Loving Ganesha: Chapter 1 (Section 2) The Nature of Lord Ganesha--Shri Ganeshasya Svabhavah

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Namaste all,

 

The second section of chapter one : ) Chapter one can be found online at:

http://www.himalayanacademy.com/books/lg/lg_ch-01.html

 

Om Shanti,

 

Neil

 

The Meaning of Grace

"What about the grace of the Deity?" seekers ask. Grace is received from the God

when you are consistent in your worship, consistent in your discipline,

consistent in your bhakti, your devotion. With such a foundation in your life,

a great shakti, a force or power, will come from Lord Ganesha. This is grace.

It is uplifting. It comes unexpectedly. When grace comes, your mind may change

and your heart may melt. Your sight will become clear and penetrating. You may

say, "I have been graced to see everything differently." New doors will begin

to open for you, and as you go through them, your life will become more full,

more wonderful. And the grace of it is that it would not have ordinarily

happened to you.

Seekers also inquire, "What is the difference between grace and a boon from the

Gods?" Grace is not exactly a boon. A boon comes as the result of something

that you ask for and receive. A boon is quite specific. Grace comes because of

the state of the soul in conjunction with its particular karma. It comes

because we have done everything right up to a certain point in time according

to the laws of dharma. It is then that the grace of the God comes. Grace is not

for a specific need or event in our life, as a boon would be. Grace is more of a

complete transformation -- a metamorphosis. After receiving grace of a God, the

devotee can never be the same again, never look at life again in the old way.B

y grace we are directed deeper into spiritual life, pointed in the right

direction, carefully guided on the San Marga, the straight path to our supreme

God. After grace has been received, our thoughts are enlivened, our life is

inspired with enthusiasm and energy, and we live daily in the joyous knowledge

that everything is all right, everything is happening around us in accord with

our karma, our dharma and God's gracious will. The Gods Are Real Beings, Not

Mere Symbols

Many people look at the Gods as mere symbols, representations of forces or mind

areas. Actually, the Gods are beings, and down through the ages ordinary men

and women, great saints and sages, prophets and mystics in all cultures have

inwardly seen, heard and been profoundly influenced by these superconscious,

inner-plane, inner-galactic beings. Lord Ganesha is just such a being. He can

think just as we can think. He can see and understand and make decisions --

decisions so vast in their implications and complexity that we could never

comprehend them with our human faculties of limited understanding.

In recent history, missionaries and others from the Western religions have told

the Indian people over and over again that their Gods are not real beings, but

merely symbols of spiritual matters -- and unfortunately many have begun to

believe this and look at their Gods in this way. Even among Hindus there are

quite a few who don't believe in inner-world beings. Their belief is restricted

to the people they see in the physical world, and that is all. You dare not tell

them differently. It is very difficult, but not impossible, to introduce them to

the grand philosophy which is based solely on worship, meditation, inner

discipline and the search for Absolute Truth. But this is too high-minded for

those living in the everyday materialistic consciousness. For the knowledge of

inner worlds to become accepted, a personal realization has to occur. This is a

slow process for the materialist, a very slow process, and only Lord Ganesha can

help it along. To contact Lord Ganesha, it is imperative that the materialist

visit one of His temples or shrines, to make initial contact. It only takes one

meeting.

How to Approach the Deity

When you approach the Deity, you should believe that Ganesha feels your

presence, that He sees you just as you see Him. In thus seeing Him in very

human terms, you will get to know Him better. You will develop a very human

relationship with Him. It is especially important that you develop this

relationship with Lord Ganesha. It will not be difficult to nurture a friendly

feeling for Him, because Ganesha is the Deity who governs our

instinctive-intellectual state of mind. He governs the instinctive mind of all

the animals, the insects, the birds and the fish, and governs, as well, all the

forces of prakriti, nature. Lord Ganesha is also the Deity who governs the

higher intellectual mind, of science and profound knowledge. This is why they

call Him Lord of Categories. As Lord of Categories, He organizes and clears the

intellectual mind so that individual awareness can flow unhindered in the many

areas of developing thought. As Lord of Obstacles, He creates and removes

obstacles so that karma becomes more and more perfect as the refinement process

of living through the experiences of life continues.

