Festivals are a time for celebration, a time for fun and a time to divinize our emotions. Emotions tend to come in a rush and overpower us. Unless they are channelized or guided, they have the potential to do harm. Emotions are like a river in flow. It can be used to make the land (our fields of actions) fertile and yield great harvest or it can flood the land space and destroy all the crops and wash away all fertility.
Swami Chinmayanandaji used to say, to grow, one must change the quality, quantity and direction of thought flow in our mind. Hence, channelizing emotions and divinizing our thoughts are the basic purpose behind all festivals and their elaborate rituals.
Lord Ganesha is the first God we pray to as He is the Lord who bestows us with Auspiciousness (Mangal). Hence, He is prayed at every new undertaking. But what exactly is auspiciousness? Well, Auspiciousness is nothing but goodness, nobility, righteousness and positivity all woven into one. Ganesha is also one who removes all our obstacles. Our Rishi’s were so very practical when they thought of man’s relationship with God, as majority of us tend to think of God only at the time of distress and as a ‘miracle-doer’, who can take us out from our suffering. But Lord Ganesha not only can remove suffering but also He is the kundalini shakti (power) to march ahead and achieve great deeds. Besides, he is the bestower of worldly intelligence and spiritual wisdom as well. Hence, Lord Ganesha is the Lord to be worshipped for all achievements spiritual and material. But who is Lord Ganesha?
Story of Lord Ganesha’s birth… unveiled
Ganesh Chaturthi is the birth of Lord Ganesha. As the story goes, One day while bathing in her chambers, Mother Parvati (the primordial powers of the Universe – Adi Paraa Shakti and the consort of Lord Shiva – the Pure Consciousness Bliss) collected the mud from her body and created a form of a beautiful young boy. Seeing her creation, her motherly instincts took over and she felt like having that form as her child… so she breathed life into the form and brought it to life. She then blessed the child all knowledge and skills and then asked him to guard her palace so that no one enters while she was bathing. When Lord Shiva arrives, wanting to see Mother Parvati, this young boy comes in the way and as per his mother’s instructions does not give Lord Shiva permission to enter his own palace. This does not impress the Lord at all and He tries to reason with the boy, tells him who He was, etc. but the boy would not yield. Eventually, after all other methods had failed, Lord Shiva asked his generals to take the boy away so that He could enter. One by one, members of Lord Shiva’s army tried to remove him with force but were unsuccessful. They all fought this tiny boy but all of them lost. This enraged Lord Shiva, and He told the boy to move or else be prepared to die. But the Son of Parvati was not phased from duty … and hence a battle ensued in which eventually, Lord Shiva triumphed by beheading him with his Trishul (Trident). On entering the chamber of Mother Parvati, He found her very cheerful but also very surprised on seeing Him as she didn’t expect to see anyone there. She questioned Lord Shiva as to where her child was and how did he allow Him to enter the palace. On knowing what had happened to her dear child, she was thrown into an abyss of sorrow and grief and demanded that her son be brought back to life.
Immediately, Lord Shiva on realizing the pain He had caused set out to rectify it by asking his army to go and find a head of a creature facing the north before sunset and bring it to Him so that the child be brought back to life. The Gana’s (Lord Shiva’s army) in haste could only bring an elephant head which was lying in that position. Lord Shiva then performed the surgery and brought the child back to life. He then bestowed him with the name of Ganesha and blessed Him with all knowledge and wisdom. Ganesha was made the leader of Lord Shiva’s army and was given the status of being the first to be worshipped before any other God.
Significance of the story
This story is what is popularly spoken off, but the significance of it is very beautiful indeed. We are all born from prakriti (Mother Parvati). We too are made out of mud (earth) and the 5 Great Elements are nothing but her body. She then breathes life into us, because she loves us as her creation. She endows the boy with knowledge and skills. We too are given all the faculties of acquiring knowledge and developing our skills. The boy is then sent to guard her as his duty… We too are guided by our nature to perform our various duties in life.
However, all this time the child created, is ignorant of Lord Shiva (the Pure Consciousness) as his father. He is efficient and skillful but cannot recognize the Lord who is Pure Bliss. This is the Ego... The Lord, even after introducing Himself, does not gain the favour of the child. Finally, it is with the Trident, the weapon that cuts the three guna’s - Sattva (noble ego), Rajas (desirous ego) and Tamas (ignoble ego)… then the child (the Ego) is dead. When Lord Shiva revives him with an elephant head, He blesses Him with another life in the same body, but replaces the thinking (the head). This is the spiritual birth of the child. Now he is fit to be a leader of the Gana’s (the Lord of all classifications of all categories of all groups), showing that the leader must have a spiritual vision, a higher goal. This is the birth of Ganesha, the Lord of Auspiciousness. Now, He is truly worshipable... not possessing skill and good values but one who has the knowledge of and knows that Supreme Atma Tattva in oneself and in all. May we all seek the blessings of Lord Ganesha in our lives and over these 10 days cherish His company in our daily activities.
Let us come to fulfill our journey’s by changing the quality of thoughts, reduce the quantity of material thoughts and increase the quantity of spiritual thoughts and change the direction of thoughts through the worship of our beloved Sri Ganesha. The result of auspiciousness is nobility in our goals and actions we perform thereafter.
Bramhachari Adarsh Chaitanya serves as the Resident Acharya of Chinmaya Mission Auckland and conducts weekly spiritual classes for children, youth and adults. For more information about the Chinmaya Mission and Bramhachari Adarsh Chaitanya please follow this link: www.chinmaya.org.nz or contact him at 2756954