Happy Ganesh Chaturthi. Growing up in Hyderabad, Ganesh Chaturthi is one of the major festivals in the town and a great occassion to come together and celebrate the beautiful vibe of brotherhood in the town. Growing up as child, Ganesha was a integral part of my life as I had a Ganesha’s temple right beside my home which I visited every morning. Every year Ganesh Chaturthi was an occassion all of us eagerly awaited to do the pandal hopping and also just get together with people and celebrate the spirit of togetherness. As it dates back in history, the celebration of Ganesh Chaturthi as a social event was re-initiated by Lokmanya Balgangadhar Tilak as it served as a smart inlet to gather people and align them to freedom struggle. While it celebrations stayed on, post independence, Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations are a beautiful occassion for folks to come together to celebrate with food, song, dance, music and devotion. Communities in residential areas come together and form committees and groups to celebrate and drive this otherwise massively percieved occassion for people to relish the divine aspect of Ganesha. Over the years, the bond with Ganesha has increased and also the quest to understand the nature and depth of this divine manifestation. Since childhood, Ganesha was always introduced as a good who would bless us with knowledge and the first to be invoked as he was the Vignadhipathi — removal of obstacles and giver of happiness. The eldest son of Shiva and Parvathi is gracefully invoked before initiation of anything in India and it has become a subtle and subconscious influence in our value system. As we bond with Ganesha and his glory, I am amazed to see all the beautiful things I have learnt as a person from the Bappa himself which continue to drive and define me as a person. On the divine occassion of Ganesh Chaturthi, here are few of those lessons I have picked from Ganesha. I hope they help you too.
Knowledge is Power
The big headed Ganesha represent knowledge and learning. As a curious person, I have understood that being on a constant learning curve is what drives us to perfection. Subject matter or otherwise, as humans, it is important to keep learning different things which we want to to stay relevant and adept at what we do. The way knowledge works is very fascinating. Knowledge grows on you and continues to become a part of you and it influences through multiple signals in form of ideas, insights and intercepts which are part of our day to day life. Ganesh subtly tells all of us to take time to learn new things both in work and outside work. The world is far more technically advanced and hence it is smart for all of us to take time and learn things through eLearning websites and initiatives, online degrees, constant reading list on hardcopies or Kindles or parallel learning like chanting, scriptures or stories. Learn new skills — both technical and non technical and build the habit to learn and evolve as a person. We are in middle of a pandemic and we all have that time to invest in ourselves to learning.
Care for Planet Earth
On the occassion of Ganesh Chaturthi, Ganesha idol is created with mud or clay and decorated with natural colours of turmeric, sandalwood, kumkum and vibhuthi. Ganesha is worshipped with various kinds of leaves like Durva, Vishnukrantha, Bilwa which bestows us with different kinds of merits and also carry different herbal and medicinal qualities. The worship of Ganesha is a subtle message for all of us to be more sensitive in all our choices towards the environment. It is a constant reminder that there is only one Earth and this is our home. Let us continue to practice the tradition of building Ganesha with organic means like flour, mud, turmeric, clay and continue to plant trees and fill our surroundings with greenery. We need to pass this precious knowledge to the generations to come.
Know Your Limitations and Do Smart Work
The aspect of buddhi which symbolizes intelligence is attributed to Ganesha.
One of the most popular stories from the ancient scriptures is the story where there was a question on who should be the Lord of the Vignas (Vignadhipathi/Vignaharta) and both Ganesha and Karthikeya stepped up to stake claim . Shiva then announced a small competition that both of them would go on a circumambulation around the earth and take a dip in all the 3 crore auspicious rivers and come back to Kailasa and the person who returns first shall be conferred the position. Karthikeya sped away on his peacock to win the competition. The big bellied and the heavier Ganesha surely was not the fastest with his cute ride Anindya, the rat. He thought for a moment, went to his parents Shiva and Shakti, and bowed down to them and took a circumblation around them. He said to them that both Shiva and Shakti meant the world to him and taking a round of them and bowing down to them meant going around the world and taking a dip in all the rivers for him. Shiva and Shakti were astonished and pleased with this brilliance of Ganesha and conferred him the title of Lord of the Vignas (Lord of the Vignas sounds very different as there is no proper English transliteration to this. A close Indian name would be Vignadhipathi or Vignaharta — remover of all obstacles). This is a very smart insight for all of us to be aware of our limitations as a human and act smart. Karthikeya was upset with the outcome and left Kailasa and that thread is another fascinating story I would reserve for some other time. There is also a subtle lesson I picked up here of constantly loving and looking up to your parents who are the reason for the amazing individuals all of us have become.
