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Lord Ganesh by Swami Sivananda

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font-family:Arial">Namaste all,

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font-family:Arial">Swami Sivananda offering a little tribute to Lord Ganesh

from http://www.gita-society.com/section4/4_ganeshji.htm

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12.0pt;font-family:Arial">Om Shanti

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font-family:Arial">Neil

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mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">LORD GANESH By SWAMI

SIVANANDA

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font-family:Arial">SALUTATIONS to Lord Ganesha who is Brahman Himself, who is

the Supreme Lord, who is the energy of Lord Shiva, who is the source of all

bliss, and who is the bestower of all virtuous

qualities and success in all undertakings.

Mushikavaahana modaka hastha,

Chaamara karna vilambitha sutra,

Vaamana rupa maheshwara putra,

Vighna vinaayaka

paada namasthe

font-family:Arial">MEANING: "O Lord Vinayaka! the

remover of all obstacles, the son of Lord Shiva, with a form which is very

short, with mouse as Thy vehicle, with sweet pudding in hand, with wide ears

and long hanging trunk, I prostrate at Thy lotus-like Feet!"

font-family:Arial">Ganesh Chaturthi is one of the most popular of Hindu

festivals. This is the birthday of Lord Ganesha. It is the day most sacred to

Lord Ganesha. It falls on the 4th day of the bright fortnight of Bhadrapada

(August-September). It is observed throughout India, as well as by devoted

Hindus in

all parts of the world.

font-family:Arial">Clay figures of the Deity are made and after being

worshipped for two days, or in some cases ten days, they are thrown into water.

font-family:Arial">Lord Ganesha is the elephant-headed God. He is worshipped

first in any prayers. His Names are repeated first before any auspicious work

is begun, before any kind of worship is begun.

font-family:Arial">He is the Lord of power and wisdom. He is the eldest son of

Lord Shiva and the elder brother of Skanda or Kartikeya. He is the energy of Lord Shiva and so He is

called the son of Shankar and Umadevi.

By worshipping Lord Ganesha mothers hope to earn for their sons the sterling

virtues of Ganesha.

font-family:Arial">The following story is narrated about His birth and how He

came to have the head of an elephant:

font-family:Arial">Once upon a time, the Goddess Gauri

(consort of Lord Shiva), while bathing, created Ganesha as a pure white being

out of the mud of Her Body and placed Him at the entrance of the house. She

told Him not to allow anyone to enter while she went inside for a bath. Lord

Shiva Himself was returning home quite thirsty and was stopped by Ganesha at

the gate. Shiva became angry and cut off Ganesha's head as He thought Ganesha

was an outsider.

font-family:Arial">When Gauri came to know of this

she was sorely grieved. To console her grief, Shiva ordered His servants to cut

off and bring to Him the head of any creature that might be sleeping with its

head facing north. The servants went on their mission and found only an

elephant in that position. The sacrifice was thus made and the elephant's head

was brought before Shiva. The Lord then joined the elephant's head onto the

body of Ganesha.

font-family:Arial">Lord Shiva made His son worthy of worship at the beginning

of all undertakings, marriages, expeditions, studies, etc. He ordained that the

annual worship of Ganesha should take place on the 4th day of the bright half

of Bhadrapada.

font-family:Arial">Without the Grace of Sri Ganesha and His help nothing

whatsoever can be achieved. No action can be undertaken without His support,

Grace or blessing.

font-family:Arial">In his first lesson in the alphabet a Maharashtrian

child is initiated into the Mantra of Lord Ganesha, Om Sri Ganeshaya

Namah. Only then is the alphabet taught.

font-family:Arial">The following are some of the common Names of Lord Ganesha:

Dhoomraketu, Sumukha, Ekadantha, Gajakarnaka,

Lambodara, Vignaraja, Ganadhyaksha,

Phalachandra, Gajanana, Vinayaka, Vakratunda, Siddhivinayaka, Surpakarna,

Heramba, Skandapurvaja, Kapila

and Vigneshwara. He is also known by many as Maha-Ganapathi.

