Vasishtha Ganapati Muni- An Introduction to his life and works
Introduction
Vasishtha Ganapati Muni was born on the 17th November of 1878 in Kalavarayi, a small village situated in the Vizag district of Andhra Pradesh. He was a mighty spiritual personality with a vast knowledge of Sanskrit. A yogi, poet, philosopher, critic, scholar, an eloquent speaker, an ardent devotee of Mother India, he never deviated from his goals: the attainment of India’s freedom through the power of tapas; revival of the Vedic teachings. Thus he did intense tapasyā to reach his goals. He untiringly endevoured to reveal the inner significances of the Vedic hymns, and believed that the future of India rests on a complete revival of the Vedic truths.
The Muni’s life story is sweet and all-absorbing and has been beautifully depicted in the famous biography, vāśiṣṭha-vaibhavam, by his foremost disciple, Sri Kapali Sastriar (This appears in the Volume 2 of Collected Works of Kapali Sastri, published by Dipti Publication, Pondicherry). Ganapati Muni was educated entirely at home by his father, Narasimha Sastry, who like his ancestors, was well-versed in mantra shāstra, astrology and Ayurveda. With this traditional family background, proficiency in these subjects came naturally to the Muni. When he was only 10 years old, he was able to prepare the panchāngam (almanac). He finished studying the classical Sanskrit poems and then devoted himself to the study of grammar and poetics. At the same time he delved deep into the writings of Vyasa and Valmiki. Again and again he read the Mahabharata. His horizon widened and his intellect mellowed with an ever-deepening perception. Like the ancient Rishis, Ganapati wanted to experience immense strength and power by the practice of tapasyā through mantra japa and meditation. Although married at an early age to Srimati Vishalakshi, he started visiting one sacred place after another for his tapas when he was 18 years old. He used to stay in one place for a few days or even months. On one such visit to Bhubaneswar, in Orissa, at the famous “Lingaraj” temple of Lord Siva, during his tapas, the Muni had a vision, in which Goddess lalitāmbikā (bhubaneshwari) appeared before him, offering divine nectar. As Ganapati tasted this heavenly nectar, the Goddess watched him with a sweet smile, full of grace. From then onwards, the sweetness of the nectar became an integral part of him. After this incident, Ganapati’s intellect developed a rare sharpness and he attained complete mastery over poetry. Indeed, the literary works composed after this incident is endowed with a distinct sweetness and grace.
When Ganapati was staying in Kashi, he came to know that an assembly of scholars (harisabhā) would be held in the famous city of Nabadwipa in Bengal. On the advice of his friends he got a letter of introduction and went to Nabadwipa. It was an occasion in which scholars from different parts of the country had assembled to showcase their scholarship and the more one excels the more one is respected. When the Muni went there he was just twenty-two years old, yet he was able to prove himself to be the best and earn the title of Kāvyakantha from the many eminent scholars of that time who attended the Harisabhā. One full section of the vāśiṣṭha vaibhavam of Sri Kapali Shastri reproduces the answers the Muni composed to questions raised by one of the heads of the Harisabhā in Navadvipa.
The Muni then returned to the south in his 25th year. From Kanchipuram he came to Arunachala (Thiruvannamalai) in 1903 to perform tapas. He visited Sri Brahmana Swamy twice before he accepted a teaching job at Vellore in 1904. Later in 1907, he resigned his job at Vellore and returned to Arunachala. The Muni still felt that his life’s purpose was not fulfilled and he approached Brahmana Swamy for his grace and to gain inner realization, peace and the true import of tapas that he still lacked. On 18th Feburary 1907 the Muni approached Brahmana Swamy, who was staying in the Virupaksha cave, and prostrating himself at his feet, he prayed to enlighten him about the nature of tapas.For quite sometime Brahmana Swamy gazed silently at Kavyakantha. Then he broke his 11 years of long silence and spoke gently, “If one watches where his notion of “I” springs, the mind will be absorbed into that. That is tapas. If a mantra is repeated and attention is directed to the source where the mantra sound is produced, the mind will be absorbed in that. That is tapas.”
