श्री गणेश अथर्वशीर्ष स्तोत्र - Solution to all worries

I, The Girl with Prosthesis, Khyati Mehta is committed to give you inspiration from daily life and with her own commitment to talk about "Shree Ganesh Atharvashirsha Stotra" I am right here on the "Saturday Inspiration" talk today.

To begin with - थर्व means which is moving and अथर्व means which is immovable, Stable, Static, Stationary. So अथर्वशीर्ष means a head which is stable. Let me take you to the deeper meaning of this. This also means head which is strong with it's thoughts, immovable from his strong positive beliefs in self, stable in all conditions and situations.

I insist every reader of this blog to learn अथर्वशीर्ष स्तोत्र not just today but every single day and you will see a sudden change in your own self. The reason I tell you is it's meaning and simplicity of recitation. अथर्वशीर्ष स्तोत्र is a Ved Mantra (Vedochaar also we call it) and to recite a Ved Mantra generally we need a scholar Brahmin or Pandit. But अथर्वशीर्ष स्तोत्र Ved Mantra is easy for all of us to remember, sing and also understand it's meaning.

Beauty of this stotra says, Shree Ganesha reaches to the mass of all cast, creed, culture, clan to convey the message of Unity of Living being with Supremacy. And that is why we see that all Regions and Religions are preaching Lord Ganesha and having faith on him as विघ्नहर्ता (Destroyer of Troubles)

नमो व्रातपतये । नमो गणपतये । नमः प्रमथपतये ।
नमस्तेऽस्तु लम्बोदरायैकदन्ताय । विघ्ननाशिने शिवसुताय वरदमूर्तये नमः ॥१० ॥

Just like Lord Ganesha; if we look into the history; great leaders like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Vinoba Bhave, Saint Tukaram, Saint Gyaneshwar, Saint Shankaracharya, Saint Vallabhacharya and also Divine Leaders like Lord Ram, Lord Krishna etc have reached out to common man - Hut to Hut and Heart to Heart to spread the message of presence of Divine Supreme power residing within ourselves. It is our duty to spread the message of divinity and unity among the society once you learn it and understand it yourself. Do not keep this treasure to yourself alone, share it till you think you can with all your strength and might - Physical, Emotional, Financial, Spiritual, Devotional, Social and Philosophical.

Before you start reading the Sanskrit lyrics of Ved Mantra - अथर्वशीर्ष स्तोत्र, I am putting few points explained in the stora in simplest way:

- You are everything and Everything is in you!

- You are everything and You are only that soul which resides in each living being!

- You are the 5 Elements of earth, You are the Vowels and Consonant, You are the Generator, Operator and Destroyer.

- You are in all 4 direction, You are above me, You are below me, You are around me, You are within me.

- You are the light and life within living being and we are just ONE!

- You are beyond any boundaries can define you and any definition that any limited intellect can talk about.

- You protect us in the form of 5 Elements of earth, You are in everything and Everything is in You, that empowers you to protect your own self.

- Irrespective of you wishing or not, Universe will keep on getting renewed with unlimited innovations and keep on expanding just like you keep doing your Karma every single micro to mini seconds.

I am putting the stotra image below to read it. This stotra is divided in 3 parts : शान्ति मंत्र (Shanti Mantra), स्तुति (Stuti) & फलश्रुति (Fal Shruti).

From Stotra 1 to 10 is what comprises of शान्ति मंत्र and स्तुति which is most important to understand the meaning of this stotra.

Purpose of sharing this Stotra:

So, friends in this pandemic time when day in day out we are seeing loss of family members, friends, relatives, neighbors or any of our inspiring characters due to this Contagious Flu like virus Covid19, we are feeling down and sad. 

If we sing अथर्वशीर्ष स्तोत्र after understanding it's meaning, suddenly there will be a spark within us. This spark will ignite our soul with the meaning that all the disappearance of any individual from it's physical form from our life and leaving us behind alone have actually not gone away from us.

