Talk:Ganapati

Gaṇapati (‘lord of the groups [of deities]’) Gaṇapati or Gaṇeśa, also known as Vināyaka, is perhaps, the most popular of the Hindu deities worshipped by all sections of the Hindus. No undertaking, whether sacred or secular, can get started without first honouring and worshipping him. This is understandable and highly desirable, since he is said to be the lord of obstacles (Vighneśvara or Vighnarāja). However, what is not understandable and certainly not very agreeable is his repul¬sive origin and grotesque form! Even for those who admire Lord Siva’s skill in the surgical art of head-transplantation, it becomes rather difficult to admire the end-product! Once we successfully manage to delve into the mysteries of this sym¬bolism our repugnance will give rise to respect and respect to reverence and worship. Notwithstanding the fact that the Gaṇapati referred to in the famous Rgvedic mantras, ‘gaṇānārh tvā gaṇapatirn havā- mahe...’ (2.23.1) and ‘niṣu sīda gaṇapate...’ (10.112.9) and the Gaṇapati we worship today are strangers to each other, all unbiased scholars agree that the seeds of the Gaṇapati concept are already there in the Rgveda itself. In the subsequent centuries, this concept has passed through the mills of the epics and the purāṇas to produce the Gaṇapati as we know him today. In any community, the development of the concept of God and the modes of his worship are as much the products of geographical, historical and cultural fac¬tors as of mystic experience and spiritual realizations of the highly evolved persons. It is quite reasonable to suppose that the ‘Gaṇapati-Brahmaṇaspati’ of the Rgveda gradually got metamorphosed into the deity, ‘Gajavadana-Gaṇeśa-Vighneśvara.’

The Rgvedic deity ‘Gaṇapati-Brahma-ṇaspati’—also called Bṛhaspati and Vācaspati—manifests himself through a vast mass of light. He is golden-red in colour. The battle axe is an important weapon of his. Without his grace no religious rite can succeed. He is always in the company of a group (gaṇa = a group) of singers and dancers. He van¬quishes the enemies of gods, protects the devoted votaries and shows them the right way of life. A40* Another class of Rgvedic deities, known as the Maruts or Marudgaṇa, described as the children of Rudra, also have similar characteristics. In addition, they can be malevolent towards those who antagonise them and can cause destruction like the wild elephants. They can put obstacles in the path of men if displeased and remove them when pleased. They are independent, not subject to any one’s sovereignty (Arājana = Vināyaka). A perusal of these two descriptions will perforce lead us to the obvious conclusion that Gaṇapati is the metamor¬phosed form of the Bṛhaspati-Marudgaṇa deities. There is nothing strange in this, especially if we can recognize the trans¬formations that have taken place among the various Vedic deities, as they were gradually absorbed among the gods of the later Hindu pantheon. The once all-impor¬tant and all-powerful Indra was demoted to the rank of a minor deity ruling over one of the quarters. His lieutenant Viṣṇu was elevated to the central place in the Trinity. Rudra, the terrible, became Siva the auspicious. Many other deities like Dyaus, Aryaman and Pṅṣan were quietly despatched into oblivion! Despite the fact that Gaṇapati is a highly venerated and all-important deity, his ‘head’ has often been a mystery for others. No doubt, our purāṇas have easily ‘solved’ this problem, each in its own way. But this has satisfied neither the layman nor the scholar. It will be extremely interesting to bring together, though in brief, all the stories about the origin of this wondrous deity: 1) At the request of the gods who wanted a deity capable of removing all obstacles from their path of action and fulfilment, Śiva himself was born of the womb of Pārvati as Gajānana. 2) Once Pārvati, just for fun, prepared an image of a child with an elephant’s

head, out of the unguents smeared over her body and threw it into the river Gaṅgā. It came to life. Both Gaṅgā, the guardian deity of the river and Pārvatī, addressed the boy as their child. Hence he is known as Dvaimātura, ‘one who has two mothers’. 1) Pārvati prepared the image of a child out of the scurf from her body, endowed him with life and ordered him to stand guard before her house. When Śiva wanted to enter the house he was rudely prevented by this new gatekeeper. Śiva became ‘Rudra’ and got him beheaded. Seeing that Pārvatī was inconsolable owing to this tragedy that befell her ‘son’ and not finding the head of the body anywhere—meanwhile one of the gob-lins of Śiva had gourmandized it!—he got an elephant’s head, grafted it on to the body of the boy and gave him life. To make amends for his ‘mis¬take,’ Śiva appointed this new-found son as the head of all his retinues, who thus became ‘Gaṇapati’. 