The Muni was filled with joy to have found his guru. He conferred the full name of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi to Brahmana Swamy, whose original name was Venkataraman. Thus, the meeting was of profound significance not only for Kavyakantha but also for the world at large, which could learn from such a high authority about the real stature of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, the Silent Sage of Arunachala. Following this momentous meeting, Ganapati composed his great devotional poem, Umāsahasram, a thousand verses in praise of Uma, the Divine Mother, as a part of his tapas in gratitude to the great Goddess for having given him the Maharshi as his Guru (Master). This work is the magnum opus of Sri Vasishtha Ganapati Muni.
Very little is known about the numerous Sanskrit writings of the Muni, which cover a wide variety of topics — praises and prayers to various deities (stotras), poetic compositions (kāvyas), philosophy (darshanam), logic (nyāyashāstra), medical science (ayurveda), astrology and astronomy (jyotishashastra), commentaries (bhāshya), novel (ākhyāyikā), letters (patrāni) and many other important works like bhāratacharitramimāmsa which deals with the Vedic origin of the characters of the Mahabharata, mahāvidyāsutra which is a complete text dealing exclusively with the ten Wisdom Goddesses of the Tantra, where he has presented all the correlations of the mahāvidyās from outer ritual to the highest spiritual knowledge. When the freedom fighters were busy to see Mother India free from the hands of the foreigners then it was the Muni who, in 1934 prepared the constitution for India in Sanskrit. This work has five hundred and sixty sutras. Indrānisaptashati is another important work of the Muni which bears the testimony of his deep love for India. There are seven hundred verses divided into seven centuries. Each century is further divided into four stabakas. In the twenty-fourth verse of each stabaka, the poet seeks the grace of the Divine Mother as an instrument in the immense task of serving his country in order that it regains its past glory. Here in this composition the Muni prays again and again to Goddess Indrani for the upliftment and protection of his country at this juncture when human efforts are not enough to release her from the bondage of darkness and inertia.
All compositions of the Muni, whether those are in verse or in the form of aphorisms (sutras) or in prose (gadya), these were all spontaneous, a result of his tapas, an outpouring of his soul in seeking or gratitude to the Divine.
It is more than seven decades since the great Kavyakantha Ganapati Muni passed away in 1936. He had many disciples and one of them was Sri K. Natesan who passed away in the month of March 2009 at the age of 98. It was Sri Natesan who had preserved all the writings of the Muni by copying them in several note books. In 2002, I (the author of this article) came in contact with Sri K. Natesan who handed over to me all the manuscripts of Ganapati Muni’s writings for publishing. As a result a trust under the name “Kavyakantha Ganapati Muni Project” was created to raise funds for publishing the writings of Ganapati Muni. from 2002 to 2010 all the works of the Muni were published in twelve volumes under the title “Collected Works of Vasishtha Ganapati Muni”.
The Works of the Muni
As a scholar poet, Sri Vasishtha Ganapati Muni has many spiritual and other writings in Sanskrit to his credit. Umāsahasram, gitamālā, ramanagitā, ramanacatvārimshat and saddarshanam are a few titles well-known among his disciples and others. But very little is known about his other numerous Sanskrit writings, covering a wide variety of topics — praises and prayers to various deities (stotras), poetic compositions (kāvyas), philosophy (darshana), logic (nyāyashāstra), medical science (āyurveda), astrology and astronomy (jyotishashāstra), commentaries (bhāshya), a novel (ākhyāyikā), letters (patrāni) and many research works. His versatility can also be judged from his sāmrājya-nibandhanam, a proposed constitution for India and lālibhāshopadesha, a new language for the people of India. These compositions, whether in verse (shlokas) or in the form of aphorisms (sutras) or prose (gadya), were all spontaneous, a result of his tapas, an outpouring of his soul in seeking or gratitude to the Divine.
His stotrakāvyas, umāsahasram, indrānisaptashatī, pracaṇḍacaṇḍītrishatī, gītamālā are meant for those longing for a great spiritual realisation. The indrasahashranāma is a composition of thousand names of Indra culled from the Rigveda, and strung into a garland of one hundred and eight verses. The ramaṇacatvārimshat, 40 verses in praise of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, is chanted daily both at the Sri Ramana Ashramam and in the homes of Sri Ramana Maharshi’s innumerable devotees. The Muni had a unique ability of rendering philosophical thoughts in the form of poetry (shlokas), and his vishvamimāmsa, ramaṇagītā, saddarshanam and tattvaghantāshatakam remain testimony to this. Ramanagitā is the recording of questions put forth by disciples and the answers given by the Maharshi and is one of the most cherished writings of the Muni. His saddarshanam is the Sanskrit rendering of Sri Maharshi’s Tamil writing, ulladu narpadu (Forty Verses on Reality) on which his beloved and learned disciple, Sri T.V. Kapali Sastriar, has written a faithful commentary in Sanskrit, reflecting the spirit of Sri Maharshi’s original teachings.
