Ganesha Chaturthi

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Today, people in India and everywhere else will

be celebrating Ganesha Chaturthi. This is a popular

Hindu festival, celebrating the Shri Ganesha, the

younger son of Shiva and Parvati. This day falls on the

4th day of the bright fortnight of Bhadrapada (August

– September). Clay figures of the Deity are made

and after being worshipped for two days, or in some

cases ten days, they are thrown into water.<br>Once

upon a time, the Goddess Parvati (consort of Lord

Shiva), while bathing, created Ganesha as a pure white

being out of the sandal paste, breathed life into him

and placed Him at the entrance of the house. She told

Him not to allow anyone to enter while she went

inside for a bath. Lord Shiva Himself was returning home

and was stopped by Ganesha at the gate. Shiva became

angry and cut off Ganesha's head as He thought Ganesha

was an outsider. <br>When Parvati came to know of

this she was sorely grieved. To console her grief

Shiva ordered His servants to cut off and bring to Him

the head of any creature that might be sleeping with

its head facing north. The servants went on their

mission and found only an elephant in that position. The

sacrifice was thus made and the elephant's head was brought

before Shiva. The Lord then joined the elephant's head

onto the body of Ganesha. <br>Lord Shiva made His son

worthy of worship at the beginning of all undertakings,

marriages, expeditions, studies, etc. He ordained that the

annual worship of Ganesha should take place on the 4th

day of the bright half of Bhadrapada.<br>His Mantra

is Om Gung Ganapathaye Namah. Spiritual aspirants

who worship Ganesha as their tutelary Deity repeat

this Mantra or Om Sri Ganeshaya Namah.<br>Lord Ganesha

represents Om. Nothing can be done without uttering it. This

explains the practice of invoking Ganesha before beginning

any rite or undertaking any project. His two feet

represent the power of knowledge and the power of action.

The elephant head is significant in that it is the

only figure in nature that has the form of the symbol

for Om. <br>The significance of riding on a mouse is

the complete conquest over egoism. The holding of the

ankusha represents His rulership of the world. It is the

emblem of divine Royalty. <br>Ganesha is the first God.

Riding on a mouse, one of nature's smallest creatures

and having the head of an elephant, the biggest of

all animals denotes that Ganesha is the creator of

all creatures. Elephants are very wise animals this

indices that Lord Ganesha is an embodiment of wisdom. It

also denotes the process of evolution-the mouse

gradually evolves into an elephant and finally becomes a

man. This is why Ganesha has a human body, an

elephant's head and a mouse as His vehicle. This is the

symbolic philosophy of His form.<br>Ganesha is very fond

of sweets. On one of His birthday, He was going

around house to house accepting the offerings of sweets

Having eaten a god number of these, He set out moving on

His mouse at night, Suddenly the mouse stumbled-it

had seen a snake and became frightened-with the

result that Ganesha fell down. His stomach burst open

and all the sweets came out. But Ganesha stuffed them

back into His stomach and, catching hold of the snake,

tied it around His belly. Seeing this the moon in the

sky had a hearty laugh. This unseemly behaviour of

the moon annoyed Ganesha immensely and so he pulled

out one of His tusks and hurled it against the moon,

and cursed that no one should look at the moon on the

Ganesh Chaturthi day. If anyone does, he will surely

earn a bad name, censure or ill-repute. However if by

mistake someone does happen to look at the moon on this

day, then the only way he can be freed from the curse

is by repeating or listening to the story of how

Lord Krishna cleared His character regarding the

Syamantaka jewel, which is another story.