Lord Vinaayaka
Om Ganeshaaya namah
Mahaaganapati has several names. The familiar ones are
Ganapati, Ganesha, Vinaayaka, Gajaanana etc. He is the God of plenty, wisdom,
good fortune, peace and spiritual success. Pleased by our prayers, He removes
all obstacles in the path of any work we undertake. So He is called
Vighneshvara He stands for Om, for His figure with an elephant's trunk resembles
the form of Om. Hence He is also called Pranava Svaruupa.
He represents perfect wisdom. He has an elephant head. We
are all familiar with the story how He got the elephant head. But it has a
great symbolic explanation. A common word for elephant in Sanskrit is 'gaja'.
Ga means the 'gati' or the final goal towards which the entire creation is
moving. Ja stands for 'janma', birth or origin. Hence gaja signifies God from
whom the worlds have come out and towards whom they are progressing to merge in
Him at the end. His large ears indicate continuous and intelligent listening to
the teacher. We know how sage Vyaasa dictated the big book of Mahaabhaarata to
Ganesha and Ganesha wrote down continuously without leaving a word and at the
same time understanding the meaning fully. It shows how sharp His hearing was
and how deep His concentration.
He has a long trunk. The trunk of an elephant can pick up a
pin and at the same time, it can uproot a big tree. It means that He can handle
any work big or small. If a poor and humble man prays, Ganesha fulfils his
wants and if a demon challenges He destroys him. He is most compassionate but
most powerful.
His vehicle is a small mouse. Mouse is small but not
insignificant. if a lion is caught in a net it cannot escape, but if a mouse
wants, it can cut asunder the net by its teeth and free the lion in no time.
The mouse also represents desires. Desires are man’s enemies. If man runs after
desires he perishes. Ganesha sits on the mouse and controls it. It indicates
that man should control desires fully.
Gnesha has four arms.
He has a noose or rope in one hand. It
signifies worldly attachments which make us suffer endlessly. Worldly
attachments are a bondage like a rope.
The second hand holds Ankusha or goad. It represents anger.
Just as the noose binds us, anger hurts us like a goad. When our attachments and anger increase, life becomes
miserable. The only way of escaping from the tyranny of these is to take refuge
in God. It is better for us to surrender our attachment and anger to Him. When
they are in His hands, we are safe.
The third hand holds modaka - a sweet
preparation. If we please Him by our good character and worship, He bestows
happiness on us.
The fourth hand is in the blessing pose. He blesses the
whole humanity. After all we are His children and He wants us all to be always
happy and cheerful
He has a large belly. It indicates that all created worlds
are contained in Him. It also shows His ability to stomach and digest all types
of experiences, good and bad.
More on Ganesh Utsav in next post
- Manhar Narsey
Note: If you have any articles of general interest please forward it to me (mnarsey@gmail.com) .
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