From the vast and variety of his sutra writings, it would be difficult to single out any one as more meritorious than the other. Dashamahāvidyāsūtram (the ten cosmic powers of the Divine Mother as described in the tantras) is an outstanding composition, in which the Muni has described the ten cosmic aspects of the Divine Mother and their significance. Here he has also brought out the association of these ten cosmic aspects of the Mother as described in the Tantra with the corresponding Vedic deities. Thereby, not only he has been able to bring forth a link between the Vedas, Upanishads and Tantras, but has also been successful in dispelling several misconceptions on the significance of these deities. These compositions reflect the Muni’s great powers of Yogic perception. The way in which he has expounded the different deities such as kāli, tārā, bhuvaneshvarī, tripurasundarī, pracaṇḍacaṇḍī etc. and correlated them to the Vedantic concepts has once and for all removed all antagonisms and bridged the so-called gulf between the Vedantic and Tantric schools of philosophy.
Rājayoga-sārasūtra is a short and concise exposition of the Upanishadic methods of the inner quest. Caturvyūhasūtra is a revelation of the cosmic divinities wherein the Muni has expounded the four important emanations — ākāsha, kāla, vidyut and sūrya — of the Vedic deity Indra. Jaiminīyatarkavārtikam is his own interpretation of the sūtras of Jaimini, where he has advocated that the Vedas are indeed paurusheya (of human origin). Further, in this he has given his own interpretation of the mīmāmsā philosophy, placing it on a higher pedestal in relation to Vedanta. His shabdapramānacarcā also discusses the origin of the Vedas. Pancajanacarcā and vivāhadharmasūtram are related to social aspects. In the former one the practice of “untouchability” is condemned with the authority of the shāstras. In the latter he deals with marriage as a sacrament. His other sutra writings also include cikitsānushasanam (ayurveda) and gaṇaka-kaṇthābharaṇam (astronomy).
The prose writings of Vasishtha Ganapati Muni too are extensive and these include commentaries on several texts including the Vedas and Upanishads; a study on the different characters of the great epic poem Mahābhārata; letters to Sri Ramana Maharshi, The Mother of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, and many others.
His commentaries on Rigvedic mantras and the ishopanishad, though brief, are revealing and illumining. The Muni has given his own original spiritual interpretation of the Mantras, and he was highly critical of the ritualistic interpretation of the Rigvedic Mantras by Sayana, a 12th Century commentator on the Vedas. The Muni’s commentary on the ishopanishad is original and is in the light of the teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi. His bhārata-caritramimāmsā is unique as it establishes a link between some of the important characters of the Mahabharata and those mentioned in the Vedic texts. Ramaṇagītā, saddarshana and the commentary on the upadeshasāram, thirty verses written by Sri Ramana Maharshi in Sanskrit and which reveal the greatness of the teachings of the Maharshi, are amongst the most popular writings of the Muni.
His novel, pūrṇā, in Sanskrit, though incomplete, is unique in many ways. The style and diction that the Muni used here make it an unparalleled novel of his time. It not only depicts the ability of the Muni to write beautiful Sanskrit prose spontaneously, but also records his powers of expressing the feelings of the heart and not just the logic of the mind.
In the letters of the Muni to Sri Maharshi and The Mother of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, one can find the art of letter writing in Sanskrit. Through these letters he was able to express lucidly his deepest aspirations, concepts and thoughts.
However, it is difficult to summarise the thoughts, perceptions and literary ability of the Muni. The Muni was indeed a versatile genius and can be compared with Kalidasa and Shankara in poetic renderings, with Vyasa in sūtra writings and with Patanjali, Shabara and Shankara in writing commentaries. The writings of the Muni are not just products of literary activities but are the records of his unique Yogic experiences and subtle visions, which will be a guiding spirit and light for centuries to come.