font-family:Arial">His Mantra is Om Gung Ganapathaye

Namah. Spiritual aspirants who worship Ganesha as their tutelary Deity repeat

this Mantra or Om Sri Ganeshaya Namah.

font-family:Arial">The devotees of Ganesha also do Japa of the Ganesha Gayatri

Mantra. This is as follows.

font-family:Arial">Tat purushaaya vidmahe

Vakratundaaya dheemahi

Tanno dhanti prachodayaat.

font-family:Arial">Lord Ganesha is an embodiment of wisdom and bliss. He is the

Lord of Brahmacharins. He is foremost amongst the

celibates.

font-family:Arial">He has as his vehicle a small mouse. He is the presiding

Deity of the Muladhara Chakra, the psychic centre in

the body in which the Kundalini Shakti resides.

font-family:Arial">He is the Lord who removes all obstacles on the path of the

spiritual aspirant, and bestows upon him worldly as well as spiritual success.

Hence He is called Vigna Vinayaka. His Bija Akshara (root syllable) is

Gung, pronounced to rhyme with the English word "sung". He is the

Lord of harmony and peace.

font-family:Arial">Lord Ganesha represents Om or the Pranava,

which is the chief Mantra among the Hindus. Nothing can be done without

uttering it. This explains the practice of invoking Ganesha before beginning any

rite or undertaking any project. His two feet represent the power of knowledge

and the power of action. The elephant head is significant in that it is the

only figure in nature that has the form of the symbol for Om.

font-family:Arial">The significance of riding on a mouse is the complete

conquest over egoism. The holding of the ankusha

represents His rulership of the world. It is the

emblem of divine Royalty.

font-family:Arial">Ganesha is the first God. Riding on a mouse, one of nature's

smallest creatures and having the head of an elephant, the biggest of all

animals, denotes that Ganesha is the creator of all creatures. Elephants are

very wise animals; this indicates that Lord Ganesha is an embodiment of wisdom.

It also denotes the process of evolution--the mouse gradually evolves into an elephant

and finally becomes a man. This is why Ganesha has a human body, an elephant's

head and a mouse as His vehicle. This is the symbolic philosophy of His form.

font-family:Arial">He is the Lord of Ganas or groups,

for instance groups of elements, groups of senses, etc. He is the head of the

followers of Shiva or the celestial servants of Lord Shiva.

font-family:Arial">The Vaishnavas also worship Lord

Ganesha. They have given Him the name of Tumbikkai Alwar which means the

divinity with the proboscis (the

elephant's trunk).

font-family:Arial">Lord Ganesha's two powers are the Kundalini and the Vallabha or power of love.

font-family:Arial">He is very fond of sweet pudding or balls of rice flour with

a sweet core. On one of His birthdays He was going around house to house

accepting the offerings of sweet puddings. Having eaten a good number of these,

He set out moving on His mouse at night. Suddenly the mouse stumbled--it had

seen a snake and became frightened--with the result that Ganesha fell down. His

stomach burst open and all the sweet puddings came out. But Ganesha stuffed them

back into His stomach and, catching hold of the snake, tied it around His

belly.

font-family:Arial">Seeing all this, the moon in the sky had a hearty laugh.

This unseemly behaviour of the moon annoyed Him immensely and so he pulled out

one of His tusks and hurled it against the moon, and cursed that no one should

look at the moon on the Ganesh Chaturthi day. If anyone does, he will surely

earn a bad name, censure or ill-repute. However, if by mistake someone does

happen to look at the moon on this day, then the only way he can be freed from

the curse is by repeating or listening to the story of how Lord Krishna cleared

His character regarding the Syamantaka jewel. This

story is quoted in the Srimad Bhagavatam.