 Now our loved one who supposedly claimed as died, have gone no where but have become the United Energy of a soul and always remember - Total Amount of Energy in Universe remains same. It just transforms from one form to another. 

Thus our loved ones who have left us from physical presence are also still with us, around us but in different form that we are unable to recognize.

DO YOU WANT TO RECOGNIZE THEM? Ans - Of course YES! What to do for that?? 

Simple - Do you Remember what I wrote earlier? - You are everything and Everything is in you! 

It means, Living being who left us in physical form actually transforms into a Soul. (One of the form of Energy)

DO YOU KNOW WHERE DOES SOUL RESIDE? Ans - Of course YES! Within Our self!

With the help of this Energy known as Soul, we do all the activities in daily life. 

SO NOW CAN YOU RELATE SOMETHING ABOUT WHERE DID YOUR LOVED ONE GO? Ans - Of Course YES! Our Loved One's physical form is transformed to another form of Energy i.e. Soul.

Just know one fact, Soul is always ONE! SO your loved one is right within you actively helping you to grow and manifest your dreams, goals and aspirations.

Lastly, I want to end this blog with 1 important information given in this Ved Mantra :

- Irrespective of you wishing or not, Universe will keep on getting renewed with unlimited innovations and keep on expanding just like you keep doing your Karma every single micro to mini seconds.

So?

Stop worrying about Phases of life like Happiness or Sadness. All Phases and emotions will keep coming and going. Live life like an observer. This will detach you from stress of result (Good or Bad) and your life will be a bliss as you will enjoy doing Karma.

If you really feel free from all stress after reading this blog, DO give yourself one chance to learn these Ved Mantra - "Shree Ganesh Atharvashirsha Stotra" and see the magic of science behind words of these Ved Mantras practically helping you.

Very soon, I will sing this entire Stotra and put my recording also here for your reference.

Till then let me get inspired from my daily life and together we get inspired to live a better life - FULL OF BLISS!

सच्चिदानंद

Eco Friendly Ganeshotsav Celebration

 

Saturday Inspiration and Khyati, the girl with prosthesis is what you should wait for 👧

Today is the ausicious day of Bhadra Pad Shukla Chaturthi (As per Hindu Calender) which we also celebrate as Ganesh Chaturthi 🙏

No wonder, children to elders all have their own charm to celebrate this festival every year. For children, it is a mini vacation. It is an opportunity for elders to believe a divine spirit is coming home to be with them like a family member while for senior citizens it is one more reason to chant holy mantras and indulge themselves in "Satsang" - meeting with the purpose of remembering almighty and thy's name.

All these age clans are my inspiring models and I am going to inspire you by compiling what all I learnt in this Ganeshotsav Celebration - Celebrate this festival entirely - An Eco Friendly way!

After seeing mother nature healing after forcible lock down, there is a risen in number of ideas of Eco Friendly way of Celebration. Since last couple of years there was quite spread awareness with regards to Eco Friendly Idol worship of Lord Ganesha. Still due to restriction of the size, pattern, style, height and ofcourse pride of having highest Idol competitions, Eco Friendly Ganesh Idol acceptance was still at lower pace.

Look at the magic of lock down this year (As I say blessing in disguise) that not only Lord Ganesha arrived at all the houses with its Eco Friendly clay formation but also people turned to Eco friendly expressions and celebrations.

Eco Friendly celebration is not just about having Ganesh Idol Eco Friendly but entire celebration should be Eco Friendly. What all things included when we discuss celebration in any festival?

1 - Ganesh Idol selection from artists or making Ganesh Idol of worship by own self

2 - Decoration 

3 - Pooja or Arti or performing various rituals

4 - Prasad

5 - Visarjan

1 - Ganesh Idol selection from Artist or Learn to make your own Ganesh Idol of worship

As it says - where there is creation, there is end and thus I cover Idol Selection or making & Immersion ideas together.