Vasishtha Ganapati Muni’s contribution to the Vedic and Tantric studies
The available seven notes (published in volume seven of the collected works of the Muni), under the titles mūlagrantha prashamshā, nūtanabhāshykaraṇāvasarakathanam, rigveda-bhashyam 1, 2 and 3, adivedamimāmsā and rigvedavimarshini, all contain the Muni’s valuable views on the Vedas and their interpretation. From the contents of these incomplete notes we come to know that the Muni had a plan to write a complete commentary on the Rigveda with a word-by-word analysis, a padabhāshya, with summary notes or an upasamhārabhāshya. The Muni in his commentary tries to bring out the esoteric significance of the Veda Mantras.
He was very critical of Sayanacharya’s commentary on the Vedas. According to him Sayanacharya had purely a ritualistic mentality. Since he was born during a period when Puranic conceptions of gods and goddesses were very popular he had tried to interpret the Veda by following the puranic ideas and rituals. Another critical remark made by the Muni is paurusheyatva of the Veda. The Muni did not believe in the apaurusheyatva of the Vedas as propounded by the Mimamsakas. He held the strong view that the Vedic Mantras were recorded by the purushas who by the power of their tapas, were prepared inwardly to receive them. They possessed an inner hearing and inner vision. Therefore, they were called Rishis, seers of Truth. In this connection the Muni has given much stress on the expression, namo mantrakridbhyah and concludes that the Vedas are paurusheya and not apaurusheya. A careful reading of the Muni’s writings on this topic is very much necessary in order to understand the views of the Muni.
Apart from the writings on the Vedas in general, the Muni has also commented upon many specific sūktas and Mantras mainly from the first mandala of the Rigveda, some from the second maṇḍala and a few from the seventh. Several notes of the Muni contain his commentaries on the first hymn of the Rigveda dedicated to Agni.
Another note of the Muni contains a commentary on indragāyatrī of the Rigveda 1.3.4. After explaining the meaning of the Mantra the Muni notes all the etymological details of the word Indra as given in the Nirukta of Yaskacharya. Out of the fifteen different etymologies mentioned in the Nirukta the Muni comments upon five leaving out the first seven and last three. From an incomplete note containing commentaries on four Mantras of the Rigveda dedicated to Agni it appears that the Muni intended to write a commentary on nine suktas of the twelfth anuvaka consisting of ninety-one Mantras all belonging to Rishi Parashara. The Muni also intended to comment upon the Mantras of the Rigveda by arranging them according to the order of the Gods. Available notes related to this contain only sixteen out of the nineteen Mantras of Rishi Gritsamada dedicated to brahmanaspati. The commentary begins with a detailed note on Rishi Gritsamada and then continues with individual Mantras. In his writings on the Vedas we also find fragmentary notes on some selected Mantras of the Rigveda. For example, Mantras of Rishi Gritsamada, Parashara, Vasishta, Medhatithi and Praskanva are explained by the Muni with fresh insights.
Among all his stotra writings we find one Indrasahasranāmastotram which is a unique composition where the Muni has culled a thousand names of Indra from the Rigveda and arranged them in the form of a powerful stotra. This has been mentioned by the Muni himself in the concluding verses of the stotra where he says: idaṃ sahasramindrasya nāmnāṃ paramapāvanam, ṝgvedato gaṇapatiḥ saṅgṛhya vinivaddhavān.
The Muni also points out that there has been no repetition of the names, nor any fillers like ca, vā or tu added for the sake of the metre. All the names of Indra are so finely woven into the eight-syllabled anushtup metre that one does not miss their original rhythm. It is an illumining piece of poetry extolling the Vedic godhead Indra with all his epithets. A study of all these names of Indra from a linguistic standpoint will help in the understanding of the Vedic concept of Indra who, according to Sri Aurobindo, psychologically represents the Mind
Bhāratacharitramīmāmsā (volume nine of the collected works of the Muni) is an authentic research work in which the Muni has uniquely expounded the Vedic origin of the narrators and characters appearing in the Mahābhārata. This is the crowning contribution of Ganapati Muni to the studies of the Rigveda as well as the Mahābhārata. The entire text of this treatise is the outcome of a detailed and authentic research in which the Muni has taken a challenging step towards establishing the validity of the Vedic origin of the Mahabharata. In this text we find nearly two hundred Mantras from various mandalas of Rigveda have been interpreted afresh to show the Vedic origin of many important characters and events of the Mahābhārata.
