||Aum hreem Vighneshwaraya Namaha ||
Prostrations to Vratapati, the Lord of Plenty. Prostrations to Ganapati, the Lord of various groups of Gods. Prostrations to Pramathapati, the Lord of Siva‘s hosts. Prostrations to Lambodara, the full-bellied God with a single tusk, destroyer of obstacles, the Son of Siva, the Bestower of all Blessings.
With the chanting of this auspicious Ganesha mantra, Swami Vimokshananda, the Minister in Charge of the Ramakrishna Vedanta Centre, Dublin began his Discourse at the Vinayaka Chaturthi Festival held at the Limerick town, about 180 kms south-west of Dublin. The Hindu groups of Limerick came together to celebrate the Chaturthi event grandly on Sunday, 15th Sept 2019.
The images of Ganesha and the mother Gauri were brought specially for this purpose from India by Mohan, one of the Limerick residents. He is the principal devotee who gathered the community and arranged this festival that was attended by more than 180 devoted people. The hall was almost full with elders and children in their variety garments indicated the joyous moment.
A recently married young couple from Karnataka was selected to do the puja rituals. Swami Vimokshananda was the tantra-dharaka of this puja, directing them to perform the rituals and chanting the mantras suitable to every act of propitiation. He explained the purport of this puja initially and went on giving an English rendering of the ritual practices. At the close of the Puja, the audience repeated with him the 108 names of Lord Ganesha in one voice. That created a wonderful vibration. The assembled devotees then gave the pushpanjali one by one.
In his Talks, the Swami described the importance of puja in one’s spiritual life and how the puja transforms the concept of God from God outside to God within. Dattareya Valenkar, a close devotee from Bengaluru who was on a visit to Ireland as a guest of the Vedanta Society, Dublin was present. He is a popular Hindustani Classical music vocalist.
He sang Ganesha bhajans in Hindi, Marathi and Kannada languages to the delight of the audience. The vocalist was aptly accompanied on Tabla by Rupak Pandit from Dublin.
The event concluded with sumptuous lunch prasad. The musician and the Tabla player were duly honoured with gifts by the Limerick Hindu community.
(The above is a short Report on the event from a devotee who attended the programme)
Vedanta in Practice 
So blessed are the devotees there to have you in their midst Maharaj!
Dr Shivani A Singh
Durban, South Africa
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||Aum Sri Ramakrishna sharanam||
Dear Shivani
Thanks for visiting this blog and expressing some kind words!
While reciprocating your inner feelings, I too have nostalgic feelings about the wonderful devotees of South Africa. In most of my later day speeches in Singapore and nowadays in Ireland, I have been bringing in some noted examples from SA incidents that were inspiring to every one. Even now with a distant of 5 years, that devotees have not forgotten me and do write to me for guidance makes me surprised.
May the Lord bless you!
Sawmi Vimokshananda
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Om Maharaj
Blessed indeed are the Devotees there!
Love and good wishes
Anoop Singh
Newcastle, South Africa.🙏💐
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||Aum Sri Ramakrishna sharanam||
Dear Anoop
Thanks for visiting this blog and expressing some kind words!
While reciprocating your inner feelings, I too have nostalgic feelings about the wonderful devotees of South Africa. In most of my later day speeches in Singapore and nowadays in Ireland, I have been bringing in some noted examples from SA incidents that were inspiring to every one. Even now with a distant of 5 years, that devotees have not forgotten me and do write to me for guidance makes me surprised.
May the Lord bless you!
Swami Vimokshananda
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Aum Namo Narayanaya
Revered Maharaj
Pranam!
Lambodara in Limerick! Delightful use of semantics!
Thank you for the detailed Ganesh mantra.
I am studying Hindi, so this will be a great exercise for me as practice, to decipher.
Respectful Prostrations!
Rohith Jeebodh
Estcourt, South Africa
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||Aum Sri Ramakrishna sharanam||
Dear Rohit
Thanks for visiting this blog and expressing some kind words!
This quoted Ganesha mantra is taken from Ganapati Atharvashirsha (also called Ganapati Upanishad). Here Sri Ganesha is considered as a supreme deity and from Him everything in this Universe has come. These 10 or in some recensions 15 shlokas, are a daily hymnal chanting prescribed for Ganapatyas – the people who follow and adopt Sri Ganesha as their ishta devata.
I am happy to know that you are now learning Hindi which is very good. Once you learn the Devanagari script to read the letters and then onto words and sentences, it will be easier to comprehend the meaning of these wonderful shlokas.
Your approach is much appreciated.
May the Lord Ganesha bless you!
Swami Vimokshananda
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