2) He sprang from Śiva’s countenance which represents the principle of ether (ākāśatattva). His captivating splendour made Pārvatī react angrily and curse him, resulting in his uncouth form! 3) Gaṇeśa was originally Kṛṣṇa himself in the human form. When Śani, the malevolent planet spirit gazed at him, his head got separated and flew to Goloka, the world of Krṣṇa. The head of an elephant was subsequently grafted on the body of the child. Equally interesting are the other myths about his adventures: He lost one of his tusks in a fight with Paraśurāma, which he successfully used as a stylus to write the epic Mahābhārata dictated by the sage Vyāsa. He tactfully won the race against his brother Skanda by circumam¬bulating his parents and declaring that it was equivalent to going round the worlds. He thus won the hands of two damsels Rddhi and Siddhi. He cursed the moon to wax and wane, since the latter derisively laughed at him when he was trying to refill his burst belly with the sweets that had spilled out. He vanquished the demon Vighnāsura and successfully brought him under his subjugation. There is no gainsaying the possibili¬ties of man developing the concept of God and faith in him as a result of his experiences through the various vicissi¬tudes of life which prove his helplessness. He often disposes, what he proposes. Such a God must needs be all powerful. If he is pleased, all the obstacles in our path will be removed. If displeased, He may thwart our efforts and make them infruc- tuous. Hence the paramount need to appease Him and please Him. What could be the form of this almighty God? For a simple aboriginal living in a group (= gana) near a forest or a mountain, the mighty elephant might have provided the clue. This might have led to the worship of an elephant-like God. He being the pati (= Lord) of the gaṇa (clan or group) might have obtained the name Gaṇapati. As the group became more refined and cultured, this Elephant God might have been transformed into the prese However plausible or attractive this hypothesis may be, it is at best a guesswork, if not an invention! Since Gaṇapati had gained de facto recognition in the hearts of millions of votaries, over several centuries, the purāṇas rightly struggled to make it de jure! True, they have given very confusing accounts. Nevertheless they have succeeded in fusing together the votaries by giving them a scriptural or authoritative base. There is certainly no contradiction or confusion in the accounts as far as the worship and its results are concerned. It is a favourite pastime of some Western scholars and their Indian counter¬parts to ‘discover’ a Draviḍian base for many interesting developments in our cultural and religious life and then to ‘unearth’ the further fact of the white-skinned Aryan ‘conquerors’ graciously and condescendingly absorbing these, tactfully elevating the same to ‘higher’ levels all the while. This has naturally led to a vigorous reaction and these ‘reactionaries’ go the whole hog to ‘prove’ it the other way round! When our Gaṇapati is caught in the web of such controversies one may be driven to the ridiculous conclusion that he is not an Aryan deity at all, but, most probably, imported from Mongolia! It is therefore better to play safe, rescue our deity from embarrassing situations and get the best out of him for our spiritual life. The most commonly accepted form of Gaṇapati depicts him as red in colour and in a human body with an elephant’s head. Out of the two tusks, one is broken. He has four arms. Two of the arms hold the pāśa (noose) and aṅkuśa (goad). The other two are held in the abhaya and varada mudrās. The belly is of generous propor-tions and is decorated with a snake-belt. There is also a yajñopavīta (sacred brahminical thread), either of thread or of serpent. He may be seated in padmāsana (lotus-posture). When the belly does not permit this, the right leg may be shown bent and resting on the seat. Apart from beautiful robes and orna¬ments, he wears a lovely carved crown. The trunk may be turned to the left or to the right. He is normally seen helping himself to liberal quantities of modaka (a kind of sweet). A mouse, of ridiculously small pro¬portions, is seen near him, nibbling at his share of the sweets, hoping perhaps, to gain enough strength to carry his master! A third eye may sometimes be added on the forehead, in the centre of the eyebrows. The number of heads may be raised to five. The arms may vary from two to ten. Lotus, pomegranate, water-ves- sel, battle-axe, lute, broken tusk, sugar¬cane, ears of paddy, bow and arrow, thunderbolt, rosary, book—these are some of the other objects shown in the hands. His Śaktis are often shown with him as sitting on his lap. Sometimes two Śaktis, Rddhi* and Siddhi, are also shown. Let us now make an attempt at unravelling this symbology. ‘Gaṇa’ means category. Everything that we