Source:sangeethasudha
I heard this Annamacharya song rendered by Vid. Amritha Murali at BIC yesterday in her MSS tribute concert. This song of Saint Annamacharya, made famous by MSS, tells a profound truth relevant for us today on Ganesha Chaturthi!
Do we not all make Ganeshas in clay images as we like them and worship them? There is a profound element of grace in this phenomenon!
The song is translated below in my attempt at versification:
Lord, how kind you are to manifest
In whatever form and image
I make of you!
Indeed, the clay decides how big the Ganesha can be for me!
Just as how much flour I have decides how big the Modak can be!
I may think of you as Vishnu, the beautiful form reclining on Adishesha.
On the other hand, as an Impersonalist, I may try hard and abstract you as Para Brahman.
I may carry a skull begging bowl, daring myself to see you walk the burning ghat as Bhairava.
I may conceive of you as Lord Shiva, ash-smeared, seated in meditation on Kailasa.
Or bring you in a procession, as beautiful Devi Shakti, ever kind and many-armed!
Lord, indeed, you can be as big or as small as my mind can make you! That is your infinity. That is your grace!
Lord of Venkatachala, I think of your infinity as the limitless holy Ganga. On either side, she seeps into the soft soil, making little pools.
In these pools flower lotuses. The lotus of my devotion blooms
Only in the limited pool of my mind. But in my mind is mirrored your infinity! Likewise, isn't the lotus pool a blessing of Ganga, and the lotus itself blooming only by your grace?
Where do I come in therefore in this play of image making? Lotus blooming?
I am here just to experience the bliss of your grace, allowing me to make the clay Ganesha to worship!
🙏🙏🙏
