Ganesha Puja.

                                                                       II  HARI AUM  II

A human being is a part of the whole, called by us Universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest-a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.
 Our task must be to free from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole nature in its beauty......... ..............         Albert Einstein.

सहस्रशीर्षा पुरुषः सहस्राक्षः सहस्रपात् ।

स भूमिं विश्वतो वृत्वा त्यतिष्ठ द्दशाङुलम् ॥१॥  पुरुष सूक्त – Rigveda. 

Meaning:

The Purusha (The Universal Being) has Thousand Heads, Thousand Eyes and
Thousand Feet (Thousand signifies innumerable which points to the 
omnipresence of the Universal Being),

He envelops the World from all sides (i.e. He pervades each part of the Creation), 

and extends beyond in the Ten Directions ( represented by Ten Fingers ).

Lord Ganesha worship is most popular among Hindus world over. Any important event begins with prayer to Ganesha. As seen earlier post worship in some form of choice (i.e. Saguna worship) is relatively easy and convenient for a lay man. There are desires in the normal life both for materialistic as well as at spiritual aspects. If one wants to accomplish his / her ambitions one has to put in all the required efforts. Every person has in-built virtues as well as vices. Care full analysis of own personality and deliberate devoted efforts are necessary for the advancement in life. These efforts would fetch success, if supported by the blessings of the Deity is the belief of the devotee. If the devotion is performed by proper method, it can bring about the desired improvements in the personality resulting in gain.

God will be bestowing the blessings if He likes you. Each God is known for certain highest virtues personified. If the devotee tries to nurture such virtues in self behavior, then God will be pleased and offer the blessings. The word often used in the context of worship are upvas, upasana also indicate the efforts to stay nearer the Deity in acts and deeds.

Upvas means to stay nearby the Deity. The efforts not only involve physically sitting near and worshiping the Deity but also try to be near mentally by following the behavioral discipline. In order to develop the liking for such behavior on daily basis initially the upvas is observed normally for a day in a week or month. The word Upasana also means to sit near on a lower level. However, based on the conventional practice, Upasana can be described as a systematic practice of a prescribed method of worship for pleasing and winning the attention of the Deity. Once the Deity is pleased, devotee’s wishes would be granted by directly appearing to the devotee and asking/granting what he or she wants. The seeker of knowledge does not achieve his end merely by a study of scriptures. Without upasana there cannot be attainment for him.

Swami Vijnananand has explained the method of Ganesha worship in most rational manner in 18 discourses during 1986-87. A book in Marathi is published by Manashakti based on these talks. The first lesson describes the major conditions which must be fulfilled for the success in the Ganesha worship.

The triangle above indicates that if the blessings of the Deity Ganesha are to be obtained by the devotee through the means of Bhakti, then the basic concepts to be studied are Deity- Ganesha, devotee i.e. self, and the means i.e. Bhakti. The Puranas give various stories describing the Deity. The major virtues personified in the Deity Ganesha are as follows.

(1) Commitment, Integrity and Gratitude.

(2) Leadership and Sacrifice.

(3) Intellectual pursuits and Industriousness.

We shall see these qualities as described by the stories associated. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythological_anecdotes_of_Ganesha)

Commitment, Integrity and Gratitude.

The most well-known story is probably the one taken from the Shiva Purana. Once, while his mother Parvati wanted to take a bath, there were no attendants around to guard her and stop anyone from accidentally entering the house. Hence she created an image of a boy out of turmeric paste which she prepared to cleanse her body (turmeric was used for its antiseptic and cooling properties), and infused life into it, and thus Ganesha was born. Parvati ordered Ganesha not to allow anyone to enter the house, and Ganesha obediently followed his mother's orders. After a while Shiva returned from outside, and as he tried to enter the house, Ganesha stopped him. Shiva was infuriated at this strange little boy who dared to challenge him. He told Ganesha that he was Parvati's husband, and demanded that Ganesha let him go in. But Ganesha would not hear any person's word other than his dear mother's. Shiva lost his patience and had a fierce battle with Ganesha. At last he severed Ganesha's head with his trishula. When Parvati came out and saw her son's lifeless body, she was very angry and sad. She demanded that Shiva restore Ganesha's life at once.

