God images in Hindu Religion - Part 2

(Continuing from the previous post God Images in Hindu Religion)

Ganesha of the purāna is an interesting story. One day, Pārvathi Devi had playfully created an image of a boy from clay. She was so impressed with her creation that she decided to give life to the image. She took him in as her son and asked him to stand guard of her abode while she had retired into it for resting. Lord Siva who was away at the time and was unaware of this, happened to return the same time. Ganesha who didn't know who Lord Siva was, blocked him also from entering. Lord Siva was extremely annoyed to find a stranger blocking him from entering his wife's residence. In the altercation that followed, Lord Siva  in his anger chopped off the head of the boy. On Pārvathi's pleading and realizing the mistake that had happened,  Siva send out Nandi to kill the elephant and bring back the head. Placing the elephant's head on the torso, Siva brought Ganesha back to life. Blessing his son, Siva made him the chief of his bhutha gana. Ganesha derives his popular name from his lordship over the Siva Gana (gana-isha)

Few key things to note in the story. Ganesha's body is a creation of Parvathi, who is also the Prakriti or Mother Nature, . Ganesha's head is a contribution of Siva, who is the Iswara, the absolute chaitanya (intelligence). Ganesha of purāna is thus a symbol of  what is physical and inert in creation that is enlivened by the presence of intelligence. This includes everything from the fundamental, sub-atomic particles to our own body-mind complex. But why the replacement of a human head with an elephant head ? It is because that the human head which is a product of Māya is incapable of comprehending the Ishwara.  The elephant head, as we discussed in the last post, is symbolic of wisdom and all the qualities like single-pointedness, attentiveness etc. that a true seeker should possess. When one obtains those qualities with the grace of Ishwara, then one rises above the divisions of Ishwara's creation as represented by the many classes (Gana).

To understand the Ganesha of Purāna, we need to consider the entire context of Siva, Pārvathi, Ganesha as well as the younger brother of Ganesha, Lord Kārtikeya.  Just as Ganesha symbolizes everything physical in the creation, Kārtikeya symbolizes everything subtle and non-physical in the universe. Kārtikeya has six faces, symbolizing the five sense organs and the mind which act as the medium of interaction between the subtle and gross. He was born of Siva but not of Parvathi's womb, symbolizing the innate transcendence of Māya in Kārthikeya. He is considered younger to Ganesha  consistent with the concept that the Ishwara entered the universe after creating it ("thad srishtva tad anupravisva" - he entered it having created). Kārtikeya is also called Subrahmania, or he who leads one very well to Brahman. Thus, in the purāna, Ganesha is part of the comprehensive symbolism of the entire universe as represented by Lord Siva the absolute, Pārvathi the Prakriti and Māya, Ganesha the physical aspects of creation and Kārthikeya (the non-physical aspects of creation).

Ganesha gets little mention in the Rik Veda but a significant place of reverence in Atharva Veda as in the Ganapathi Atharvaseesham we saw in the part-1 of this blog post(God Images in Hindu Religion). In the Rik Veda Ganesha is addressed as not only the great leader of Gana but also the elder of all the Lords (jyeshta rājam ) and spiritual leaders (brahmanām brahmanaspatha).  But the key symbolism that we find in Veda for Ganesha is that of 'pranava swarupam', the physical representation of Om. You would notice that the  body profile of Ganesha , from a side-ways view, is same as the symbol of Om. As Pranava is considered single essence of the entire Veda (sarva veda swarupam) , Ganesha becomes the essence of all Vedas. And, Ganesha is also the symbolic representation of the Brahman  just as the Pranava is (tasya vāchaka pranava).  In summary, according to the Veda, Ganesha is the representation of  Brahman, the Vedas and is also the deity representation of Pranava mantra.

If these were the symbolism behind Ganesha, how did Ganesha come to be revered as the remover of obstacles ? (I believe there are Ganesh temples in Chennai that offer special puja to accelerate visa applications in US embassy! ) As we all know, spiritual seeking requires little respite from the personal strife that each of us undergo in everyday life, whether they are sickness, anxiety about our well-being or concerns about the weather. The Vedic Rishis classified the sources of such disturbances into three - Daivika (cosmic), Bhautika (external physical) or Atmika (internal). They prayed for a period of quietude from these disturbances  during the time they were engaged in spiritual matters by chanting the Om followed by three utterings of the word 'sānthi', meaning peace. This simple invocation was later expanded, during the period during which rituals were structured,  into an invocation of Ganesha who was 'pranava swarupa', seeking a removal of any unforeseen obstruction to the conduct of rituals.  Further, during the purāna period that was followed by the Bhakti movement, the same concept further evolved into  the devotional practices that we see today.

While you continue to engage in the devotional practices of today, worshiping Lord Ganesha  for removing difficulties in everyday life, do also take a few minutes to reflect on the rich philosophic symbolism behind the image. Hope this would encourage you to further seek to understand the messages of the great Rishis that have been encoded into the many God images of Hindu religion.