Get Surya Tej Borra’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.Subscribe
Remember me for faster sign in
Note: There is another version of a story where the competition was about a Gnanaphalam or fruit of wisdom. Thought both versions of story are credible, the bigger point of discussion is Ganesha’s intelligence in doing smart work.
Focus on Solutions Not Problems
Ganesha’s birth itself happened through a intense conflict which arose between Shiva and Parvathi when Shiva beheaded the boy Parvathi created when the boy guarding the entry to Parvathi’s house refused entry to Shiva who returned to Kailash. Parvathi was broken at seeing the headless corpse of the body and enraged at Shiva’s act of anger. She decided to destroy the entire Creation. At her call, she summoned all of her ferocious multi-armed forms, the Yoginis arose from her body and threatened to destroy all. Lord Brahma, being the Creator, naturally had his issues with this, and pleaded that she reconsider her drastic plan. She said she would, but only if two conditions were met: one, that the boy be brought back to life, and two, that he be forever worshipped before all the other gods. Shiva, having cooled down by this time, agreed to Parvati’s conditions. He sent his Shiva-dutas out with orders to bring back the head of the first creature that is lying with its head facing North. The Shiva-dutas soon returned with the head of a strong and powerful elephant Gajasura which Lord Brahma placed onto boy’s body. Breathing new life into him, he was declared as Gajanana and gave him the status of being foremost among the gods, and leader of all the ganas (classes of beings), Ganapati. Parvati’s ask to bring back life to a dead boy was unheard and she was stubborn. Shiva’s act of anger could not be justified. However ,Shiva was smart enough to think of the boon he granted to Gajasura who wished that his head be worshipped by all the Devas. This story is a constant reminder to tell ourselves to look at a solution during every searing conflict. Whatever you focus shall manifest. When stuck in problems, dont focus on problems but on the solutions The decapitation was surely bitter but it ended with the great gift of birth of Ganesha. Dont shy away from conflicts but embrace them and skifully solve them and Ganesh is by your side.
Single Pointed Focus Towards Passion and Goals
Ganesha is depicted with one tusk in all his forms and there are many stories about why Ganesha lost a tusk. The single tusk of Ganesha represent the single pointed focus of Ganesha and also represent single consciousness. With a single tusk, Ganesha encourages all of us to have a single focus towards all the passions or goals we have in our life. You have a goal or passion. Work towards it with a single pointed focus unfazed by any challenges it comes by your way. Sage Patanjali very beautifully summed up in his Yoga Sutras as Eka Tattva Abhyaasa. There are obstacles and challenges which come our path when we pursue our passions and goals and Ganesha is very much there to clear them off gracefully. All the obstacles which come by your path are opportunities to evolve into better individuals .
Endurance, Strength and Courage
Ganesha primarily represents an elephant. The elephant is a symbol of fearlessness and strength. Whatever comes as an obstacle in the elephant’s path is royally crushed by an elephant as it walks proudly. An elephant is an absolute symbol of endurance, strength and courage. The elephant headed Ganesha encourages us to be strong, courages and endure all that which comes in our path and crush it royally and walk forward. Ganesha’s qualities of endurance, strength and courage should be absorbed into our consciousness.
As I end this blog, would like to finish it with a couple of favorite stories of Ganesha
Ganesha was invited as a scribe to write the great epic of Mahabharata as the sage Veda Vyasa would dictate it to him. Ganesha accepted to write the epic with a condition that Ganesha’s pen should not stop writing for even once during the entire writing of the epic. Veda Vyasa duly accepted the condition but also recommended Ganesha to understand the entire meaning of every verse dictated by Vyasa before penning it down. Every time Veda Vyasa needed some time to think and come up with verses, he threw a complicated verse at Ganesha and the wise Ganesha also needed some time to understand and write it. The great Mahabharata which also contains the great Bhagavad Gita remains one of the greatest epics in the history of Indian heritage and culture.
Once Shiva was fervently searching for his Trishul (trident) and asked Parvathi if she spotted it. Parvathi told that Ganesha has taken the trident to eat Maggi which he has spotted when he went down to earth for Ganesh Chaturthi and brought back a few packs and cooked them. This is a fun joke shared by a few of my Marathi friends and this joke works better when narrated in Marathi.
I continue to refer to this beautiful video by Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar time and again where he reveals the deep and intimate secrets of Lord Ganesha
https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2F7rVq2ALIlyk%3Ffeature%3Doembed&display_name=YouTube&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D7rVq2ALIlyk&image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2F7rVq2ALIlyk%2Fhqdefault.jpg&key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=youtube
On the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi, I pray and wish that Ganesha will remove all the obstacles we are facing as a human race in this pandemic and we will continue to grow in knowledge and spirit and become better individuals. Everything aside, I find Ganesha as a very cute and adorable God who is not embarassed with a belly, also seen as a symbol of contenment.