Unfortunately, Shiva's trishula was so powerful that it had hurled Ganesha's head very far off. All attempts to find the head were in vain. Parvati was so enraged and insulted that she decided to destroy the entire Creation! Lord Brahma, being the Creator, naturally had his issues with this, and pleaded her to re-consider the drastic plan. She said she would, but only if two conditions were met: one that Ganesha be brought back to life, and two, that he is forever worshiped before all the other gods. Brahma ordered to bring back the head of the first creature that is lying with its head facing north. Shiva then sent his celestial armies (Gana) to find and take the head of whatever creature they happened to find asleep with its head facing north. They found a dying elephant which slept in this manner, and after its death took its head, attaching the elephant's head to Ganesha's body and bringing him back to life. From then on, he was called Ganapathi, head of the celestial armies, and was to be worshipped by everyone before beginning any activity. The story highlights the Ganesha’s Virtues of Commitment, Integrity and Gratitude, personified.

Leadership and Sacrifice.

Ganapati leads a huge empire of Ganas as seen from the verse follows. He is the king of Ganas. Through sacrifice done for the followers Ganas, He has occupied such a position

गणानां त्वा गणपतिं हवामहे , कविनामुपमश्रवस्तमं I

ज्येष्ठ राजम ब्रम्हणाम ब्रम्ह्नस्पत आ न: शृण्वन  नू तिभि:सीदसादनम I

Ganapati! As the chief of Ganas, we invite you. You are the greatest king among the emperors. You are the greatest known Pundit; you are the owner of the Universe. Kindly accept our invitation and occupy with ever new vigor of energy your honored seat.  Ganesha’s virtues viz. Leadership and Sacrifice personified.

Industriousness and Intellectual pursuits.

In the first part of the epic poem Mahabharata, it is written that the sage Vyasa asked Ganesha to transcribe the poem as he dictated it to him. Ganesha agreed, but only on the condition that Vyasa recite the poem uninterrupted, without pausing. The sage, in his turn, posed the condition that Ganesha would not only have to write, but would have to understand everything that he heard before writing it down. In this way, Vyasa might recuperate a bit from his continuous talking by simply reciting a difficult verse which Ganesha could not understand. The dictation began, but in the rush of writing Ganesha's feather pen broke. He broke off a tusk and used it as a pen so that the transcription could proceed without interruption, permitting him to keep his word. Ganesha's association with mental agility and learning is probably one reason he is shown as scribe for Vyasa's dictation of the Mahabharata in this interpolation to the text. There are over 100000 verses in Mahabharata which Ganapati transcribed without pause understanding everything. Industriousness and Intellectual pursuits personified.

A close look at Ganesh character as described in scripture will reveal many more virtues linked to this Deity.

Devotion can change you for better.

A sage Rishi in front yard of the ashram; saw a tiny, nice baby mouse being chased by a cat. Somehow, he felt pity on it. To save its life, he picked it up in palm. Then with blessings he converted the baby mouse in a small girl. The girl stayed and was nurtured with other students in the Ashram. As she grew young, the sage started to look for a proper marriage alliance.
He asked the girl “To whom you wish marry”?
She answered “The most powerful”!
He then told her “The sun is most powerful. Would you like to marry the sun”?
“No” she said “tell me who can obstruct the sun”?
“Nobody; but to some extent the clouds do obstruct the sun” replied Rishi and asked whether she wants to marry the cloud.
“No” she said and asked “who can stop the cloud”?
“The mountain”! Replied the Rishi and asked her to marry the mountain.
“No”. She said and asked who can disturb the mountain. The Rishi replied “Nobody really can disturb the mountain but to some extent big rats can dig and make a hole in the mountain”.
She jumped with joy and said “Yes, I would marry the rat”!

Our natural behavior is hardwired and to bring about the improvement is not easy job. Dedicated devotion can bring about this difficult change.

A dedicated devotee started performing his puja. He took Deity idol in the silver plate, washed it with water. Then as per the rituals offered the sandalwood paste, flowers, ghee lamp, incense sticks, etc. But somehow he was not enjoying the ritual. He reflected that ‘what I am doing is not correct. I am giving a bath to the Deity by water. But the water is His creation. All the things such as sandalwood, flowers, lamp, incense sticks all belong to God as He is the creator of everything. Nothing belongs to me as such I can’t offer anything to the God in my Puja’. With such reflection he felt nervous. After deep mulling over he realized that there was something with him which belonged entirely to him and he can offer it to the God. He surrendered his ego at the feet of the Deity idol and became peacefully happ

Surrendering ego, selfdom, is vitally important for the success in devotion also in life.

With the behavior improvement based on perpetual dedicated efforts the ambitions shall be fulfilled. With prayer to Ganesha for a success in shading away the undue ego and bringing us the desired results, let us end this article with prayer also for the welfare of entire humanity.

हरि  ॐ .

Vijay R. Joshi.