Lord Ganesha was pleased to ordain thus. Glory to Lord Ganesha! How kind and

merciful He is unto His devotees!

font-family:Arial">Ganesha and His brother Lord Subramanya

once had a dispute as to who was the elder of the two. The matter was referred

to Lord Shiva for final decision. Shiva decided that whoever would make a tour

of the whole world and come back first to the starting point had the right to

be the elder. Subramanya flew off at once on his

vehicle, the peacock, to make a circuit of the world. But the wise Ganesha

went, in loving worshipfulness, around His divine parents and asked for the

prize of His victory.

font-family:Arial">Lord Shiva said, "Beloved and wise Ganesha! But how can

I give you the prize; you did not go around the world?"

font-family:Arial">Ganesha replied, "No, but I have gone around my

parents. My parents represent the entire manifested universe!"

font-family:Arial">Thus the dispute was settled in favour of Lord Ganesha, who

was thereafter acknowledged as the elder of the two brothers. Mother Parvati

also gave Him a fruit as a prize for this victory.

font-family:Arial">In the Ganapathi Upanishad,

Ganesha is identified with the Supreme Self. The legends that are connected

with Lord Ganesha are recorded in the Ganesha Khanda

of the Brahma Vivartha Purana.

font-family:Arial">On the Ganesh Chaturthi day, meditate on the stories

connected with Lord Ganesha early in the morning, during the Brahmamuhurta

period. Then, after taking a bath, go to the

temple and do the prayers of Lord Ganesha. Offer Him some coconut and sweet

pudding. Pray with faith and devotion that He may remove all the obstacles that

you experience on the spiritual path. Worship Him at home, too. You can get the

assistance of a pundit. Have an image of Lord Ganesha in your house. Feel His

Presence in it.

font-family:Arial">Don't forget not to look at the moon on that day; remember

that it behaved unbecomingly towards the Lord. This really means avoid the

company of all those who have no faith in God, and who deride God, your Guru

and religion, from this very day.

font-family:Arial">Take fresh spiritual resolves and pray to Lord Ganesha for

inner spiritual strength to attain success in all your undertakings.

font-family:Arial">May the blessings of Sri Ganesha be upon you all! May He

remove all the obstacles that stand in your spiritual path! May He bestow on

you all material prosperity as well as liberation!

font-family:Arial">LORD GANESA By SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

font-family:Arial">Human life is beset with obstacles. We face oppositions and

encounter difficulties in galore, and the whole of our daily activity may, in a

sense, be considered as a struggle against all odds which come in different

forms as the sorrows of life. The moment we wake up in the morning, we have to

face the obstacle called hunger which we try to obviate by cooking and eating

food, the obstacle called thirst which we have to get rid of by drinks and the

obstacle called disease, exhaustion, fatigue, sleeplessness and the like, which

we endeavour to remedy by the introduction of various types of medicines. The

very presence of people around us is an obstacle and the human individual

suddenly becomes restless, and both consciously and unconsciously puts on an

attitude of self-defence, as if one has found oneself suddenly in a terrific warfield.

font-family:Arial">The difficulties of life are, to a large extent, the very

substance of life itself. The whole of life is a bundle of difficulties. It is

a mess of oppositions, which calls for a continuous counteracting force which

is what is called human enterprise. If the whole earth were filled with milk

and honey, and if there is no fatigue, no old age and death, no hunger and

thirst, no opposition and nobody to utter a word, then there would be no

activity, no necessity to do anything and no incentive in the direction of any

movement. The quantity, the expanse and the magnitude of the opposition which

comes before us in life is such that no single individual will be able to face

it. This whole world is too much for a single man and considering the incongruous,

disproportionate relationship between a single human individual and the vast

world outside, there is very little hope of man's achieving anything in this

world, successfully. Because, with a spoon you cannot bail out the ocean of

waters, though your effort may be laudable. You are,

no doubt, very sincerely industrious in emptying the ocean of its waters with a

little spoon or a ladle. Notwithstanding the fact that this effort on your part

is praiseworthy, that is not going to lead you to any success and the expected

result will not follow. The ocean cannot be emptied by any amount of bailing

out with a spoon. Such seems to be the type of world into which we are born and

people who are acutely conscious of this situation become humble enough to

accept that even an inch of success cannot be expected in this world without a

miraculous grace of God. So, even the little success that sometimes seems to

come to us is a kind of undeserved promotion, as it were, granted to us by the

mercy of the Almighty. Our efforts are only a puny child's whining and weeping

with a helpless weakness of body and mind. The traditional annual worship of

God in this role, as the remover of all obstacles, as Vighna

Vinayaka, is known as Vinayaka Chaturthi or Ganesa

Chaturthi. It is the day on which we offer special adoration to the Remover of

obstacles.

