched, uncorrupted.
Can love be divided into the sacred and the profane, the human and the divine, or is there only love? Is love of the one and not of the many? If I say, ‘I love you’, does that exclude the love of the other? Is love personal or impersonal? Moral or immoral? Family or non-family? If you love mankind can you love the particular? Is love sentiment? Is love emotion? Is love pleasure and desire? All these questions indicate, don't they, that we have ideas about love, ideas about what it should or should not be, a pattern or a code developed by the culture in which we live.
Belonging to another, being psychologically nourished by another, depending on another - in all this there must always be anxiety, fear, jealousy, guilt, and so long as there is fear there is no love; a mind ridden with sorrow will never know what love is; sentimentality and emotionalism have nothing whatsoever to do with love. And so love is not to do with pleasure and desire.
Love is not the product of thought which is the past. Thought cannot possibly cultivate love. Love is not hedged about and caught in jealousy, for jealousy is of the past. Love is always active present. It is not `I will love' or `I have loved'. If you know love you will not follow anybody. Love does not obey. When you love there is neither respect nor disrespect. Don't you know what it means really to love somebody - to love without hate, without jealousy, without anger, without wanting to interfere with what he is doing or thinking, without condemning, without comparing - don't you know what it means? Where there is love, is there comparison? When you love someone with all your heart, with your entire mind, with all your body, with your entire being, is there comparison? When you totally abandon yourself to that love there is not the other.
In this torn desert world there is no love because pleasure and desire play the greatest roles, yet without love your daily life has no meaning. And you cannot have love if there is no beauty. Beauty is not something you see - not a beautiful tree, a beautiful picture, a beautiful building or a beautiful woman. There is beauty only when your heart and mind know what love is. Without love and that sense of beauty there is no virtue, and you know very well that, do what you will, improve society, feed the poor, you will only be creating more mischief, for without love there is only ugliness and poverty in your own heart and mind. But when there is love and beauty, whatever you do is right, whatever you do is in order. If you know how to love, then you can do what you like because it will solve all other problems. So we reach the point: can the mind come upon love without discipline, without thought, without enforcement, without any book, any teacher or leader - come upon it as one comes upon a lovely sunset? It seems to me that one thing is absolutely necessary and that is passion without motive - passion that is not the result of some commitment or attachment, passion that is not lust. A man who does not know what passion is will never know love because love can come into being only when there is total self-abandonment. A mind that is seeking is not a passionate mind and to come upon love without seeking it is the only way to find it - to come upon it unknowingly and not as the result of any effort or experience. Such a love, you will find, is not of time; such a love is both personal and impersonal, is both the one and the many. Like a flower that has perfume you can smell it or pass it by. That flower is for everybody and for the one who takes trouble to breathe it deeply and look at it with delight. Whether one is very near in the garden, or very far away, it is the same to the flower because it is full of that perfume and therefore it is sharing with everybody.
Love is something that is new, fresh, alive. It has no yesterday and no tomorrow. It is beyond the turmoil of thought. It is only the innocent mind which knows what love is, and the innocent mind can live in the world which is not innocent. To find this extraordinary thing which man has sought endlessly through sacrifice, through worship, through relationship, through sex, through every form of pleasure and pain, is only possible when thought comes to understand itself and comes naturally to an end. Then love has no opposite, then love has no conflict. You may ask, `If I find such a love, what happens to my wife, my children, my family? They must have security.' When you put such a question you have never been outside the field of thought, the field of consciousness. When once you have been outside that field you will never ask such a question because then you will know what love is in which there is no thought and therefore no time. You may read this mesmerized and enchanted, but actually to go beyond thought and time - which means going beyond sorrow - is to be aware that there is a different dimension called love. But you don't know how to come to this extraordinary fount - so what do you do? If you don't know what to do, you do nothing, don't you? Absolutely nothing. Then inwardly you are completely silent. Do you understand what that means? It means that you are not seeking, not wanting, not pursuing; there is no centre at all. Then there is love.
Love cannot be taught. If people could be taught how to love, the world problem would be very simple, would it not? If we could learn how to love from a book as we learn mathematics, this would be a marvelous world; there would be no hate, no exploitation, no wars, no division of rich and poor, and we would all be really friendly with each other. But love is not so easily come by. It is easy to hate, and hate brings people together after a fashion; it creates all kinds of fantasies, it brings about various types of co-operation, as in war. But love is much more difficult. You cannot learn how to love, but what you can do is to observe hate and put it gently aside. Don't battle against hate, don't say how terrible it is to hate people, but see hate for what it is and let it drop away; brush it aside, it is not important. What is important is not to let hate take root in your mind. Do you understand? Your mind is like rich soil, and if given sufficient time any problem that comes along takes root like a weed, and then you have the trouble of pulling it out; but if you do not give the problem sufficient time to take root, then it has no place to grow and it will wither away. If you encourage hate, give it time to take root, to grow, to mature, it becomes an enormous problem. But if each time hate arises you let it go by, then you will find that your mind becomes very sensitive without being sentimental; therefore it will know love. The mind can pursue sensations, desires, but it cannot pursue love. Love must come to the mind. And, when once love is there, it has no division as sensuous and divine: it is love. That is the extraordinary thing about love: it is the only quality that brings a total comprehension of the whole of existence.

Love is not just a relationship, it should be state of being.

I wish...

• There is only one language throughout India, wait.. may be throughout the world… (World is little too much, but its OK, its just my wishes and I was told that wish is a wish though you are sure that it can not be achieved even in your wildest dreams!)
• There is same set of festivals all over the world (Hmm, now I can use the word, “World”)… Once it is holiday in place A, we are very sure that it is the same for place B.
• There are only 2 kinds of people; male and female; no castes, no religions …
• Nobody lies below poverty line; all money from Swiss bank to flow to the poor, so that everybody has equal amount of money…
• All students get same teaching, all schools having the same curriculum…
• Everybody gets a house to live and easily make both ends meet …
• We are truly democratic! (Err… I know, India is, but see, it’s only in paper…)
• Everybody is heard correctly and soundly, regardless of age and power…
• Summer should not be that hot that we need artificial way to suppress it…
• The above goes same for all other seasons (winter and rain)…
• All leave their lives cheerfully without the fear of killed by others, may be 100% valid for animals and birds…
• All are healthy and no “Swine Flu” kind of viruses…
• Newton is still with us finding something new for us…
• All my wishes come true some day :)
• And fianlly, I wish that I wish and ... I wish….

Change ...

There was a blind girl who hated herself just because she was blind. She hated everyone, except her loving boyfriend. He was always there for her. She said if she could only see the world, she would marry her boyfriend.
One day, someone donated a pair of eyes to her and then she could see everything, including her boyfriend. Her boyfriend asked her, “now that you can see the world, will you marry me?” The girl was shocked when she saw that her boyfriend was blind too, and refused to marry him.
Her boyfriend walked away in tears, and later wrote a letter to her saying “JUST TAKE CARE OF MY EYES PLEASE”…
This is how humans change when their status changes. Only few remember what life was before, and who has always been there in the most painful situations.