• Chocolate Ganesha Idol worship : Made up of - Chocolate and food colors, Visarjan - in Milk

This will serve the purpose of distributing - Healthy Prasadam for family or community while doing the Eco Friendly Immersion.

Few Unique brains collectively presented for your future selection:

👉Here is this wonderful baking beauties - Ekta & Gunjan - Ocean Cake Bakers (The Ocean Baking Beauties) promoting Chocolate Ganesh Idol under the Save our Planet Movement inspired by our Present Prime Minister Hon. Narendra Modi ji.

👀PS - It is made by both sisters - Ekta & Gunjan by their own self and we can see their love for promoting nature conservation ideas for celebration of each festival.

👉None the less, here is ISDI, The Chocolate People (Is Di Chocolate People) offering various designs, options of decoration and all customization you can imagine of...It simply says their passion and devotion towards nature and Ganpati Bappa's arrival to your home the way you want!

• Clay Ganesha Idol worship : Made up of - Clay and Natural colors, Visarjan - in Plant Pot

This will serve the purpose of all the faith of having Lord Ganesha at home till Visarjan with zero carbon foot print. - As Immersion is done in Plant Pot we will grow a plant contributing in the Green space growth of our country.

👉Ms. Meeta Suraya from Meeta Kruti has made a kit which contrains, clay, eco friendly colors, seeds to embed in the idol. Ms. Meeta also conducts online classes so that one can make own idol and have this pleasure of celebrating the festival from start till end.(Eco Friendly Ganesha DIY kit by Meeta Suraiya)

Show stopper idea is that visarjan (immersion) has to be done in plant pot as there are seeds embedded in idol. A beautiful plant will be grown of the divine energy transformed as it changes it's form from Clay to a plant!

👉Whereas, there are some amazing inspiring people who made this video - Learn to make Clay Ganesha demonstrating the preparation of the Clay Ganesha Idol and asking to train and educate kids to adopt this method for celebration of Ganeshotsav.

2 - Eco Friendly Decoration

👉There is this beautiful lady Ms. Shubhangi Chitre; who decorates beautifully her Bapa's sthanam (place) with the little brain child of her daughter Tanu. They had made Paper Flowers and stuck them on wall such that they can always Re-Use them or Re-Cycle them, Great Job Tanu!

 

Shubhangi also inspires her to follow traditional prayers. (She does it every year without fail)

👉Let me also introduce you all with my friend Seema Khare, who believes in rituals like Bhav Pratishtha (Calling Lord at Home) of her Silver Ganesh Idol every year and perform Pseudo immersion in faith by putting idol in water for a while and then wipe it and putting back in the temple again. I call it - "Simplicity is the highest sophistication" Thank you, Seema, to show the world that Lord Ganesha arrives to your home to stay with you and thus do it all that you love to do when such a divine vibration arrives at your home. Dear friends, This conversation is between you and Thy and it's completely okay if during pandemic lock down you are unable to call the loved ones for community prayers in this festival. 

On my request Seema clicked a picture of her simple yet most beautiful celebration time.

3 - Prayers

For performing all rituals like Pran Pratishtha, Aarti, Visarjan and recite certain stotram we need scolar Brahmin or Pandit or Poojari ji. If during pandemic lock down you are unable to approach Shastri ji, I inspire you to learn those shloka, stotra and sutra and recite yourself. Do not only recite them but understand it's meaning either by attending some discourses or also you may learn Dev vani Sanskrit to understand what is the meaning of each mantra you are reciting. This will bring science behind each ritual you are performing and with logical conviction, your devotion towards festival will be manifolded. 

If you want to start from somewhere to learn what to recite during Ganeshotsav, here is "Shree Ganesh Atharva Shirsha Stotra" link of YouTube. and there are many Ashram or Publications books available from which learn yourself and sing daily and not just during Ganeshotsav. It's very effective and meaningful. Some day I will talk about this stotra as a dedicated topic of my Saturday Inspiration.

