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Ganesha

In Hinduism, Ganesha (or "lord of the hosts," also spelled as Ganesa and sometimes referred to as Ganapati in Marathi, Gujarati and other Indian languages) is a son of Shiva and Parvati, and the husband of Bharati, Riddhi and Siddhi. He is also called as vinaayaka or vinayagar in Tamil and vinaayakudu in telugu. 'Ga' symbolizes Buddhi (intellect) and 'Na' symbolizes Vijanana (wisdom). Ganesha is thus considered as the master of intellect and wisdom. In art, he is depicted as a pot bellied yellow or red god with four arms and the head of a one-tusked elephant, riding or attended to by a mouse. Typically, his name is prefixed with the Hindu title of respect, 'Shree'

Overview

Ganesha acquired his head through varying methods in different stories. In one, Shiva decapitated him because Ganesha refused to allow him to enter the bath while Parvati was bathing. Shiva had to give him the new head to placate his wife. In another version, Parvati showed the child off to Shiva, whose face burned his head to ashes, which Brahma told Shiva to replace with the first head he could find—in this case, that of an elephant. The lack of a second tusk is explained by different stories. An avatar of Vishnu, Parashurama, once went to visit Shiva but the way was blocked by Ganesha. Parasurama threw his axe at him and Ganesha, knowing the axe had been given to him by Shiva, allowed it to cut off one of his tusks. Yet another version is that, in the process of writing the Mahabharata (at the dictation of Vyasa), Ganesh found that his pen had broken, and in the urgency of taking down the great words, snapped off his left tusk as a replacement quill.

Ganesha is known as Aumkara, because his body mirrors the shape of the Aum, the elephant god is thus seen as the embodiment of the cosmos. His elephantine head symbolizes the intelligence and beatitude of the elephant, powerful, yet gentle. His vehicle is a mouse known as Mooshika, Mooshikam, Minjur, or Akhu, and this symbolizes the intellect, small enough to find out any secret in the most remote of places. It also signifies his humility, that he espouses the company of one of the smaller creatures.

He is the lord of wisdom, intelligence, education, prudence, luck and fortune, gates, doors, doorways, household and writing. He is the remover of obstacles, and as such it is normal to invoke him before the undertaking of any task with such incantations as Aum Shri Ganeshaya Namah (hail the name of Ganesha), or similar.

Iconography

According to the strict rules of Hindu iconography, Ganesha figures with only two hands are taboo. Hence, Ganesha figures are most commonly seen with four hands which signify their divinity. Some figures may be seen with six, some with eight, some with ten, some with twelve and some with fourteen hands, each hand carrying a symbol which differs from the symbols in other hands, there being about fifty seven symbols in all, according to the findings of research scholars.

The physical attributes of Ganesha are themselves rich in symbolism. He is normally shown with one hand in the abhaya pose of protection and refuge and the second holding a sweet (modaka) symbolic of the sweetness of the realized inner self. In the two hands behind him he often holds an ankusha (elephant goad) and a pasha (noose). The noose is to convey that worldly attachments and desires are a noose. The goad is to prod man to the path of righteousness and truth. With this goad Ganesha can both strike and repel obstacles.

His pot belly signifies the bounty of nature and also that Ganesha swallows the sorrows of the Universe and protects the world.

The image of Ganesha is a composite one. Four animals viz., man, elephant, the serpent and the mouse have contributed for the makeup of his figure. All of them individually and collectively have deep symbolic significance.

An intriguing aspect of Ganesha's iconography is his broken tusk, leading to the appellation Ekdanta, Ek meaning one and danta meaning teeth.

Some incidents related to Ganesha

Birth of Ganesha

The first incident is the birth of Ganesha and how he got his elephant head. Once, while Parvati wanted to bathe, there were no attendants around to guard her and stop anyone from accidentally entering the house. Hence she created a boy's idol out of turmeric paste which she prepared to cleanse her body (In those days when no soap was known, turmeric was used for its anti-septic and cooling properties.) and infused life into it, and thus Ganesha was born. Parvati ordered Ganesha not to allow anyone to enter the house and Ganesha obediently followed his mother's orders. After a while Shiva returned from outside and as he tried to enter the house, Ganesha stopped him. Shiva was infuriated at this strange little boy who dared to challenge him. He told Ganesha that he was Parvathi's husband and he demanded Ganesha to let him go in. But Ganesha would not hear any other person's word other than his dear mother's. Shiva lost his patience and had a fierce battle with Ganesha. At last he severed Ganesha's head with his Trishul (trident). When Parvati came out and saw her son's lifeless body she was very angry and sad. She demanded that Shiva restore Ganesha's life at once. But unfortunately, Shiva's Trishul was so powerful that it had hurled Ganesha's head very far off. All attempts to find the head were in vain. As a last resort, Shiva approached Brahma who suggested that he replace Ganesha's head with the first living being that came his way which lay with its head facing north, which happened to be an elephant. Shiva decapitated the elephant and attached the elephant's head to Ganesha's body and brought him back to life. Thus, Ganesha got an elephant's head.

Ganesha's reverence for his parents

Once there was a competition between Ganesha and his brother Karthikeya as to who could circumambulate the three worlds faster. Karthikeya went off on a journey to cover the three worlds while Ganesha simply circumambulated his parents. When asked why he did so, he answered that, to him his parents meant the three worlds.

