GANESH CHATURTHI

Ganesha is the first letter in the alphabet of symbolic forms devised by the rishis. He is the most popular of the gods in the Hindu pantheon. Even votaries of other gods have to pay obeisance to him before starting their rituals to their own chosen deity. Hindus start all religious ceremonies and even worldly affairs of importance by breaking a coconut to Ganesha. He represents the power of the intelligent will unfolding the spiritual life from the world of matter. Hence, he is associated with the Mooladhara Chakra at the base of the spine which denotes the element “earth”. He is said to be God of gravity that is the base of all existence. Anyone who wants to get into the Hindu fold has to supplicate Ganesha first.

The figure of Ganesha has a deep spiritual significance. It symbolises the idea of the emergence of life from earth and the unfolding of consciousness from matter. His dual form of animal and human points out to us that we too can aspire to a supra-mental level even though we have come from an animal background. The apparently ludicrous figure of Ganesha mounted on a small mouse is actually a representation of this theme and meant to give an impetus to the human being to realise his own inner divinity.

Now let us first see what the word Ganesha or Ganapati implies. The word “gana” comes from the root “gan” which means to count. “Ganya” means limited and “aganya” means unlimited or infinite. “Ganya” includes the whole of manifold creation, everything that the human intellect can comprehend. Therefore, Ganapati is the Lord of all finite things. He is also “Ganyaapati” — Lord of everything in creation. The “aganya” or Infinite has taken on a finite form as Ganapati or Ganesha in order to uplift humanity out of these finite forms.

The ganas are the subtle creative powers and elements that cause diversity and create obstructions in the universe. Since he is Ganapathy or the leader of the ganas, we have to contact him so that these obstacles can be removed. He not only removes obstacles from our physical life but also from our spiritual life. When a devotee takes a wrong path, he also places obstacles in our way so that we are forced to take a different path which is better for us.

There are many accounts of the birth of Ganesha. The most popular one comes from the Shiva Purana. Once when Shiva had retired to the high Himalayan peaks for his meditation, Parvati felt a bit unsafe when she went for her bath to the pool since she had only two female attendants. In those days there was no soap, so she had smeared a mixture of turmeric, sandal powder, mud and various other unguents over her body. Before she got into the water, she scraped this out and made a beautiful figure of a boy. Parvati is Prakriti or Nature which is latent with infinite creative potency. It gives birth to life that emerges and evolves and eventually turns into consciousness in the human being. So she breathed life into the figure of the boy she had made. She made him stand at the door of the path leading to the pond and told him to obstruct anyone who tried to enter. When Shiva returned from his meditation, he found his way barred by the child who absolutely refused to let him in. Shiva sent his ganas to rout the boy, but they were defeated and eventually Shiva himself came and cut off his head. Parvati was distraught to see the headless torso of her boy and threatened to destroy the whole world if her son was not restored to her. Shiva immediately sent the ganas to cut off the head of the first creature they found who was sleeping with his head turned to the north. As it happened, they found an elephant and brought his head and Shiva fixed it on the torso. The priests muttered some mantras and the body came to life. The body was that of a boy and the head of the elephant. Parvati was delighted to see her son alive, even though, with the head of an elephant. When his trunk is turned to the right his figure is a representation of the mantra Aum when written in Sanskrit. She took him on her lap and christened him “Vinayaka”, the one who is born without a sire. This happened on the fourth day of the bright fortnight of the month of Bhadra (August/September) and hence this day is celebrated as his birthday.

The most striking thing about Ganesha is his elephant head. There is a deep esoteric reason for this. The elephant is the largest of the vegetarians in the animal world. In fact, it is the most powerful and massive creature on earth. It is long-lived, vigorous, has a large brain and an excellent memory. They can be trained to become great friends of the human being. Animals that are feared by men and beasts alike are all predators and flesh eaters. No one fears a vegetarian giant. This is one of the reasons that the elephant was chosen as a most auspicious symbol in Hinduism. Most houses in India have an idol or picture of Ganesha at the front so that they can pray to him before going out.

An elephant’s trunk is the most amazing instrument known to man. Human ingenuity still has not been able to devise such an instrument. It is capable of lifting huge logs of wood as well as of picking up a small pin lying on the ground. With this trunk, Ganesha is capable of removing every obstacle in the path of his devotee. His large ears act like antenna to receive all possible sounds and thus he can easily gauge every situation. In an esoteric sense he can discern the real from the unreal. His huge belly is a symbol of the whole universe. Everything emerges from the cauldron of his belly. His small eyes show his ability to make minute observations.

The fact that the insignificant mouse is his vehicle is the most enigmatic portion of his figure. According to Hinduism, consciousness is ingrained even in the grains of sand. It turns into intelligence after passing through many rudimentary forms. The mouse is a fitting symbol for this. It is a creature of the earth and lives in burrows and holes in the ground. Its body touches the earth all the time. It cares only for the satisfaction of its palate. It has a primitive intelligence encased in ignorance and is restless, avaricious and worried. On the other hand, the elephant is the symbol of power and wisdom. The fact that Ganesha rides on such a creature shows that the liberated man keeps his worldly desires completely under control. The picture of Ganesha mounted on a mouse shows that the human being has the power to be calm and majestic and reach the infinite but continues to be a rat and rush about in the rat race of life, fighting and squabbling over trivialities. Thus, his whole image is a graphic picture of the immense possibility of the human being to reach the heights of consciousness.

The breaking of coconuts in front of Ganesha in order to remove all obstacles on our path is a special offering to him. This has an esoteric significance as is usual with all Hindu rituals. The coconut represents our prarabdha karma or the karma of our past lives for which we are either being rewarded or punished now in this life. When we break the coconut, we should have the mental attitude that we are offering this load of karma to him and begging him to deliver us from them. The outer fibrous covering of the coconut represents the gross body which carries a lot of desires and attachments. Before breaking the coconut, we have to remove this fibre of attachments. Then we break the hard shell which is our ego and then expose the white kernel of our pure desire to be united with him. Finally, the sweet water of our love is poured over him. In S. India we always break a coconut before we start on a journey or before we start some new enterprise.

Normally the fourth day of the bright half of every lunar month is believed to be the day for Ganesha and is known as Siddhi Vinayaka Chaturti. The fourth day of the bright fortnight of the month of Bhadrapada (August/September) is the most important of these and is known as Mahasiddhi Vinayaka Chaturti. This is the day on which Parvati created Ganesha. It was on this day that his first birthday was celebrated in Kailasa. This year 2024 Ganesha Chaturti falls on the 7^th September. The festival is conducted for ten days especially in Maharashtra. On the final day the figure of Ganesha that has been worshipped for ten days is taken in procession and immersed in the ocean or river or tank.

The ritual is done to signify the birth cycle of Lord Ganesha; just as he was created from clay/Earth, his symbolic statue is as well. The idol is immersed in water so that Ganesha may return to his home after his ‘stay’ at the devotees’ home or temple where the Ganesha Chaturthi rituals are conducted. While it might seem like a good idea to skip the visarjan and keep hosting the God for fortune and prosperity, it is said that the power that suffuses the statue after 10 days of worship is all a human can bear. So it is not to be kept longer.

On this auspicious occasion of his birthday let us pray to him to remove all the obstacles that stand in the way of our progress towards moksha.

Aum Sri Ganeshaya Namaha!