Loving Ganesha: Chapter 13 (Section 1) - Around the World -- Paribhuvanam

[Guest guest]

Namaste all,

 

The first section of chapter thirteen of Loving Ganesha, from

http://www.himalayanacademy.com/books/lg/lg_ch-13.html

 

Om Shanti,

 

Neil : )

 

 

Paribhuvanam

Around the World

AHA GANAPATI, OF COURSE, BELONGS TO ALL mankind, not to Hindus alone, though not

all inhabitants of the planet call Him by our endearing name, Premavan Ganesha,

which means “Loving Ganesha” in English. To the Chinese He is

embodied in the form of a massive dragon, whose physical immensity depicts His

incredible and irresistible force. To some Chinese He is Kuan-shi t'ien or Ho

Tei, the large-bellied God of Happiness. To the Polynesians in Hawaii He is God

Lono.

The South Indian and Sri Lankan Tamils call him by the affectionate term

Pillaiyar, "Noble Child." The Tibetans know Him as Ts'ogsbdag, and the Burmese

worship Maha-Pienne. In Mongolia His name is Totkharour Khaghan. Cambodians

offer worship to Prah Kenes, and the Japanese supplicate Vinayaksa or Sho-ten.

By some He is envisioned as the feminine Mother Nature, and even nonbelievers

seek to understand Him through personifying His great powers as Fate, Destiny

or Numen. The ancient Egyptians may have known Him as a minor but very popular

Deity, Bes, grotesque, pot-bellied and cheerful. The Romans called Him Janus

and sought His blessings at the outset of any new venture. On His festival on

the first of January (the month named after Him) He was treated with special

cakes; mutual good wishes were exchanged and people made presents of sweets to

one another for a good omen for the new year. In the West He is ubiquitous as

the corpulent jolly Santa Claus, the dispenser of boons and gifts, especially

to children, who knows our thoughts, words and deeds and bestows rewards

accordingly. The Buddhists and Jains also honor Ganesha. In one form or

another, He is honored throughout the world.

As respected author Ratna Ma Navaratnam, devotee of Sage Yogaswami of Sri Lanka,

wrote: "Ganesha worship is most effective in illumining consciousness, and hence

He is sought after and propitiated by the Saivites, Vaishnavites, Shaktas,

Smartas, Kumaras, Jains and Buddhists as the Dispeller of Obstacles" (Aum

Ganesha, The Peace of God, p. 176).

Hindus worship the great God Ganesha at countless pujas performed daily on every

continent. In temples and home shrines Lord Ganesha is worshiped today in India,

Sri Lanka, Nepal, Malaysia, Java, Bali, Borneo, Tibet, Myanmar, Siam,

Afganistan, the Middle East, China, Indo-China, Japan, the Caribbean, Trinidad

and Tobago, Hawaii and the Pacific Islands, Africa, Mauritius, Reunion, Europe,

Australia, Canada, South America, the United States and elsewhere.

Every Hindu village and community has an image of the God Ganesha, and one of

the many forms of Ganesha is found in every Hindu temple. The eminent scholar

M. Arunachalam wrote, "Ganesha is usually installed at the entrance to the

central sanctum, at the south, and also at the southwestern corner in the first

court, of every Siva temple. Besides, He is placed on the first eastern goshta

(niche) on the other southern wall of the ardha mandapa (secondary hall) in the

dancing pose, known as Nartana Ganapati, in many temples. The tip of His trunk

will curve to the left and touch the modaka, generally held in the left hand.

In a few rare cases the trunk will curve to the right to touch the modaka on a

right hand. Here He is called Valampuri (right turned) Vinayaga" (Festivals of

Tamil Nadu, 1980, p. 112).

While Ganesha shrines are found at all Hindu temples, they often stand alone as

well. They are often quite humble, not uncommonly a simple roadside shrine such

as the one between Jaffna and Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka or along the roadsides

here and there in South India. Here travelers stop to break a coconut and burn

a bit of camphor before the Lord of Obstacles to pray for a safe and successful

journey. There is a similar shrine near the university in Madras. Many years ago

a young man discovered a tree that formed the shape of Ganesha head in its

gnarled trunk. He began worshiping and soon took a vow not to leave the site.

He has been there, serving as a priest and doing sadhana for several decades

now, without leaving the tiny compound. Travelers and students about to take

their exams come to the shrine to seek Lord Ganesha's blessings. Such tree

shrines enjoy the patronage of thousands of worshipers annually.

Historically His image is often found in places of danger, such as steep slopes,

river crossings or where two roads cross. Here His murti may be a rough-hewn

stone or even a trunk of a bo or banyan tree which has taken the form of the

God Ganesha. A natural stone, or svayambhu ("self-created") murti, may also be

the object of worship. Researcher Alice Getty wrote: "The most celebrated

svayambhu murtis of Ganesha are found in Kashmir, where there are three famous

and most powerful formless stones which from ancient times have drawn pilgrims

to their shrines. One, which is near the village of Ganesh-bal, is in the river

Lidar near its right bank, and is still an important place of pilgrimage....

Another rock in Kashmir which has been worshiped from most ancient times as a

symbol of Ganesha under the name of Bhimasvamin is at the foot of the hill

Hari-Parbat near Srinagar.... The most remarkable of these svayambhu murtis in

Kashmir is the one on a cliff along the Kishen-Ganga known as Ganesh-Gati"

(Ganesha, a Monograph on the Elephant-Faced God, by Alice Getty, 1971, p.

22-23).

