Lord Ganesha's Birthday on 1st September

Lord Ganesha the presiding deity of the Muladhara Chakra

Ganesha worship is one of the oldest form of practice in Hinduism and the most popular deity in India. He has been prayed to, worshiped and adored in one form or another since time began; and time itself began with His creation.  He, above all others, is the God, the great Mahadeva, to be invoked before every act and especially worshiped and prayed to when changes occur in our lives as we move from the old established patterns into new ones. Lord Ganesha is always there to steady our minds and open the proper doors as we evolve and progress. He never, ever fails. He is always there for us when we need Him.

Ganesha represents the wisdom tradition. He doesn’t care about logical understanding. He is associated with buthi, highest form of intelligence. There is a story how he enter a competition with his brother Muruga. Both of them try to go around the universe. Muruga wanted to do it in the harder way going around the universe with his vehicle the peacock. But Ganesha just go around Shiva and Parvathi and profound to asked very quikly. He represent a short cut by doing something very small but gaining tremendous amount of result.

He is revered with the title Aadhi Moola Kadavul, means “The God of the Beginning”. Fitted with an elephant head and a human body, this God uses the mouse as his vehicle to move around. Toppukaranam (squatting and standing up exercise) is known to make him happy. He is placed at the right in a shiva temple to symbolize that he is our right brain (memory/emotional brain) ruler.

He is prayed specially before the beginning of all actions including any new rituals and prayer services. He represents the Pranava Manthra "OM" and is called "Pranava Swaroopa." There are several days in the month according to the Phase of the moon or star position which are important for each of the Deity we worship. The Fourth day after New Moon every month [Sukla paksham] - Chathurthi is very important for Ganesha. The Fourth day after the Full moon day [Krishna paksham] is called Sankatahara Chathurthi day and is auspicious for special pooja and Havan [Homam] for Ganesha. The Sukla Chathurthi day of the Tamil month Aavani is celebrated as Ganesha Chathurthi day.

Lord Ganesha

The rainy season is considered an inauspicious time. The sun is making its journey south; the days are becoming shorter and the nights colder; the earth is wet, worms and snakes are wriggling out, the walls are damp, and there is moss in every corner…it is Chaturmaas, the four months when sages don’t travel, stay indoors and tell the stories of gods. As the rains start to wane, the earth covers herself in green, and brings forth her son, the one who will remove all obstacles as the seasons begin their march towards harvest time. That son is Ganesha, Gauri’s Ganesha, seated on her lap, corpulent, elephant-headed, cute and powerful.

Ganesha is Gana-esha, foremost of Shiva’s Ganas. While the rest of the Ganas – creatures known as Yakshas and Pramathas and Bhutas – are fearsome and forbidding with their unusual misshapen forms, loved, included and understood only by Shiva, their ascetic-master, Ganesha has been able to delight us all – inspiring artists to create and recreate him in various shapes, each one joyful in mood and awe-inspiring in expanse.

If Shiva has his way, there would have been no Ganesha, no harvests, no obstacles, no world…just snow-covered desolate peaks where everyone meditates in silence. He is the destroyer – destroying the world through indifference.

But the Goddess, Shakti, will have none of it. She wants the ascetic to open his eyes, pay attention, engage with things worldly. As Kali, she dances naked and as Gauri she prays fervently, forcing Shiva, the hermit, to become her husband, Shankara, the householder. This happens in Shiv-ratri before the rains, before the passionate nights of summer, in spring, after the winter mists have parted and Holi has been celebrated.

Lord Ganesha is closely associated with Ketu and is the planetary Overlord of Ketu. Lord Ganesha when prayed to also gives the Moksha (enlightenment) and obtains all the above through Ketu.

And then, soaked in rain, she asks him to give her a child – for through children is death conquered and continuity assured. But a much-married Shiva does not see the point of children. “Why produce children and accept mortality? Why not renounce the flesh and embrace the immortal soul?” he wonders. The compassionate Goddess explains, “Because life is soul and flesh, stillness and movement. Living is about dealing with dying, about celebrating this realm of cradles and crematoriums, of frustration and excitement, of laughter and tears, of growth, of discovery. It is this tempest of the sea that makes us yearn for the tranquility of the mountains.”

Shiva does not understand. He shuts his eyes and withdraws. Not one to give up, the Goddess collects the rubbings of the turmeric paste she has anointed herself with and moulds herself a doll and places it on a betel leaf – and behold, a son is born, Vinayaka, Vi-nayaka, the one born without a husband. And she loves him. And asks him to guard the entrance to her cave. He becomes the lord of the Muladhara Chakra, the base chakra, the guardian who will leads us on that occult journey called Tantra, that reveals the mysteries of the Goddess.

