Meditations on Ganesh

November 21, 2005

made me reflect on the story of Ganesh. The story goes that Parvati

made Ganesh out of her own dirt and had him stand guard at her house,

with the instructions that no one was to get in. Ganesh stopped Shiva

when he tried to enter the house, and a big battle ensued at the end

of which Shiva cut the boy’s head. Then Parvati came out enraged and

Shiva tried to pacify her. He ordered to have the head of the first

animal that was found. It happened to be an incarnation of Airavat

(Indra’s white elephant.) This was placed on Ganesh’s body and the

boy came back to life. From this story, we can see that Parvati

creating Ganesh from her own dirt is Prakriti creating a body of five

elements. When Shiva, the Purush perceives Prakriti ,he faces the

obstruction of the five elements. The ensuing battle is the evolution

of the

conciousness in the five elements until an evolutionary leap happens

(here the severing of Ganesh’s head). But this evolutionary leap

generous tremendous energy (releases the wrath of Parvati), which

will create chaos unless it has the right structure to support it

(until Parvati is pacified). So the evolutionary structure which is

born, is the head of Indra’s elephant which represents the conveyance

of the intellect. So Ganesh represents a human being’s evolutionary

leap through the control of the outgoing senses (Indra the ruler of

senses) to perceive the pure energy or intelligence within him.

When we look within ourselves, without this stirring of the

intelligence or this spark of understanding, nothing new is possible

in a human being. Only when we feel this urge within us , we proceed

forward in anything. So in a

human being, without this urge, nothing new happens. Therefore, Ganesh

must be the first to be worshipped, or unless this urge is awakened or

created , nothing new can happen. This urge when it stirs within us

becomes desire. The desire releases unlimited energy towards the

goal. Now to explain the verse, “Gananam …garbhaddham” – what it

means is that, “I invoke the intelligence within me which is

represented by Ganesh, who takes the form of the desire towards the

goal and is the source of the energy to fulfill the goal. So I

invoke him to give birth to the goal of God-consciousness within me”

Therefore, this is the very reason Gayatri is given to young people

or students, so that intelligence may awaken in them. The Rishis have

realized when they wanted a specific kind of intelligence to awaken in

a person; they could modify the Gayatri so that the specific

energy/intelligence is available to the chanter. This stirring of

energy was also called “kundalini” by other seers. Therefore

without the awakening of intelligence nothing is possible, so I pray

that Ganesh awakens within us. Jai Sri Ramakrishna

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November 22, 2005

meaning of the first verse of the Rudri which is about Ganesh.I was

forced to ask the question “Who is Ganesh? Why is he the first one to

be worshipped? And how does he remove obstacles?” As I was thinking

on these lines, I became aware of the similarity in meaning between

Gayatri and Ganesh ie the syllable ‘Ga’ which is a part of the bija

for Ganesh, and ‘ga’ for ‘gayatri’ – Swamiji translates as wisdom in

both cases. Gayatri, like Ganesh, is considered important in all

pujas. So now the question is why are they both important. This

made me reflect on the story of Ganesh. The story goes that Parvati

made Ganesh out of her own dirt and

had him stand guard at her house, with the instructions that no one

was to get in. Ganesh stopped Shiva when he tried to enter the house,

and a big battle ensued at the end of which Shiva cut the boy’s head.

Then Parvati came out enraged and Shiva tried to pacify her. He

ordered to have the head of the first animal that was found. It

happened to be an incarnation of Airavat (Indra’s white elephant.)

This was placed on Ganesh’s body and the boy came back to life.

>From this story, we can see that Parvati creating Ganesh from her own

dirt is Prakriti creating a body of five elements. When Shiva, the

Purush perceives Prakriti ,he faces the obstruction of the five

elements. The ensuing battle is the evolution of the conciousness in

the five elements until an evolutionary leap happens (here the

severing of Ganesh’s head). But this evolutionary leap generous

tremendous energy (releases the wrath of Parvati), which will create

chaos unless it has the right structure to support it (until Parvati

is pacified). So the evolutionary structure which is born, is the

head of Indra’s elephant which represents the conveyance of the

intellect. So Ganesh represents a human being’s evolutionary leap

through the control of the outgoing senses (Indra the ruler of

senses) to perceive the pure energy or intelligence within him.

When we look within ourselves, without this stirring of the

intelligence or this spark of understanding, nothing new is possible

in a human being. Only when we feel this urge within us , we proceed

forward in anything. So in a human being, without this urge, nothing

new happens. Therefore, Ganesh