Perhaps the most famous Ganesha temple in India is the Uchi Pillaiyar Koyil at

Trichy. Uchi means "at the top." This large temple (also known as the Rock Fort

Temple) is built on a hilltop and commands a breathtaking view of the city and

of the river Kaveri. Another large Ganesha temple is the Pillaiyarpatti Temple

near Karaikudi in Ramanathapuram District, also in Tamil Nadu. In New Delhi

there is the Siddhi Buddhi Vinayagar temple situated in Vinayanagar. The

Mukkuruni Pillaiyar inside the huge Meenakshi Temple complex in Madurai, India,

is also quite famous. This murti is ten to twelve feet tall. Mukkuruni refers to

a large measure of rice (about forty pounds). Here the priests cook a huge

modaka ball for Ganesha using this measure. Hence the name Mukkuruni Pillaiyar.

Also in Madurai, Lord Ganesha is worshiped as Vyaghrapada Ganeshani, in female

form with tiger feet. The Ganeshani murti in sukhasana pose resides at

Suchindram. There are two other temples in India with the female Ganesha form.

One is at a tenth-century temple dedicated to sixty-four yoginis in Bheraghat,

a village near Jabalpur. The other is the Tanumalaya Swami Temple in

Suchindrum, Kerala. In Tibet She is worshiped as Gajanani.

A five-headed Ganesha mounted on a lion resides at Nagapattinam. At Vellore,

India, Ganesha is enshrined as Valampuri Vinayakar, with his trunk turned to

the right instead of to the left. This murti is considered very auspicious.

Highly revered Ganesha shrines are also found in the precincts of the Siva

temple of Tirunelveli, in the Kanyakumari temple at the southern tip of India,

and in Rameshvaram and Chidambaram. Our loving Ganesha is especially beloved in

Maharashtra, where eight temples form one of His most sacred pilgrimages, and

dozens of other sites are designated for his adoration. At the end of this

chapter we offer a list of fifty of India's most prominent Ganesha citadels. It

is said that to make a visit on hardship pilgrimage (third-class on trains, on

foot or by crawling) to 108 Ganesha temples and roadside shrines is most

auspicious to smooth out the karmas of the future by dissolving, through His

grace, the negative karmas and mistakes of the past, made knowingly or

unknowingly. Penance of this sort deliberately condenses into a short period,

or puts all in one place, the suffering that would otherwise be encountered

over a long span of time.

The garden island of Sri Lanka has fourteen well-known Ganesha temples. There is

an unusual Vinayaka at the Siva temple in Central Java, which is presently an

archeological tourist site being restored by the Indonesian government. Lord

Ganesha here sits with the soles of His feet pressed together, much like a

child would sit, or as a yogi would sit in deep samadhi.

Shri H. Krishnamurthi writes in Tattvaloka (Feb.-March 1990): "Several images of

Ganesha have been discovered in the excavations of Central America and Mexico.

It is said that in Mexico the name of Ganesha is Virakosha." Recently India's

Birla Science Institute announced a new find: "A piece of evidence was

connected with the legend of Ganesha's writing down the epic to the dictation

of Vyasa. A metal plate depicting the elephant-headed Deity holding an etching

stylus has been found in Luristan in Western Iran and has been dated to around

1200 BCE (Motilal Banarsidass Newsletter Dec. 1993)."

Among the most renowned of Ganesha's temples in Malaysia are the Siddhi

Vinayagar temple of Petaling Jaya and the Kotta Malai Pillaiyar Temple of Kuala

Lumpur on the busy street of Paduraya. The latter is a small temple, but

extremely powerful, said to be the most popular Ganesha temple in the land.

Also notable are the Jalan Pudu (Pasar Road) Pillaiyar Temple and the Poyyata

Vinayagar Temple of Melaka. In Hawaii our Kadavul Hindu Temple for monastics

and initiated members has a three-ton, six-foot-tall Ganesha. At the Saiva

Dharmashala at Riviere du Rempart, Mauritius, we have dedicated a Spiritual

Park and erected a grand mandapam around a five-ton, nine-foot tall, five-faced

murti of Ganesha, Panchamukha Ganapati, in a mango grove. In Edmonton, Canada,

New Zealand and Nandi, Fiji, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Bethesda, Denver,

Scottsdale, Sebastian, Anchorage and Chicago there are exquisite stone murtis

of the elephant-faced God, gifted by my aadheenam to the born Hindu

communities, conferring blessings for new temples. In Great Britain Ganesha is

enshrined at each of the nation's several new temples and is the presiding

Deity at the Shree Ganapati Temple in Wimbledon and at temples in Switzerland,

Germany and Denmark.ÊFrom my Kailasa Pitham in Hawaii it has been my calling

through the years to gift Ganesha icons to begin the worship of Hindu community

groups throughout the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

---Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.Checked by AVG anti-virus system

(http://www.grisoft.com).Version: 6.0.491 / Virus Database: 290 - Release Date:

18/06/03

Attachment: (image/jpeg) Ch_13_World_Rajput_art.jpg [not stored]

Attachment: (image/jpeg) Ch_13_Raja_icon.jpg [not stored]

Attachment: (image/jpeg) M.jpg [not stored]

Attachment: (image/jpeg) 264_Ganesh_fish__.jpg [not stored]

[Guest guest]

Wow I didn´t know Ganesha was in the Egyptian culture compared to the

God Bes...funny enough at home I have since a kid a very rare and

antique statue of the God Bess that my father bought in Egypt long

ago... very interesting chapter Neil thanks for sharing it!

 

hugs

Barbara