When Shiva returns to the cave of the Goddess he is surprised to find a doorkeeper, one who does not recognize him and one who he does not recognize. The guardian god blocks the path of the ascetic, an obstacle separating God from Goddess. For the first time, the self-contained Shiva experiences rage and restlessness and even a little bit of jealousy. A fight follows in which Vinayaka is beheaded.

Shiva experiences momentary triumph followed by guilt when the Goddess wails at the sight of her beheaded son. Sorrow turns to fury: Shakti demands that her son be resurrected, else Gauri will become Kali and spread her tongue and swallow everything in a single gulp.

Shaken, Shiva orders his Ganas to fetch the first beast they encounter in the northern direction. Why northern? North is the direction of resurrection, growth, permanence, as against the south, which according to Vastu, is the realm of Yama, of Rakshasas, of death, decay and destruction. The Ganas encounter Airavata, the bull-elephant of Indra, the rain-god. His head is placed on the severed neck of Vinayaka and the boy is resurrected. This ‘twice-born’ son is named Ganapati by Shiva, the lord of the Ganas, and his son.

The arrival of Ganesha made Shiva feel various emotions; without realizing it, the indifferent ascetic had grown attached to the Goddess, and was not willing to share her with anyone. By killing and resurrecting the son of Gauri, Shiva had become a father, a member of society, and a true householder. Ganesha thus represents the union of material wisdom (the Goddess) and spiritual ideal (Shiva). His form unites worldly wealth (pot-belly) and divine power (elephant). It enhances wealth generation (serpents) and stops wealth decay (rats).

In art, when Shiva is half a woman, the Goddess makes up the left half of his form while he retains the right half. On the left is the heart, of intuition, of feeling. The right side, the opposite side, is the side of the head, of the thinking, of intellect and of the soul. When Ganesha’s trunk points to his heart, he is closer to his mother, the sensual Goddess, who embraces material reality. But when it points to the right, he is closer to his father, the intellectual mendicant who wants to shut his eyes to the world. Ganesha’s image with trunk pointing to his heart is popular in households because it shows a Ganesha comfortable with the world of matter, senses and emotions. Ganesha with his trunk curled to his right, is more ascetic in nature, hence not kept inside homes, and preferably enshrined in temples. 

Ganesha and the Mouse

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.

The Wisdom of Ganesh

Shiva et Parvati used to play with two sons, Ganesh and Kartikeya.
The gods had given them a marvelous fruit. Each boy wanted to get it for him alone.

Their parents explained them that the nectar of the Supreme Knowledge and of Immortality was hidden in that fruit. To get the fruit, both had to compete. The winner should run three times around the world and come back first.

Kartikeya left at once. Riding his peacock, he flew in the sky, stopping at every sacred place on his way, praying and worshipping the gods.

Ganesh was fully aware of his stout body; it slackened off him badly. The rat, his vehicle, was rather slow and would not be able to beat Kartikeya.
But his wisdom suggested him the right solution. He turned round his parents, Shiva and Parvati, showing a deep devotion. When they asked him why he did not start his journey around the world, he replied :
"My parents Shiva and Shakti are the Whole Universe. In Them is located the World. He do not need to go further".
Of course, he won the contest, ... and the fruit.

This legend emphasizes the importance of cleverness; Ganesh is a strong symbol of this quality which is always the best against force, speed or physical strength.

Chant 'Hmmm/Om Gam Ganapathiye Namaha'' 108 times or more  by concentrating on your right brain to connect with and absorb Lord Ganesha's powerfull energy on His birthday this 1st September 2011, it awakens your Intuition Power. You also can chant "Hmmm/Om Lam Lambodharaaya Namaha" everyday by concentrating on Mooladhara Chakra, it awakens your Kundalini Shakti.

When we activate the energy of the Soul by chanting this mantra, Lord Ganesha will bless us with the kind of knowledge that will completely remove our tendency to be reborn. In this lifetime we are all fortunate enough to be born as human beings, but none of us can be sure of this good fortune in our future lives. Who knows which body our Soul may inhabit then – it could even be the body of an animal or insect. This will be decided by the kind of karma we generate through our thoughts, words and actions. However, if we awaken the energy of our Soul, we will only transmigrate from a human body to a divine body and we will never regress into lower forms of life. This is the science of the Soul and the essence of life.

May Mother Earth - Parvathi and Father Heaven - Shiva Bless You with Material Wealth and Spiritual Wisdom through Ganesha

~ By Vijayakumar Allagappan