Sri: Srimathe Ramanujaya Nama: There are several pramANas for Sriman Narayana having white color. Some examples are: 1. Varaha purANa records that Sriman Narayana when taking the boar form was of the color white. 2. In Bhagavatam, it is said that Sriman Narayana takes on different forms, different colors, different names and worshipped differently in each of the four yugas. In this, it is said that in the Krta Yuga, He is of the color white. 3. In Pancharatra samhita, the Lord in the Sankarshana form is said to be the color of lotus. It also describes the Lord having the color of molten gold. 4. Since the Vedas describe Him as "krshNapingaLam", He has both the dark color and golden color. One shade of melting gold can be a shade of white. 5. In the Skanda purANa, vAmana purANa etc, in the description of Sriman Narayana, it is said that His face is like that of the moon - shashi (and also that His divine body is dark blue). Coming to the shloka in question, I have heard from Shaivites that they address it to Ganesha, because of the ending which says "sarva vigna upa shAntaye" and Ganesha is considered as Vigneshwara. However, there are two other things to consider: one is the word "vishNum" denoting all pervasiveness. This, I don't believe, is a quality associated with Ganesha by even Shaivites, except perhaps by some folks in Tamilnadu who consider Ganesha to be the para Brahmam. Considering that purANas state that Ganesha was created by Shiva, I can't follow the logic behind that idea. The second is "catur bhujam" - I am not 100% sure on this, but I don't believe that this is a typical feature of Ganesha, except again in Tamilnadu, or that Ganesha is often refered to by this phrase. On the other hand, catur bhujam is used quite often to refer to Vishnu. adiyEn --- In ramanuja@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "amshuman_k" <amshuman_k@xxxx> wrote: > Dear bhAgavatAs, > I stumbled onto an old sri-ranga-sri discussion regarding the s'lOka > shuklAmbaradharam vishNum... A proposition was made that this was > addressed to vinAyaka which was countered by lot of srI vaishNavAs. I > request a pramANa for vishNu being described as a 'sashi-varNa' - > 'moon-colored'.
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