Ganesha and Vyasa

When Veda Vyasa was beginning to write the epic Mahabharata, he requested Ganesha to be the scribe. Being playful, Ganesha agreed to be the scribe on one condition - that Vyasa must recite the epic non-stop. Vyasa agreed, but imposed a counter-condition that Ganesha understand each verse completely before transcribing it. Thus the great epic of Mahabharata was written by Ganesha.

Ganesha and the Moon

Once, Ganesha accidentally tripped and fell, breaking one of his tusks in the process (this is also said to be one of the reasons for Ganesha's half or missing tusk). Chandradev (Moon God) saw this and laughed. Ganesha, being the short-tempered one, cursed Chandradev that anyone who happens to see the moon will incur bad luck. Hearing this, Chandradev realised his folly and asked for forgiveness from Ganesha. Ganesha relented and since a curse cannot be revoked, only softened, Ganesha softened his curse such that the moon would wax and wane in intensity every fifteen days and anyone who looks at the moon during Ganesh Chaturthi would incur bad-luck. Another version has it that Ganesha ate too much of his favourite sweet (Modak) and found it difficult to keep them all inside his stomach. So he tried to tie his stomach up and in his struggle, fell down. Seeing this Chandradev laughed and Ganesha cursed him.

Ganesha as a brahmachari

While playing, once, Ganesha wounded a cat. When he returned home he found a wound in his Mother's body. He enquired how she got hurt. Mother Parvati replied that this was caused by none other than Ganesha himself! Surprised Ganesha wanted to know when did he hurt her. Parvati explained that She as Divine Power was immanent in all beings. When he wounded the cat she was hurt. Ganesha realised that all women were veritable manifestations of his Mother. He decided not to marry. That's how he remained a brahmachari, a life-long celibate.

Festivals and Worship of Ganesha

In India, there is an important festival honoring Ganesha. While it is most popular in the state of Maharashtra, it is performed all over India. It is celebrated for ten days starting from Ganesh Chaturthi. This was introduced by Balgangadhar Tilak as a means of promoting nationalist sentiment when India was ruled by the British. This festival is celebrated and it culminates on the day of Ananta Chaturdashi when the murti of Lord Ganesha is immersed into the most convenient body of water. In Mumbai(Bombay as it was earlier known) the murti is immersed in the Arabian Sea and in Pune the Mula-Mutha river. In various North and East Indian cities, like Kolkata, they are immersed in the holy Ganga river. One who really wants to taste the festival needs to come down to the city of Mumbai . Particularly at Lalbaug where The divine idol of Lalbaugcha raja (The Lord Of Lalbaug ) is set .The Ganesha festival starts on ganesh chaturthi (fourth day of Hindu calender month Bhadrapada ) and ends on Anant Chaturdashi ( fourteenth day of Bhadrapada ). It is widely known that every wish you keep in front of "Lalbaugcha raja" must come true. All devotees from every corner of the globe gather at Lalbaug for the festival. Day by day the number of devotees for Lalbaugcha Raja has been increasing infinitely. For more details regarding Lalbaugcha Raja please log on the official site http://www.lalbaugcharaja.com/

Representations of Shri Ganesh are based on thousands of years of religious symbolism that resulted in the figure of an elephant-head god. In India, the statues are impressions of symbolic significance and thus have never been claimed to be exact replications of a living figure. Ganesh is seen not as a physical entity but a higher spiritual being, and murtis, or statue-representations, act as signifiers of him as an ideal. Thus, to refer to the murtis as idols betrays Western Judeo-Christian understandings of insubstantial object worship whereas in India, Hindu deities are seen to be accessed through points of symbolic focus known as murtis. For this reason, the immersion of the murtis of Ganesh in nearby holy rivers is undertaken since the murtis are acknowledged to be only temporal understandings of a higher being as opposed to being 'idols,' which have traditionally been seen as objects worshipped for their own sake as divine.

The worship of Ganesha in Japan has been traced back to 806.

Recently, there has been a resurgence of Ganesha worship and an increased interest in the "western world" due to a spate of miracles in september 1995. On september 21, 1995, according to Hinduism Today magazine (www.hinduismtoday.com), as well as the book Ganesha, Remover of Obstacles by Manuela Dunn Mascetti, Ganesh statues in India began spontaneously drinking milk when a spoonful was placed near the mouth of statues honoring the elephant god. The phenomena spread from New Delhi to New York, Canada, Mauritius, Kenya, Australia, Bangladesh, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Hong Kong, Trinidad, Grenada and Italy among other reported places. This was seen as a miracle by Hindu and non-Hindu alike, and a reminder of the God's playfulness and love of pranks and tricks. However some scientific experiments conducted in that time frame suggested Capillary Action as an explanation for this phenomenon.

Other names for Ganesha

Like other Hindu gods and goddesses, Ganesh has many other titles of respect or symbolic names, and is often worshipped through the chanting of sahasranam (pronounced saa-HUS-ruh-naam), or a thousand names. Each is different and conveys a different meaning, representing a different aspect of the god in question. Needless to say, almost all Hindu gods have one or two accepted versions of their own sahasranaam liturgy.

Ganesha is also known by other names:

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