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Hinduism
Shree Ganeshaye Namaha
Why is Ganesha always the first God invoked in all religious ceremonies?
Vakratunda Mahakaya Surya
Koti Samaprabha
Nirvighnam Kurumeydeva Sarva Karyeshu Sarvada
 Vakratunda : Lord with Curved Trunk
Mahakaya: Large Bodied
Surya Koti: Million Suns
Samaprabha: With The Brilliance Of
Nirvighnam: Free Of Obstacles
Kuru: Make
Mey: My
Deva: O Lord
Sarva Karyeshu: All Work
Sarvada: Always
"O Lord Ganesha of Large Body,
Curved Trunk,
With the Brilliance of a
Million
Suns,
Make All My Work Free Of Obstacles,
Always."
Ganesha is revered as the son of the Universal parents Shiva and
Parvati, and is always honored first in most worship services and
rituals. All ceremonies, religious or secular, begin with an invocation
to Ganesha. 'Om Shree Ganeshaya Namaha', literally meaning "Ganesha, I
pray to you". Ganesha has an elephantine countenance with a curved trunk
and big ears, and a huge pot-bellied body of a human being. He is also
known as Vighneshvara or Vighnaharta, the Lord of Success and Destroyer
of evils and obstacles. According to the Narasimha Purana, if he is not
worshipped at the beginning of a ceremony, he creates obstacles for the
performers. Therefore, no matter what the occasion or ceremony be,
Ganesha is worshipped before all other deities. For this reason, He is
called Vighneshwara, the Remover of all Obstacles. Ganesha's Vehicle (Vahana)
is the Mouse, symbolic of gnawing its way through everything, thus
depicting the God's ability to cut through all obstacles.
Ganesha is also worshipped as the God of education, knowledge, wisdom
and wealth. The devotees of Ganesha are known as 'Ganapatyas', and the
festival to celebrate and glorify him is called Ganesh Chaturthi. The
Puranas say that the fourth day of every month, known as Chaturthi, is
especially auspicious for Ganesha worship. It is believed that Ganesha
was born on the chaturthi of the month of Bhadra (September), on which
the festival of Ganesha Chaturthi commences and is celebrated for ten
days esp. in Maharashtra (India), though in some parts of the country,
this festival is also celebrated for five, seven or twenty one days.
Ganesha is also known as Ganapati, the God of wisdom, prudence and
salvation. Ga means "knowledge", Na means "salvation", and Pati means
"lord". Ganapati also means 'Lord of the Ganas', Shiva's multitude of
Attendants. His other names are Vinayaka (Prominent Leader), Gajamukha
or Gajanana (Elephant-Faced), Gajadhipati (Lord of Elephants),
Lambakarna (Long-Eared), Lambodara (Pendant-Bellied) and Ekadanta
(Having One Tusk).
The story of the birth of this zoomorphic Elephant-God, as depicted in
the Shiva Purana, goes like this: Once Goddess Parvati, while bathing,
created a boy with her supernatural powers out of her sweat, scruff and
turmeric paste which she prepared to cleanse her body and assigned him
the task of guarding the entrance to her door-less bathroom. She made a
beautiful boy's idol about the age of 12 years, infusing life into it,
and thus Ganesha was born. For reasons of privacy and protection,
Parvati stationed him at the entrance to stop anyone from entering,
while she was bathing. When Parvati's Husband Shiva returned home from
his mountainous Samadhi (meditation) , he was surprised to find a young
boy denying him access, as he stood firm in his way and wouldn't budge.
Ganesha unaware of Shiva's identity said: "I have never seen you before
and I don't recognise you. I have been instructed by my mother - Parvati
- to stop anyone from entering her chamber, and I am her son Ganesha."
Shiva was bewildered with shock and told him that he had no son by the
name of Ganesha. He tried to push Ganesha aside several times but the
child was very strong, and this enraged Shiva all the more and he with
his trident, struck off the boy's head in rage.
Parvati on hearing the commotion, came out and on seeing Ganesha's
lifeless body, broke down in utter grief. She angrily told her husband
that having left her alone, making her suffer his absence, then to
return without notice and kill their own son was unforgivable. Realizing
his grave mistake, Shiva sent out his squad/troops (Gana) to fetch the
head of the first sleeping being who was facing the north. A sleeping
elephant was found and its severed head was brought and attached to the
body of the boy. Shiva restored his life and made him the
Leader/Commander (Pati) of his troops, in compensation for the loss of
his human head. Hence his name 'Ganapati' - Commander/Leader of Troops.
Even this revival act of Shiva did not placate Parvati, who seeing her
once beautiful son look like an elephant, was all the more upset. She
said to Shiva in tears: “Nobody will worship my son as a God, you have
made him look like an Elephant.” Shiva declared there and then that
Ganesha should be worshipped first, before any form of worship was
offered to any other manifestation of divinity. And Shiva's bestowed
boon holds true to this day that people worship Ganesha and invoke his
name before undertaking any new venture or important task. In all
auspicious religious and social ceremonies, Ganesha's holy name is first
invoked, except in funeral rites.
The legends narrated about Lord Ganesha are recorded in the 'Ganesha
Khanda' of the Brahma Vivartha Purana. Another story of his origin,
found in the Brahma Vivartha Purana is as follows: Shiva asked Parvati
to observe the Punyaka Vrata for a year to appease Vishnu in order to
have a son. On completion of the Vrata by Parvati, it was announced that
The Lord of Gopikas, the Lord of all Creatures - Krishna, would
incarnate Himself as her son as a result of the Vrata. Accordingly,
Krishna was born as a charming infant, delighting Parvati and Shiva who
celebrated the event with great enthusiasm.