perceive through our senses or grasp through our mind can be expressed in terms of kind, of category. The principle from which all such categories have manifested themselves is Gaṇapati, the Lord of categories. In effect, it means the origin of the whole creation, God himself. A common Sanskrit word to denote the elephant is ‘Gaja’. Hence the name Gajānana or Gajamukha (‘elephant-faced’) for Gaṇapati. But the word ‘Gaja’ has a much deeper connotation. ‘Ga’ indicates ‘gati’, the final goal towards which the entire creation is moving, whether know¬ingly or unknowingly; ‘ja’ stands for ‘janma’, birth or origin. Hence ‘Gaja’ signifies God from whom the worlds have come out and towards whom they are progressing, to be ultimately dissolved in him. The elephant head is thus purely symbolical and points to this truth. Another factor we observe in creation is its two-fold manifestation as the micro-cosm (sukṣmāṇḍa) and the macrocosm (brahmāṇḍa). Each is a replica of the other. They are one in two and two in one. The elephant head stands for the macrocosm and the human body for the microcosm. The two form one unit. Since the macrocosm is the goal of the micro¬cosm, the elephant part has been given greater prominence by making it the head. Perhaps, the boldest statement con¬cerning philosophical truths ever made is contained in that pithy saying of the Chāndogya Upanisad (6.8.7): ‘tat-tvam- asi’, ‘That thou art’. It simply means: ‘You, the apparently limited individual, are, in essence, the Cosmic Truth, the Absolute.’ The elephant-human form of Gaṇapati is the iconographical representation of this great Vedāntic dictum. The elephant stands for the cosmic whereas the human stands for the individual. The single image reflects their identity. Among the various myths that deal with Gaṇapati’s origin, the one that attributes it to the scurf or dirt taken out of her body by Pārvatī seems to be the most widely known, and considered as odd and odious. It is therefore worthwhile to delve a little deeper into this mystery. One of the epithets by which Gaṇa¬pati is well-known and worshipped is Vighneśvara’ or ‘Vighnarāja’ (‘the Lord of obstacles’). He is the lord of all that obstructs or restricts, hinders or prevents. With the various grades and shades of the powers of obstruction under his con¬trol, he can create a hell of trouble for us if he wants! In fact, according to the mythological accounts, the very purpose of his creation was to obstruct the progress in the path of perfection! How does he do it? If he is not appeased by proper worship, all undertak¬ings, whether sacred or secular, will meet with so many obstacles that they will simply peter out. This is to show that nothing can succeed without his grace. If he is pleased by worship and service, he will tempt his votaries with success and prosperity (siddhi and ṛddhi) the very taste of which can gradually lead them away from the spiritual path. Why does he do it? To test them thoroughly before confer¬ring upon them the greatest spiritual boon of mokṣa. Being the master of all arts and sciences, and the repository of all knowledge, He can easily confer success or perfection in any of these. However, he is unwilling to give spiritual knowledge leading to the highest spiritual experience, lest it should appear easy of achievement in the eyes of men. Hence the severity of the test. The path of the good is fraught with innumerable obstacles, ‘śreyāmsi bahuvighnāni.’ Only the very best of heroes, who can brave the roughest of weathers, deserve to be blessed with it. Human beings by nature are inclined towards the enjoyments of the flesh and intoxications of power and pelf. It is only one in a million that turns towards God. Among many such souls, very few survive the struggles and reach the goal, {vide Gītā 7.3) When compared to the highest spiri¬tual wisdom, which alone is really worth striving for, even ṛddhi and siddhi (success and prosperity) are like impurities, mala, as it were. Since Gaṇapati’s consorts are Rddhi and Siddhi (personifications of the powers of success and prosperity), he, their spouse, has been described as created out of Pārvatī’s bodily scurf. Again the word ‘mala’ need not have any odium about it. If Siva represents Paramapuruṣa, the Supreme Person, Pārvatī stands for Paramā Prakṛti, Nature Supreme, considered as his power, insepa¬rable from him. She is, in the language of philosophy, Māyāprakṛti, comprising the three guṇas—sattva, rajas and tamas. Sattva is stated to be pure and, as compared to it, rajas and tamas are said to be ‘impure’. Since creation is impossible out of pure sattva, even as pure gold does not lend itself to be shaped into ornaments unless mixed with baser metals, it has got to be mixed with rajas and tamas to effect it. This seems to be the import of the story of the ‘impure’ substances being used by Mother Pārvatī to shape