4 - Prasad (Sacrament)

👉Apart from making healthy sweets for Ganpati Bappa, there is one rock star idea I got from a Travel Trade professional, Ms. Dimple Limbadia who is following her passion to encourage home creations. She has initiated a movement - Sow Karo India, Grow Karo India and creates Marigold Seeds embedded Modak made of clay. This is one amazing Prasadam Idea where in all the relatives and friends can be given a Clay Modak with seeds embedded in Prasad and contribute in the creation of Green Layer in our country.

With this I begin this Ganeshotsav Festival with Unique ideas, devotional thoughts, selfless love for human kind, respect for mother nature, consciousness to learn Sanskrit to understand the meaning of all divine stotras and lastly sanity of serving community in the form of Prasad.

May Lord Ganesha brings sanity, righteousness, bravery, intellect, selfless love, consciousness, devotion, divinity, spirituality, humanity, respect for nature, sensitivity and all that is needed to be good to this lovely precious Mother Earth!

5th August'2020 - Ram Mandir Bhoomi Poojan Diwas

Today our Hon. PM Shri Narendra Modiji laid the 1st Stone for the pious start of the construction of Lord Ram's Temple in the city of Ayodhya where Lord Ram was born close to 10,000 years ago in Sat Yug.

Lord Shri Ram

No doubt this event was so well encouraged by our PM and to complement his enthusiasm, it was well managed as well. The best part about the event was entire country was made part of this event in various ways. For the 1st time I felt I am on the land of Ayodhya without physically being there. I got dressed up as if Temple stone is getting laid in my own house. I prepared delicacies as if Lord Ram is going to arrive at my home to have them all. 

That is how I looked today!

Prepared Bengali sweet - Sandesh

Credit for this devotional and emotional flow goes to my Sanskrit Class Guru Ragna ben as well. The way she takes all the students (She names us as Sadhak) to the devotionally intellectual journey that I seldom could think of ever exiting from this vacation I got blessed with. 

I am immersed in this devotional rush to the extent that any stotra of Ved, Upnishad, Bhagwad Geeta starts talking about how Lord Krishna is or how Lord Ram is or who all Ram or Krishna were related to in past and here I just start crying with joy of knowing someone so pious, something so infinite. My curiocity to know this divinity has increased to far more extent than I ever had. I wish to see that exact form of Lord Krishna when he sung Geetopnishad and want to hear that very voice of Lord Krishna while he was guiding a warrior Arjun.

Apart from flowing through these curiosities to go in history, I started getting amused on knowing that even I can be Purshottam - Enlightened Soul from being a mere human being. 

This I knew after knowing the very fact that "Ram" is not a name but a characteristic of a Human Being. Ram is a Sanskrit word for a characteristic - Which traverse through the universe with the message to be Yogi, Which inspires everyone to be an Enlightened soul, which teaches human being to develop oneself inward as well as outward, which inspires people to be morally true and ethical, which inspires people to take decisions in the goodness of entire society, which inspires a change that uplifts a human being and does not make slave of own bad habits, which can establish a kingdom having faith, justice, discipline, strength, respect, righteousness, gratitude, health, wealth, prosperity, peace, divinity, kindness, compassion and positive outlook - or what we call - Sat Yug. 

So the King (A Ruler) who could create a kingdom with all of the above characteristics and much more than what is interpreted by me and we can imagine something as just PERFECT - Is Ram. 

There were many people born with the name Ram even before Lord Ram was born. Lord Ram, (King Dashrath's son) truly lived his life that Adjective "Ram" as per Sanskrit language is meant to be.

 After learning these facts, my prayers to almighty has changed suddenly. 

Now I constantly pray almighty (Prayer is A form of an Ask) to seek for guidance on how to become - an Enlightened Soul (Purushottam) and during my prayers I ask, can I become such human being with a soul that Adjective of "Ram" can be applied with my name? or an adjective of "Purushottam" can be applied to my soul?

Answer to this question is my journey I am traversing right now! Shri Ram, Jai Jai Ram! 🙏🙏🙏

Answer to my all queries lies here...