Among the sūtra writings of the Muni there are a few texts under the title of vishvamīmāmsā in which we find Muni’s explanation of Mantra, Rishis, Brāhmanas, Upanishads and many other subtle issues related to the Vedic texts. It is in these writings that he speaks much about the paurusheyatva and apaurusheyatva of the Vedas. In few sutras the Muni also discusses issues related to Vedic sentences, their import, structural pattern and beauty. He also throws light on the principles followed to prove the authority of the Vedic sentences.
The Chandodarshana of the Muni bears the testimony of he being a Rishi to receive many new mantras either directly or through his disciples. Once, when the Muni was with his disciples in a place called Padaiveedu, he found many audible words jerking out from the lips of one of his disciples called Daivarata. The Muni immediately noted down those words and grouped them as per Mantra, Devata and Chandas and added a lucid commentary on those under the title anvayabhāshya. The book was published by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bombay. During the same time he himself also received few mantras and again in 1934 when he was in Gokarna he received two mantras. These were recorded under the title Chandostavam.
Though the contribution of the Muni to the Vedic studies is not voluminous but his insights and vision on the issues related to the Vedic studies can become a luminous guide towards a deeper and wider understanding of the Vedas.
The most important contribution of the Muni in the field of Vedas and Tantras is the unique way he has reconciled the thoughts of both the traditions. Usually it is held that the Tantras are of non-vedic origin and the deities of Tantrik worship had no real basis in the Vedas. In his dashamahāvidyā sūtras the Muni gives a very clear and exact account of the ten tantric mahāvidyās in the light of the Rigveda. He identifies the Tantric Kali with the Vedic Ratri, Tantric Tara with Vedic Gauri, Sundari with Ambika, Bhuvaneshvari with Aditi, Bhairavi with Agneya, Prachandachandi with Vairochani, Dhumavati with Jyeshtha, Bagalamukhi with Durga, Matangi with Sarasvati, Kamalatmika with Usha.
These ten great goddesses in the cosmos constitute a complete system of knowledge. Each of these goddesses governs a particular fundamental function and presides over a particular creative principle of existence. Dhumavati presides over the Non-being, the asat. When creation starts, Kali is Time and Bhuvaneshvari is Space. The flaming Word Supreme turned towards manifestation is Bhairavi, the perceiving word is Tara and the expressed word is Matangi. The Primordial Luminous Desire is Sundari while the Delightful Beauty is Kamala. Chinnamasta combines Light and Sound in her thunderclap and Bagalamukhi arrests the free flow of things. (for more details see: Ten Great Cosmic Powers by Shankaranarayanan)
The mahāvidyāsūtram of the Muni is a complete text dealing exclusively with the ten Wisdom Goddesses of the Tantra, where he has presented all the correlations of the mahāvidyās from outer ritual to the highest spiritual knowledge. He has detailed out the meditation forms of these ten great Personalities of the Divine Mother; their location in the macrocosm and microcosm; the mantras to invoke them; the methods to follow for worshipping them; their relationship to each other; as well as many other deeper aspects related to these Personalities. The Muni also provides the corresponding Vedic Riks that can be employed as mantras to invoke these great Goddesses. He has also correlated these mahāvidyās with the vidyas mentioned in the Upanishads. According to him Kali represents the samvarga-vidyā of the Upanishad, Tara stands for the akshara-vidya, Tripurasundari symbolizes the vaishvānara-vidyā, Bhuvaneshvari corresponds to parovariyasi-vidyā, Chinnamasta signifies the jyotirvidyā, Dhumavati characterizes the bhuma-vidyā, Matangi is related to udgitha-vidyā and Kamalatmika is a sign of madhu-vidyā. In this way we find a great reconciliation of the Vedic and Tantric traditions in the writings of the Muni on Tantras and the Vedas.
Conclusion
Vasishtha Kavyakantha Ganapati Muni was equipped with such unique scholarship and ability to express that he could write or speak elaborately on any topic with apparent ease. Therefore, his writings cover a wide range of topics, including spirituality, cosmology, metaphysics, science, poetry, linguistics, etc. He composed poetry, sūtras, wrote commentaries, and penned novels, articulating his views on many serious topics with force, intensity, fluency, lucidity and loftiness.
In addition to he being a poet, patriot, yogi, Tantrik, a Rishi with right vision, the Muni was an excellent avadhāni. He was in possession of an exceptional retentive memory, a great power of concentration, ability to compose unblemished extempore poetry, spontaneous creativity, imagination, poetic ability and quick thinking, and all these add a lot to his consummate scholarship and literary genius.
