Ganesha Symoblism

Hinduism believes in one God.  This often comes as a surprise to people in the west and of course, to many Hindus as well.  Hinduism is a collection of diverse philosophies with Vedas as its basis.  

The Vedas proclaim, "God, the Omnipresent is one without a second and is formless".  It has a lot of significance and meaning.  It does not fit into a theory that God sits above the clouds judging the world.

"Then why are there so many Gods in Hinduism?" Though God is one, there are several forms of worship in Hinduism.

While the Vedas declare God to be formless, there are the Puranas which bring out various aspects of eternal human values such as love, compassion, goodness and clarity of thought in a world that is temporary and fleeting.  Strategically, forms of worship are mixed into tradition and festivals.

The form of Ganesha is also very symbolic and traditionally viewed with meaning.

Two innocent eyes of the elephant says, "look at the world with innocent eyes".  An innocent eye does not carry the burden of past interpretations and judgements.  Every day is seen as new beginning.  

Two large ears of Ganesha symbolises, "listen more and talk less".  We talk not just with our mouth but also with our minds.  The constant chatter in the mind is also a kind of needless talking.  Good listening skills and good learning skills are one and the same, where mind is without self-made noise.

The ash in the forehead symbolises the meaning that, "the body will finally turn into ash".  This remembrance brings about purity and objectivity in our day to day transactions.

The two tusks of Ganesha symbolises our likes and dislikes.  We are programmed to do what we like and avoid doing what we dislike.  However productive activities require us to do what is needed though we may not like it.  One broken tusk symbolises our need to break our addiction to likes and dislikes.  This value system needs to be broken.

One hand has Abhaya mudra.  A psychological symbol of fearlessness and trust.  

One hand with an axe symbolising, "cut your unwise attachments".  Swami Sukhabodananda describes this beautifully.  Unwise attachment is one that says, "Without this thing (whatever the object), I refuse to be happy".  How often we think, "if this does not happen, I cannot be happy". That is an unwise attachment.  Action is to be out of happiness.  Not for happiness.

The rope in one hand symbolises, "the opportunity to climb up is here and now."

A baby elephant takes nearly one year to master using its trunk.  But once mastered, it is all powerful. Similarly the mind is hard to master.  Once mastered, it is all powerful.

While one leg is on the ground, the other leg is placed off the ground.  While our body is in the world and of the world, let all serious thoughts be placed above the material reality.

Finally, the form of Ganesha is dissolved in water after a week long worship.  Once the learning is complete, the created form goes back from where it came. A form made of clay becomes clay again.  As Swami Vivekananda said, the idol signifies the ideal.  

A weekday wish for a thoughtful world

Friday evenings are sweet. Monday mornings, not quite.

Hobbies are energizing. Work, not quite.

Then there is this term, 'compensation package'.  As if compensating for putting up with drudgery.  It is amazing how we have unconsciously inherited several insane maladies as a part of social transactions.  The phenomenon is universal.

What really is bothersome is how we walk into such social patterns unconsciously and remain oblivious of the damage it does to us.

We then ask, "How else? Isn't it natural?".  This is another part of the problem.  We seem to be constantly in need of instructions as if life comes with an instruction manual.

The challenge for us is to find for oneself how one can break free from this weekly cycle of weekday routines and weekend ecstasy and start living fully.

There are several social patterns that contribute to this insanity.  For instance, let us investigate what drives us to be right all the time? Why do we want to prove we are right always? In most cultures, 'failure is taboo'.  The moment failure happens to an individual, he or she is supposed to feel bad. If it happens to a team, a blame game begins as to who caused it.  This pattern pushes people to defend failures with stupid logic rather than change for the better.

Let us take another example.  How do we view formal authority?  How is it related to leadership?  We mix concepts of leadership and formal authority so much that we begin to depend on structures and systems to correct problems that our egos create.  We tend to think, "what worked for X should work for Y".  Really?  It depends on what we know about what worked for X. Doesn't it? How do we know that we know all that needs to be known?

Our knowledge is always limited.  Any concept that we learn depends on our previous learning. Our previous learning are influenced by all learning prior to that.  This goes on into value system as well.

These are just a few examples. Bottom-line remains we have been force-fed prescriptions of what we should fear, what we should like, what we should hate, what we should respect, what is considered taboo, what is acceptable and what is not.  These are passed on to us as the gospel, often without adequate reasoning.  Thus we walk into traps of thought flows and patterns that society has created by default.

To break free of these is a personal challenge for each one of us.

Weekdays are as energizing as weekends when the old prescriptions are filtered out reasonably in what we see and do today... every other day.