Vyasa Pooja

An article by Sri S. Kannan :


Today is Vyasa Pooja or Guru Poornima day when all the sanyasis begin their chatur masya vratham.  The asetics who have taken to sanyasam observe this vratham for four months (now shortened to two months - four fortnights or pakshams) during which period they avoid travelling and remain in one place.  This is quite understandable because these are monsoon months in India confining people indoors.

The significance of Rishi Vyasa in the cause of revival of the vedhas and puranas can never be exaggerated.  Sanathana Dharma owes much to Vyasa muni and particularly the generations that came after the dwapara yuga are deeply indebted to him.  Sage Vyasa was the son of Sage Parasara who was the grandson of the great sage Vasishta who was Sri Rama's guru, and his birth itself is very unique.  Sage Parasara was once crossing the river yamuna in a ferry and fell in love with the ferry woman known as Matsyagandhi (one who smells of fish) who was blessed by him to have a fragrant body. She was thenceforth known as Satyavathi and played a very crucial role in Mahabaratha.  Krishna Dvaiypayana was born out of their union in an island in the river Yamuna and hence was named dvaiypayana (born in an island - dveepa). As he was dark complexioned he was called Krishna Dvaiypayana.  Vyasa was initiated into the scriptures by his father and also had his tutelage under the sage Yagnyavalkya.

The greatest accomplishment of sage Vyasa was in classifying the immortal and infathomable vedhas into four, namely Rig, Yajus, Sama and Atharva. He taught Rig vedha to sage Paila, Yajur vedha to sage Vaisampayana, Sama vedha to sage Jaimini and Atharvana vedha to sage Sumanthu. Vyasa also classified the four vedhas into different branches so that they would be preserved easily by those following the particular branch.  It is this classification that brought him the name Vyasa which means to split or classify and rightfully he is called Vedha Vyasa, the classifier of vedhas.

Vyasa also composed the Brahma Sutras which are considered to be the ultimate in vedantha (Vedha + antha - the culmination of vedhas). It is said that Vyasa was depressed that all his efforts have not been fully understood by humanity and was advised by sage Naradha to contemplate on the supreme Lord Maha Vishnu and out of this contemplation came the Bhagavatha Puranam which he taught to his son sage Sukha who in turn taught the same to sage Roma harshana and other sages.  Even to this day Bhavatha Puranam is recited faithfully by the devout in seven days (saptaham) as taught by sage Suka to king Pareekshit.

Vyasa is considered to be the seventeenth incarnation of Lord Maha Vishnu (various puranas consider the avatars to be 25 while dasavatharam is quite popular and we all know about it.  He also classified the Puranas (folklore) which were in vogue into 18 Maha Puranas. He lived during the period of the Pandavas, Kauravas and Lord Sri Krishna and composed the Maha Bharata epic which is considered to be an actual record of the happenings and the great war of Kurukshetra. He also had a role to play in the great epic as he sired at the request of his mother Sathyavathi who had married Maharaja Santhanu, three sons Dhridrashta, Pandu and Vidhura at a crucial time when the continuation of the Kuru vamsa was in doubt with Bhisma taking to the vow of celibacy.  It is said that Vyasa used Lord Ganapathi as his scribe to write the Maha Bharata and cleverly overcame the condition imposed by Lord Ganesha that Vyasa should match the speed of his pen by composing complex verses and putting across a counter condition that Lord Vinayaka should contemplate on each verse, understand its meaning and then only write.

Vyasa bhavan is one of the seven chiranjeevis blessed by Lord Brahma to have an eternal life. So let us pray to him on this day and seek his blessings that we can contribute to the upliftment of the society through our Sanathana dharma.

Vyaasaya Vishnu roopaaya Vyaasa roopaaya Vishnave Namo Vai brahma nidhaye vaasishtaaya namo namaha.

Vyasaaya bhava naasaaya sreesaaya gunaraasaye  yogeesaaya muneesaaya vaageesaaya namo namaha

Om shanti shanti shantihi