Gaṇapati. Let us now try to interpret the other factors involved in the symbology of this god. His ears are large, large enough to listen to the supplications of everyone, but, like the winnowing basket, are capa¬ble of sifting what is good for the supplicant from what is not. Out of the two tusks, the one that is whole stands for the Truth, the One without a second. The broken tusk, which is imperfect, stands for the manifest world, which appears to be imperfect because of the inherent incongruities. However, the mani¬fest universe and the unmanifest unity are both attributes of the same Absolute. The bent trunk is a representation of Oṅkāra or praṇava which being the symbol of Brahman, the Absolute, is declaring as it were that Gaṇapati is Brahman Itself. His large belly indicates that all the created worlds are contained in him. The pāśa (noose) stands for rāga (attachment), and the aṅkuśa (goad) for krodha (anger). Like the noose, attachment binds us. Anger hurts us like the goad. If God is displeased with us, our attach¬ments and anger will increase, making us miserable. The only way of escaping from the tyranny of these is to take refuge in God. Or it can mean that it is far safer for us to surrender our attachment and anger to him. When they are in his hands, we are safe! How we wish that Lord Gaṇapati had chosen a big bandicoot as his mount. The fact, however, is otherwise and that privilege has been conferred on a small mouse! The word muṣaka (= mouse) is derived from the root ‘mus’ which means ‘to steal’. A mouse stealthily enters into things and destroys them from within. Similarly egoism enters unnoticed, into our minds and quietly destroys all our undertakings. Only when it is controlled by divine wisdom, it can be harnessed to useful channels. Or, the mouse that steals, can represent love that steals the human hearts. As long as human love is kept at the low level, it can create havoc. Once it is directed towards the Divine, it elevates us. The mouse that is wont to see the inside of all things can stand for the incisive intellect. Since Gaṇapati is the lord of the intellect, it is but meet that he has chosen it as his vehicle. Icons of Ganapati There are several varieties of Gaṇa¬pati icons available in our temples and archaeological monuments. Whether the number is 71, 50, 31 or 21, it is certain that there are several aspects of this deity. Only a few of them can be dealt with here. ‘Bālagaṇapati’ and ‘Taruṇagaṇapati’ images depict him as a child and a young man, respectively. ‘Vināyaka’ is shown with four arms holding the broken tusk, goad, noose and rosary. He holds the sweet modaka in his trunk. He may be standing or seated. ‘Herambagaṇapati’ has five heads, ten hands, three eyes in each face and rides on a lion. ‘Vīravighneśa’ exhibits the martial spirit with several weapons held in his ten hands. ‘Saktigaṇapati,’ several varieties of which are described in the tantras, is shown with his Sakti, called variously as Lakṣmī, Rddhi, Siddhi, Puṣti and so on. Worship of this aspect is said to confer special powers or grant the desired fruits quickly. One of the varieties of this ‘Śakti- gaṇapati’ is called ‘Ucchiṣṭagaṇapati,’ the Gaṇapati associated with unclean things whose worship belongs to Vāmācāra (‘the left-handed path,’ i.e., the heterodox and unclean path) and said to give quick results. There is nothing to dread or recoil in this concept. Dirty things are as much a part of nature as clean things, but, do not scavengers and doctors handle them in a hygienic way and serve the people? Are not all people obliged to be scavengers in varying degrees? Why not do it reli¬giously, as an act of service and worship? Nature converts clean things into unclean things and vice versa. Making Gaṇapati preside over it and handle dirt scientifi-cally and religiously can also be a spiritual discipline. This seems to be the philosophy behind this concept. ‘Nṛttagaṇapati’ is a beautiful image showing him as dancing. It seems once Brahmā met Gaṇapati and bowed down to him with great devotion and reverence. Being pleased with this, Gaṇapati started dancing gracefully. That is why Gaṇapati is declared to be the master of the arts of music and dancing. ‘Varasiddhi Vināyaka’ is the aspect worshipped during the famous Gaṇeśa CaturthI festival. He is said to be a celibate. Gaṇapati is sometimes depicted as a Śakti (female deity) under the names of Gaṇeśāni, Vināyakī, Surpakarṇi, Lamba- mekhalā and so on. Gaṇapati is worshipped not only in images but also in liṅgas, śālagrāmas, yantras (geometrical diagrams) and kalaśas (pots of water). Gaṇapati śāla¬grāmas however, are very rare. The Svastika is also accepted as a graphic symbol of Gaṇapati. Temples and shrines dedicated to Gaṇapati are very numerous. They are spread all over the country. He appears in the campuses of temples of most other deities also.