In the temples of India, even the offerings that come in through the day from

pilgrims, who bring silver, gold and gifts of all kinds to be placed into the

hundi, are counted at nightfall before the Deity. He sees this and is told of

all that was given to Him, and He knows. At night, the Deity is ceremoniously

put to bed. They treat Him in very human terms. In the morning He is

symbolically awakened, then bathed and dressed. The Deity is treated just as if

He were a human person. Well, in the Third World that kind of dedication,

intense bhakti, is noticed, and it is appreciated.

Connecting the Three Worlds: Hindu Magic

Now you might wonder, "Where are the inner worlds?" It is where you were just

before you were conceived. They are in the nonphysical microcosm of this

macrocosm. When you were conceived, you began to slowly grow a new physical

body inside your mother. At that time you were living in your astral body in

the nonphysical microcosm. You existed, to be sure, but not in this physical

macrocosm.

The devas and Deities are all in that nonphysical microcosm. They actually exist

inside material existence, for there are many worlds, or planes of existence,

within the physical world. If you were to go into the physical microcosm, into

a cell and into an atom, and into the inside of that and the inside of that,

you would come out in the macrocosm of the Gods. This is called the Sivaloka or

Third World. Their macrocosm is bigger than our macrocosm.T he concept of this

inner space is different than we ordinarily conceive. Even though their

macrocosm exists within this macrocosm, it is larger than this macrocosm. Of

course, that immensity is in another dimension, another world. And each world

is larger than the one before -- the world of departed souls is larger than

this physical world, and the world of the Gods is much larger than the heaven

worlds. Therefore, in a tiny space in this physical world hundreds of thousands

of devas exist -- in a very tiny space.

Establishing the Link Through Puja

When the temple priest invokes the inner worlds and the beings within them, he

is consciously trying to establish a channel of communication. When he is

successful, this physical microcosm opens into the devonic macrocosm. In other

words, through conscious effort, he connects the inner and outer worlds, even

to the point that devotees may see the transfiguration of the God, or Mahadeva,

superimposed over the stone image of the Deity in the temple. They can actually

see the God, as He is in the inner world. Many, many awakened souls have seen

such things -- the eyes of the God moving, for instance -- and some gurus can

actually hear the God speak to them. The God is still in the inner world when

this happens. It is the temple that has tuned into His world. This is much like

live TV. Hundreds of sets can be tuned into the same station at the same time

and view actual happenings as they occur.

The God, therefore, does not travel from the altar of one temple to the altar of

another temple. The procedure is similar to that of dialing a friend on the

telephone and bringing his voice across a vast distance into your ear. The

friend can be heard quite clearly, but he has not moved to another place. The

telephone could be likened to a connection between the gross and the subtle

worlds, the world of matter and the worlds of spirit, or akasha.

Where Do We Go When We "Die?"

Where does the soul go when a person dies? It goes into the subtle microcosm and

then into a larger macrocosm, or greater world, and ceases for a time to

function in this gross macrocosm because it is not living in a physical body.

At death, the soul drops off the physical body and travels in and in and in to

subtle worlds, inner worlds of existence that have their own expansive space,

their own macrocosm.S mall children, four or five years old, who can speak but

have not yet become too immersed in the learned reality of the conscious or

external mind, often tell their parents that they remember when they were born

and even before. I have had children tell me, "I came from a world that was

bigger than this world." And they talked about the activities that go on there

and described the people living there. Of course, as they grow older and become

involved in the external thought processes, these memories fade away. This is

the kind of experiential knowledge that makes religion come alive in us, more

real and useful. True religion should be the most real and solid and certain

thing in our entire life. When we ponder these inner worlds, we learn from

within ourselves how they relate and interrelate with each other. Ponder the

many visions that prophets have spoken of experiencing, of all the angels or

devas that have graced mankind with their presence and their prophecies. Ponder

the mystic human events that cannot adequately be explained by the rational

intellect. Think of them all in terms of the inner worlds of existence, and all

will become clear. Yes, one day it will all become clear, from the inside of you

to the external intellect. This is real knowing. This is the building of faith.