font-family:Arial">We are terribly afraid of obstacles. There is no other fear

in this world except obstacle. So, always we cry: "Remove the obstacles,

clear the path, cleanse the road." On the fourth day of the bright half of

the lunar month of Bhadrapada (August-September)

every year, the great Lord called the Lord of Hosts, Ganapati, is worshipped

throughout India, perhaps in many other parts of the world also. There is no

Hindu who does not recognise the pre-eminence of the worship of this

mysteriously conceived deity called Ganapati whose name occurs right in the

beginning of the Rigveda itself, the earliest of

scriptures, where pointedly the name is taken in a Mantra, "Gananam tva ganapatim

havamahe..." The fear of God is supposed to be

the beginning of religion. A person who has no fear of God has no religion

also, because religion is respect for God. The fear of God goes together with

the acceptance of the greatness of God and His Power. Wherever there is power,

we are afraid of it. An ocean, a lion, an elephant are all powerful things and

we dread the very sight of them.

font-family:Arial">Tradition conceives this great Remover of obstacles,

Ganapati, as the son of Lord Siva with a proboscis of an elephant and a protuberant

belly, with weapons of various types and a benign gesture of goodwill, grace

and blessing with His right hand. The family of Bhagavan Siva is of a peculiar

set up. The Lord of all the worlds, lives as one

possessing nothing! This manner of living in Mount Kailasa by the great Master of Yogis, Lord

Siva, is perhaps a demonstration of the great definition of the glory of

Bhagavan, the Supreme Being as possessed of all-knowledge, all-power and

all-renunciation. What is Bhagavan and what are His characteristics? 'Bhagavan'

is one who has six characteristics. "Aisvaryasya

samagrasya viryasya yasasah sriyah; Jnana-Vairagyayoh chaiva shannam bhaga itirana"--these

six characteristics mentioned are all called Bhaga.

One who has Bhaga is called Bhagavan. All prosperity,

all wealth, all treasure, all glory, all magnificence is Aisvarya.

Entire Aisvarya is there. Virya

is tremendous energy, force and power. Yasas is fame

and renown. Srih is prosperity. Jnana

and Vairagya are the pinnacle of wisdom and the

pinnacle of renunciation, respectively. Knowledge is supposed to be a

benediction from Lord Siva Himself. In the Srimad Bhagavata Mahapurana, at the

commencement of the second Skandha, Sri Suka delineates the names of various deities who have to be

adored for various purposes. "Jnanam Mahesvaradicchet--All knowledge is to be expected from the

great Siva." They say that the ocean of Siva is incomprehensible; a part of it

was contained in a pot by Brihaspati, and a spoon of

it was taken by Panini who is the promulgator of

Sanskrit grammar.

font-family:Arial">You know the interesting story as to how Panini,

the originator of Sanskrit grammar, received knowledge from Lord Siva. He was

supposed to be the dullest of the students in a group that was studying from a

Guru in Taxila, Taksha Shila. There were other very intelligent boys. Panini was

the most stupid, the least intelligent, very

much belittled and made fun of by the colleagues in the class. He was deeply

hurt that he was being cowed down by other colleagues and that he could not understand

anything that the teacher said. Almost in a desperate mood of disgust with

everything, he went to the forest and deeply contemplated on Lord Siva. He

prayed: "O Lord! Bless me with Knowledge." It is said that Lord Siva

appeared before him, danced and revolved His Dakka or

Damaru fourteen times, and the following fourteen

sounds were made: "1. Aiun, 2. Rlrk, 3. Aowng, 4. Ai ouch, 5. Ha

ya va rat, 6. Lan, 7. Na ma nga na nam, 8. Jha

bhanj, 9. Gha dha dhash, 10. Ja ba ga da das,

11. Kha pha

chha tha tha cha ta tav,

12. Ka pay, 13. Sa sha sar, and 14. Hal. All this

constitutes the very essence of Sanskrit grammar. These sounds, meaningless as

they may appear to us, became the foundation of Sanskrit grammar and Sanskrit

literature.

