(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.
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