Sunday, February 26, 2017

Ganesha: Lord of Success

  1. I learned a lot about Ganesha this week. I had seen him in East Indian Restaurants I have eaten in for years now and wondered why he was in the entrances to those restaurants. Now I realize he is the Lord of Success in Hinduism so it all makes sense now.

    In another article I wrote about how my older daughter found an especially wonderful and beautiful dancing Ganesha about 1 foot tall. Since it was only $75 dollars I was moved to buy and and brought it home.  He is also the remover of Obstacles in your life that might interfere with your success here on earth. 

     I was thinking how Ganesha evolved into the diety he became to Hindus and this is what I was thinking. You had to be very rich to afford to own or train or feed or have an Elephant always. So, likely wealth was measured in how many elephants you owned. Then Elephants were also trained for warfare and also trained to carry great loads which would be a lot like owning large trucks today. So, you can see how owning elephants would be associated with wealth and the also the removal of obstacles. Because if there was a storm and trees fell the town would call the owner of the elephants to help remove the trees. They would pick them up with their trunks and move them off houses and roads. And ONLY Indian Elephants can be trained like this. African Elephants were never really domesticated. in Nepal I rode elephants often through rivers next to alligators called Gar on the Terai in Chitwan Royal National Park and they left the elephants alone because the elephants could step on them and they would die. So, even the alligators left elephants alone as we crossed rivers on their backs. So, you can see how Ganesha became the Lord of Success and the Remover of Obstacles. So, this is why he is important in the Hindu traditions even today. 

    By the way Nepal likely has an equal number of Hindus and Tibetan Buddhists because Nepal was once considered to be a part of Tibet. And Sherpas in the Himalayas are almost exclusively Tibetan Buddhist. I have stayed in many Sherpa Tibetan Buddhist Households when I traveled with my family up into the  Himalayas trekking for 50 miles to Shermontang and Takye Gyan,  and India, Nepal, Thailand and through Japan by plane to Bangkok and Katmandu, Nepal and back 4 months later.

     

    Ganesha - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganesha
    Ganesha is a popular figure in Indian art. Unlike those of some deities, representations of Ganesha show wide variations and distinct patterns changing over time. He ...

  2. (The Hindu Elephant-Deity)

    Feb 15, 2017 · Ganesha — the elephant-deity riding a mouse — has become one of the commonest mnemonics for anything associated with Hinduism. This not only suggests ...

  3. Ganesha | Hindu deity | Britannica.com

    www.britannica.com/topic/Ganesha
    Ganesha, also spelled Ganesh, also called Ganapati, elephant-headed Hindu god of beginnings, who is traditionally worshipped before any major enterprise and is the ... 

    Ganesha: Lord of Success

    All About the Hindu Elephant-Deity
    Hand drawn representation of god Ganesh - Jeremy Woodhouse / Photographer's Choice RF / Getty Images
    Jeremy Woodhouse / Photographer's Choice RF / Getty Images
    Updated February 16, 2017.
    Ganesha — the elephant-deity riding a mouse — has become one of the commonest mnemonics for anything associated with Hinduism. This not only suggests the importance of Ganesha but also shows how popular and pervasive this deity is in the minds of the masses.

    The Lord of Success

    The son of Shiva and Parvati, Ganesha has an elephantine countenance with a curved trunk and big ears, and a huge pot-bellied body of a human being. He is the Lord of success and destroyer of evils and obstacles. He is also worshiped as the god of education, knowledge, wisdom and wealth. In fact, Ganesha is one of the five prime Hindu deities (Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva and Durga being the other four) whose idolatry is glorified as the panchayatana puja.

    Significance of the Ganesha Form

    Ganesha's head symbolizes the Atman or the soul, which is the ultimate supreme reality of human existence, and his human body signifies Maya or the earthly existence of human beings. The elephant head denotes wisdom and its trunk represents Om, the sound symbol of cosmic reality.
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    In his upper right hand, Ganesha holds a goad, which helps him propel mankind forward on the eternal path and remove obstacles from the way. The noose in Ganesha's left hand is a gentle implement to capture all difficulties.
    The broken tusk that Ganesha holds like a pen in his lower right hand is a symbol of sacrifice, which he broke for writing the Mahabharata. The rosary in his other hand suggests that the pursuit of knowledge should be continuous. The laddoo (sweet) he holds in his trunk indicates that one must discover the sweetness of the Atman. His fan-like ears convey that he is all ears to our petition. The snake that runs round his waist represents energy in all forms. And he is humble enough to ride the lowest of creatures, a mouse.

    How Ganesha Got His Head

    The story of the birth of this zoomorphic deity, as depicted in the Shiva Purana, goes like this: Once goddess Parvati, while bathing, created a boy out of the dirt of her body and assigned him the task of guarding the entrance to her bathroom. When Shiva, her husband returned, he was surprised to find a stranger denying him access, and struck off the boy's head in rage. Parvati broke down in utter grief and to soothe her, Shiva sent out his squad (gana) to fetch the head of any sleeping being who was facing the north. The company found a sleeping elephant and brought back its severed head, which was then attached to the body of the boy. Shiva restored its life and made him the leader (pati) of his troops. Hence his name 'Ganapati'. Shiva also bestowed a boon that people would worship him and invoke his name before undertaking any venture.
    However, there's another less popular story of his origin, found in the Brahma Vaivarta Purana: Shiva asked Parvati to observe the punyaka vrata for a year to appease Vishnu in order to have a son. When a son was born to her, all the gods and goddesses assembled to rejoice on its birth. Lord Shani, the son of Surya (Sun-God), was also present but he refused to look at the infant. Perturbed at this behaviour, Parvati asked him the reason, and Shani replied that his looking at baby would harm the newborn. However, on Parvati's insistence when Shani eyed the baby, the child's head was severed instantly. All the gods started to bemoan, whereupon Vishnu hurried to the bank of river Pushpabhadra and brought back the head of a young elephant, and joined it to the baby's body, thus reviving it.

    Ganesha, the Destroyer of Pride

    Ganesha is also the destroyer of vanity, selfishness and pride. He is the personification of material universe in all its various magnificent manifestations. "All Hindus worship Ganesha regardless of their sectarian belief," says D N Singh in A Study of Hinduism. "He is both the beginning of the religion and the meeting ground for all Hindus."

    Ganesh Chaturthi

    The devotees of Ganesha are known as "Ganapatyas," and the festival to celebrate and glorify him is called Ganesh Chaturthi.
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  4. 10 Hindu Deities Everyone Should Know

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