Dear Bhagavataas, But I have heard/chanted a slightly different version of the 1st sloka since my childhood as given below. kara agrE vasathE lakshmee kara madhyE saraswathee | kara moolE Sthithe gouri: prabhaathE kara dharsanam And immediately after reciting sloka, I have seen people reciting the following sloka also. Samudra vasanE dEvi parvatha sthana mandalE Vishnu patnI namasthubhyam paada sparsha kshamaswamE Regards Mohan.R On Tue, 30 Mar 2004 M.G.Vasudevan wrote : >Dear sri vaishNava perunthagaiyeer, > >Generally we, Sri vaishNavaas consider 'saraswathee' as a secondary level >dhEvathai and do not consider the worship of her as that much important. Let >us see few points here about this secondary dhEvathai. > >As a first step in the very morning we are advised to see our own hand - kara >dharsanam - as we open our eyes after a good night's sleep. It is also said >that following are the things we can have a look at first, in the day, as we >open our eyes in the morning, from the bed > 1. Our own right hand palm > 2. A mirror (so that we see ourselves) > 3. One's own wife > 4. The gOpuram of a temple > 5. The sun or a light > 6. Gold or gold jewelry > 7. The green field etc. >[for ladies also same right palm to see - only for seeing palmistry hands are >changed according to the gender] >[for ladies it is not said in the saasthraas, that it is good to see your >husband's face in the very morning] > >It is also advised that while seeing the hand, think about [or recite] this >slOkam. > >kara agrE vasathE lakshmee kara moolE saraswathee | >kara madhyE thu gOvindha: prabhaathE kara dharsanam || > >meaning: In the morning see the hand [your own hand] [for that reminds you to >recall] and remember lakshmee, saraswathee, and gOvindhan, for, > * In the edge of the hand or fore fingers lives lakshmee, the periya > piraatti. > * In the corner of hand or in the hind hand or near the wrists where palm > meets the wrists resides saraswathee, the god of vaak - voice, or education. > * In the center of palm resides gOvindhan, [my krishNa]. > >So in the morning, the sri vaishNavan [or for that matter all others also] is >asked to think about perumaL, piraatti, and the vaak dhEvi. That also reminds >us, as the second thought of the day, on the importance of the hands through >which tool, all work is done for the rest of the day. So it can also be said >as paying gratitude to the tool in the morning [which is what a big >celebration on aayudha pooja or saraswathi pooja in the month of September]. > >Similarly when we start the very first stage of learning alphabets in the >childhood, called akshara abhyaasam in sanskrit, we are also taught another >slOkam by our parents as well the bruhaspathi - > >saraswathee namasthubhyam vara dhE kaama roopiNee | >vidhyaa aarambham karishyaami sidhDhir bhavathu mE sadhaa|| > >meaning: hey saraswathee dhEvee, [the athidhEvathaa for vaak or learning], >[also one who is in the form of learning], please grant me this boon according >[to my desire], I prostrate to you and start my education [or the learning >process], please make it a success. > >Next slOkam taught while starting the akshara abhyaasam or learning alphabets >is > >gnaana aanandha mayam dhEvam nirmala spatika aakruthim | >aadhaaram sarva vidhyaanaam hayagreevam upaasmahaE || >1st slOkam of sree hayagreeva sthOthram by sri nigamaantha mahaa dhEsikan > >meaning: I bow to that lord hayagreevan - one who has the horse like neck, > * who is also the embodiment of wisdom and happiness, > * who also has a spotless clean body like the spatikam - crystal, > * who is also the basis of all education. > >May be as you grow and do the prapaththi to sreeman naaraayaNan through the >guidance of a sath aachaaryan, then the first two slOkams [out of 3 above] may >become a bit irrelevant. But one definitely undergoes in the early stages of >life, the above two slOkams. Any later day prapannan can check with their >parents whether they have gone through these two slOkams or not before >contradicting me. > >Also I wish to recall a beautiful slOkam from sri yaadhava abhyudhayam of sri >nigamaantha mahaa dhEsikan. > >sa kavi: kathyathE srashtaa ramathe yathra bhaarathee | >rasaa bhaava guNee bhoothair alankaarair guNOdhayai: || >slOkam 5 chapter 1 > >meaning: [as given by sree uththamoor swamy - freely translated by MGV and >hence seeks pardon for any mistakes] That person is called a kavi who can >create rare literary creations, in whom bhaarathee - the vaak dhEvi or >saraswathee - resides with love, and gives him > * deep tastes of rasaas like srunkaara etc, > * suitable matter to evoke these rasaas, > * alankaaraas, > * characters [guNaas], > * vyangayaa meanings [suggested meanings and spotted meanings] and > * matter not so important to fill in gaps if any, etc. > >So unless a person has the grace of saraswathee one can not be a kavi - why a >kavi - even a simple education also may not be achieved. > >Dear bhakthaas, now a doubt comes to your mind why this person is elaborating >all these, which we all know. I want to raise a doubt on the capabilities of >saraswathee. That is why all these poorva peedikai - prelude to that. What is >the question etc we will see in next post. > >Dhaasan > >Vasudevan m.g. > > > > > >azhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyAr thiruvadigalE saranam > >Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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