Understanding Bhagwan Ganesha and Logic behind his Attributes
Lord Ganesha is one of the most worshipped Gods in Hinduism. He is the patron of arts and sciences and the god of intellect and wisdom. Worshipping him brings prosperity and good fortune in our life. He removes obstacles in our life and therefore is worshipped before starting any work. In this article I will explain to you why Ganesha has all these attributes.
To understand Lord Ganesha, let’s go through the story of how Ganesha got his elephant head. Many of you might already know this story but as a refresher I will reproduce it here. So, the story goes as follows.
Lord Shiva many a times used to enter Goddess Parvati’s quarters unannounced. The sakhis of the Goddess objected saying that Shiva enters unannounced in your quarters and sometimes sees us in a compromised position. They would like to have some privacy. Considering their objection to be appropriate, the Goddess asked Nandi to stand guard on the door and do not let anyone in without asking for her permission. Next time when Shiva came, Nandi stopped Shiva from entering the quarters. When Shiva sternly asked Nandi to let him go in, Nandi obliged, and Shiva entered unannounced again. The sakhis of the Goddess were embarrassed again.
They asked the Goddess to have her own Gana who will only follow her order. The Goddess then created a boy from the soil that came of her skin after taking a bath and put life in him. She then placed him on the door and told him to not let anyone in without her consent. When Shiva arrived at the door the boy did not let him in, despite stern insistence from Shiva. This angered Shiva and with his trident he severed the head of the boy. When Parvati realized what had happened she got very angry and took on here frightening form and started to destroy the world through earthquakes and storms. The Devas got alarmed. Seeing what had happened Shiva calmed down Parvati and ask his ganas to go north and bring the head of first living being they see. The ganas went north and the first living being they found was a white baby elephant. The baby elephant’s head was then placed on the boy’s head and he was named lord of the Ganas that is Ganesha.
So this was the whole story, now let us try to interpret this story and understand the underlying meaning of it. As is always the case with Indian mythological stories, you must think of these things to be happening in your mind with all these characters representing characteristics of your thought patterns.
As we have discussed on the previous video on Shiva Linga, Shiva represents Brahman, the absolute that is pure consciousness, while Goddess represents the physical world as we see it and experience it, in other words the world of Maya with many forms. As we discussed in that video, the union of the two is important for this world to come into existence. Without consciousness there is no one to experience the world of Maya and if there is no world of Maya, consciousness cannot experience anything. One who understands this realizes truth, can see through the veil of maya and transcends the suffering of this world.
Now in this story Parvati made a boy through herself alone and breathed life in him. She then instructed him to guard her and not let anyone in without her consent. The boy therefore is only controlled by the physical world. This symbolizes that the boy is not conscious and is just behaving mechanically, as if just working with his instincts, just as animals live. When Shiva came to Goddess, the boy became an obstacle in their union. The boy therefore is representing the obstacle we have when we are trying to transcend the world of Maya. Such obstinacy of the boy represents an unenlightened soul, entangled in his own world of Maya.
In anger Shiva severs the head of the boy but this angers the Goddess and she takes up her frightful form. For an unenlightened person, the world seems to be a dangerous place. Such a person is confused and deluded, who sees threat everywhere.
Finally, Shiva calms the Goddess and makes the boy back alive again by replacing his head with an elephant’s head and names him Ganesh. Elephant is a symbol of wisdom and prosperity in Hinduism. When Shiva replaces the head of the boy with an elephant’s head it represents the development of wisdom in an individual. The fact that Shiva installs it shows that Ganesh is now the son of both Shiva and Parvati. He is now the product of the union of Shiva and Parvati and therefore signifies a self-realized person. He now represents an individual who lives in this world performing his task, but maintains a spiritual attitude towards life, therefore he has the strength to overcome any challenge in this world and not be overwhelmed by it. Therefore, he is considered the destroyer of obstacles and is worshipped before starting any activity. He likes to eat sweet because a person living in this world unattached to things is the one who enjoys life to the maximum.
Ganesha as a God can be very confusing, especially to the people who are not familiar with Hinduism. I hope now you will understand.
Originally published at https://stoicsadhu.com on November 17, 2019.
