Ganesha and Mouse

[Guest guest]

HARI AUM

 

Below is the copy and pasted version about our beloved

Ganesha and his 'Mooshika'from wikipedia. The humility

aspect to this figurative concept is added by me at

the end.

 

Hope others can contribute on the other aspects of

this representation of our mythology.

 

Regards

 

NARAYANA NARAYANA NARAYANA

 

According to one interpretation, Ganesha's divine

vehicle, the [[mouse]] or ''mooshikam'' represents

wisdom, talent and intelligence. It symbolizes minute

investigation of a cryptic subject. A mouse leads a

clandestine life below the ground. Thus it is also a

symbol of ignorance that is dominant in darkness and

fears light and knowledge. As the vehicle of Lord

Ganesha, a mouse teaches us to remain always on alert

and illuminate our inner-self with the light of

knowledge.

 

Both Ganesha and the Mooshak love [[modak|modaka]], a

sweet dish which is traditionally offered to them both

during worship ceremonies. The Mooshak is usually

depicted as very small in relation to Ganesha, in

contrast to the depictions of vehicles of other

deities. However, it was once traditional in

[[Maharashtra|Maharashtrian]] art to depict Mooshak as

a very large mouse, and for Ganesha to be mounted on

him like a horse.

 

Yet another interpretation says that the mouse

(''Mushika'' or ''Akhu'') represents the [[ego]], the

[[mind]] with all of its desires, and the pride of the

individual. Ganesha, riding atop the mouse, becomes

the master (and not the slave) of these tendencies,

indicating the power that the intellect and the

discriminative faculties have over the mind. Moreover,

the mouse (extremely voracious by nature) is often

depicted next to a plate of sweets with his eyes

turned toward Ganesha while he tightly holds on to a

morsel of food between his paws, as if expecting an

order from Ganesha. This represents the mind which has

been completely subordinated to the superior faculty

of the intellect, the mind under strict supervision,

which fixes Ganesha and does not approach the food

unless it has permission.

 

Lastly it is a very evocative presentation of how

humble and modest one should be. Ganesha inspite of

his huge physical, mental and intellectual prowess

conducts and carries himself so lightly that he can

very well be carried by a very very small(compared to

the size of Ganesha) and insignificant being-the

mouse.

 

 

 

 

________

India Answers: Share what you know. Learn something new

http://in.answers./