All the Gods and Goddesses assembled to rejoice on his birth. Lord Shani,
the son of Surya (Sun-God), was also present but he refused to look at
the infant. Perturbed at this behavior, Parvati asked him the reason,
and Shani replied that his looking at the baby would harm the newborn.
However, on Parvati's insistence when Shani eyed the baby, the child's
head was severed instantly. Parvati and all the Gods assembled there
including Shiva, were grief-stricken. They all started to bemoan,
whereupon Vishnu mounted Garuda and rushed to the bank of river
Pushpabhadra, brought back the head of a young elephant, and joined it
to the baby's headless body, thus reviving it. All the Gods blessed
Ganesha and wished Him power and prosperity. Shiva made Ganesha the
Leader of his Troops (Gana), and also gave Him the following boon:
"All obstacles, whatever they may be, will be rooted out by worshipping
Ganesha, even as diseases are cured by the worship of Surya and purity
results when Vishnu is worshipped."
Ganesha is also very well known for his ready wit and sharp intellect.
Another Legend goes that once there was a competition between Ganesha
and his brother Kartikeya (Lord Subramanya) as to who could be the first
one to circum-ambulate the whole world. Ganesha with his pot-bellied
body and mouse as vehicle could never hope to compete. Kartikeya went
off on his vehicle, the flying peacock to cover the whole world, while
Ganesha, in loving worshipfulness, asked Shiva and Parvati to be seated
down and circum-ambulated his parents. When asked why he did so, he
answered that to him, his divine parents meant the whole world - the
entire manifested universe. Thus, Lord Shiva settled the result in
favor of Lord Ganesha and announced him victorious because of his
wisdom and presence of mind.
Why Does the Moon Keep waxing and waning ?! And Why isn't every night a
Poornima - a full moon night ?!
The Legend goes that 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 size and shape every fifteen days
and anyone who looks at the moon during Ganesh Chaturthi would incur
bad-luck.
It is said that anyone who looks at the moon on the night of the Ganesh
Chaturthi will be falsely accused of theft or crime being reminded that
The Moon-God behaved unbecomingly towards Lord Ganesha. This, in reality
means to avoid the company of all those who have no faith in God, who
deride God and Religion.
Riddhi-Siddhi and 'Shubha-Labha'
Since Ganesha with an elephant-head was not beautiful, he had difficulty
in getting married, while all the other Gods were being sought after. In
his anger and frustration, He told the rats to dig up holes on any path
that the Baraat (wedding-procession) of any God would go to the Bride's
house, thus making many potholes and obstacles in their way. The poor
Gods as Grooms got very rattled and could not go elegantly for their
marriage. They all went to Brahma and complained bitterly about Ganesha
and his tricks. In order to appease Ganesha, Brahma created two
beautiful girls named Riddhi (material abundance) and Siddhi
(intellectual and spiritual prowess), and told Ganesha he can have two
wives instead of one, and Brahma with his consort Saraswati, gave away
these two girls in marriage to Ganesha, thus becoming his in-laws in the
process.
One who pleases Lord Ganesha is invariably blessed by his two wives
Riddhi and Siddhi, with Prosperity and Progress. After his marriage,
Ganesha stopped the rats from digging any more, and hence became the
Vanquisher of Obstacles, adopting the Rat as his eternal Vahana
(Vehicle). Ganesha and his two consorts, Riddhi and Siddhi, have two
sons named: Shubha (Auspiciousness) and Labha (Profit), thus the
association of the twin words Shubha-Labha. Ganesha's daughter is
Santoshi (Goddess of Satisfaction), worshipped by Hindus on Fridays,
with offerings of Jaggery and a taboo on sour food.
Ganesha is also believed to have been the legendary scribe who wrote
down the text of the Indian Epic Mahabharata as it was recited by the
sage Ved Vyasa. When the sage asked Ganesha to write down the epic, the
playful learned God agreed on condition that his pen should not stop
moving until the story was completed i.e. Vyasa must recite the Epic
non-stop. Vyasa agreed but imposed a counter-condition that Ganesha
understand each verse completely before transcribing it. So whenever
Ganesha stopped to consider Vyasa's complex compositions, the sage would
use the time to compose more verses. Thus the great epic of Mahabharata
is said to have been written by Lord Ganesha.
Any sculpture of Ganesha with his elephantine trunk pointing to the left
is used for home decoration, as symbolically it is associated with
Grihasthas (Householders) and points to the direction for success in the
world. Any image with Ganesha's trunk pointing to the right is used for
worship and prayers, as the direction symbolizes the ultimate path of
life: Moksha or Salvation through renunciation of the world. When one
chooses a Ganesh sculpture that is proper for their own spiritual path,
the position of the trunk is good to keep in mind.
In many homes and temples, the image of Goddess Lakshmi is often flanked
by the images of Goddess Saraswati and Lord Ganesha, indicating the
arrival of prosperity where there is knowledge and no obstacles. Perhaps
the most ancient of Ganapati shrines in India, is the well known Karpaka
Vinayakar temple in the town of Pillaiarpatti near Karaikkudi in
Tamilnadu. This temple with a rock cut shrine, bearing a collossal form
of Vinayakar, is over 1600 years old.
–
Aparna
Chatterjee
September 18, 2005
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