This is true Hinduism, the bedrock of daily life. When this knowing comes from

the depths of your knowing state of consciousness, the temple will be the home

of the Gods to you.

Worship and Meditation on Lord Ganesha

Worship, bhakti yoga, is a definite discipline and practice to be perfected

according to the aptitude of the devotee. After bathing and preparing the mind,

approach Lord Ganesha in the shrine or temple, bringing a small gift or flower

to be placed at His holy feet. Consider that you are approaching and about to

meet the most important person in the world. Make your offering and prostrate.

As you prostrate, feel the energies of love and devotion flow along your spine

and out through the top of the head and into the home shrine altar or sanctum

sanctorum, garbhagriha, of the temple, and offer those pure actinic energies to

Lord Ganesha. Rise and walk slowly three times around the sanctum, always

clockwise.M editation, dhyana yoga, is a discipline you can perform after

worshiping that will, when diligently and consistently practiced, brings its

own rewards. Sit before the Deity and bring up the images of your own father

and mother, then the family guru and finally the darshana of the elephant Lord.

Now meditate upon His form, His eyes, His ears, His trunk, His two tusks, His

belly, in which rests the whole world. The first time your mind wanders into

the thought patterns of daily life, bring it back to your parents, your guru

and the first Lord to be worshiped before proceeding on to any other of the 330

million Gods of our ancient Sanatana Dharma. The objective is to maintain an

unbroken continuity of thought and to not allow the mind to wander away from

the darshana of the God. You can begin this meditation by pondering the obvious

physical properties of the worshipful image. If it is made of stone, think of

the stone. How large is it? Where was it quarried and how was it carved? What

are the various parts of the Deity and what do they mean? What are his symbols

and what do they mean? Recall them to memory. If it is a picture of Ganesha,

ponder how that picture was produced. Continue to explore the Lord Ganesha with

your mind. Later you can move on to less physical points of concentration. You

will find that your awareness or mind will wander to unrelated areas, to

concerns of the past or worries of the future. When it does, bring awareness

back to your point of concentration -- the Deity, Lord Ganesha. Begin again

your stream of thoughts toward Him, and when the mind once again wanders, use

your willpower to bring it back to His darshana.This may be difficult at first,

but constant practice will unfold new knowledge from within you, knowledge that

you never knew existed and did not learn from the outside. When that happens,

concentration is strong and meditation is not far away. You should be able to

have twenty, thirty or even fifty thoughts on loving Ganesha in sequence

without awareness being distracted into areas of the external mind. It will

help if you learn to breathe diaphragmatically during these exercises. Breathe

deeply but naturally, without strain or effort. As we control the pranas of the

breath, we simultaneously control awareness so that it remains steady and does

not move here and there. You also have to teach the body to sit still, to

remain poised and not restless. All of this will come in time, not immediately.

Be patient. Never become upset with yourself when distractions arise, for that

is a greater distraction still. Simply accept each departure from your

concentration as an opportunity to become stronger and more one-pointed, and

then quietly and firmly bring awareness back to its subject, Lord Ganesha. You

must teach this simple meditation to your children, and together the entire

family will learn much about the Gods of our religion. It will inspire one and

all to read more about Them, to study Their stories and memorize Their sacred

chants. The Gods will come to life within your own mind and every member of the

family as you penetrate behind the symbols and the stories and discover the true

nature of Divinities. It is not necessary to practice this meditation for

extended periods. A few minutes each day is enough. Once your brief meditation

is finished, sit quietly in His darshana and enjoy His energies merging with

your own pranic radiations. Take that darshana and that love out of the temple

when you leave, spreading it among all the peoples of the world that they, too,

may come to know and love the endearing God of Hinduism.

 

 

Loving Ganesha by Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

 

Web sites: http://www.hindu.org/ & http://www.himalayanacademy.com/

email: contact (AT) hindu (DOT) org

Himalayan Academy Kauai's Hindu Monastery107 Kaholalele RoadKapaa, HI 96746-9304

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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