Sri Vigna Rajam Bhaje -

Anything that can go wrong will go wrong is murphy's law. That's Vigna, the disturbance in every work we do. How do we fail murphy's law, overcome Vigna that makes work go wrong..?

Oothukadu venkata kavi's Sri Vigna Rajam Bhaje

Oothukadu Venkata Kavi says all kinds of vigna (disturbances) submit to Vigna-rAjA, the elephant faced, who always manifests in our 'self', to overcome vigna, when invoked by us. Since he manifests, he is said to be the son of Shiva, the unmanifest witness.

Even Indra and devas invoke this vigna-rAjA. He is the leader of the herd to the devoted, enemy to the 'terrible' who roam randomly at will (matanga). He destroys wandering, gives focus and peace to 'self', thereby helping to overcome vigna, the disturbances in our work.

Tat tvam asi points to the unmanifest witness (Shiva, Atman) in us. Vigna-rAja is the manifest form of Shiva, in our 'self', who destroys terrible wandering, gives focus, peace to handle all the vigna (disturbances), caused by jealousy, fear, foolishness and intoxicating thoughts due to kali.

Submit to that white elephantine mountain decorated with golden ornaments, whose lotus eyes enamors, leads us to nectar of devotion, gives us focus, peace to overcome all the vigna. This is the crux of words of great rishis like Sanaka, Suka, Narada, Patanjali, Parasara and Matanga.

Who is Ganapati..?

In reality, Mind or Manas is the hidden Elephant. The organs of the body are the ganas that Elephantine mind or manas controls. Hence Ganapati is Elephant headed. The elephantine mind or manas is supremely powerful but can be deceived and controlled with a simple rope (of bhakti).

If our self or aham becomes synonymous to this elephantine mind or manas, there's none to control it. It will run amok and cause destruction to self or others.  But if our aham or self goes closer to the manas-sAksi, the witness in our mind, which is the manifestation of that Atman, then that aham or self with  manas-sAksi can control the mind and fight the battles of life.

Ganapati is simply the external picturization of our mind.  When we start or when we are in junctions or crossings of life where we need to decide the turn we have to take, we have to apply our mind. Ganapati is kept there to remind that to us.

We hit on our temples to bring focus and attention of our mind to the task we are committing. We meditate on Lord Vishnu when we start anything to give us focus to our mind, our ganapati.