font-family:Arial">So, God can teach us without books and without the usual

medium of instruction, by a thought, a sound, a look, a touch or a benign

gesture.

font-family:Arial">Such a Master's son is Sri Ganapati, Sri Ganesa.

We have endless stories about our Gods, all partly humorous and partly highly

illuminating. The usual belief is that Lord Ganapati is a celibate and He never

married, though there is a belief in North India that He has Siddhi and Buddhi, two

consorts behind Him. There is a humorous story about His marriage. He was about

to be married and the bridegroom's procession was moving in great gusto, from

Mount Kailasa evidently, to the bride's palace.

We do not know who that contemplated bride was. We know only that there was a

procession of the bridegroom. And His pot belly, it seems, burst on the way due

to eating too much, and He took a snake, who is

sometimes identified with Subrahmanya, tied it around

His stomach and ate again. It seems Chandra or moon looked at this scene and

laughed, saying: "Look at this man who is going for his marriage! His stomach

is burst and he is tying up with, a snake? This took place on the fourth day of

the bright half of the lunar month, Bhadrapada

(Aug-Sept). Ganapati was irritated very much. He cursed the moon: "You

fellow, you talk about me like this. You have insulted me. Well, whoever looks

at you on this day will also similarly be insulted." So, people dread to

look at the moon on that day. Chauthi Chandra, the

moon on the fourth day of the bright half of the lunar month, is considered

very inauspicious, resulting in Apavadam or censure

and reproach on the one who sees it. Apavada means

undeserved blame and scandal. You might have done nothing, yet somebody will go

on telling some evil against you. This is the result of looking at the moon on

the fourth day, because it has the curse of Ganapati. But they say, in our

tradition of curses, that there is also what is called Sapamoksha

or a kind of remedy. The moon said: "Please excuse me, why do you curse me

like this?" The moon pleaded for some remedy. Then Ganapati in reply said:

"OK, alright, I pardon you. Whoever looks at you on the first day after

the Newmoon, will be relieved of this curse." I

have seen people running to terraces and climbing trees and trying to see the

little streak of the moon appearing like a thread on the first day after the

Newmoon, to be rid of all the evils that might have grown

around them even by an unconscious look on the fourth day, because on that

fourth day especially the moon is just before our eyes and very clear. He is

located very peculiarly in a position in the sky where you cannot avoid seeing

him. So, then, when our eyes fall on the moon on the fourth day, we rub our

eyes and say, "Oh..very

sorry, some mistake has taken place," and we expect some trouble

afterwards. Somebody will say something against us. Anyhow, the remedy is

seeing the moon on the first day after the New moon.

font-family:Arial">The philosophy behind all these traditional worships and

Puranic allegories is that the path of spiritual Sadhana is

a mystery by itself and it is not a heroic activity of the Sadhaka,

as sometimes he may imagine. No heroism will work there. Even the so-called

heroic attitude, which we sometimes put on, is an entry of divine force into

us. Just as a child's or a little baby's walking is the strength of the mother

who is holding it with her hand, whatever intelligence we have, whatever

satisfaction we enjoy in this life, whatever strength we possess, whether

physical or psychological, whatever security we have, whatever is worthwhile in

our existence is a modicum of the reflection of God's power. The worship of

Maha-Ganapati, with the Mantra "Om Gam Ganapataye Namah," is a humble submission

of the true

circumstance of oneself before the might of God's glory. Who can open one's

eyes before God! Who can utter one word before Him! Who can boast of one's

learning, greatness, etc., before Him! We would be ashamed even to present

ourselves before Him. Consider the might of the Creator, the magnitude of His

power, the depth of His Wisdom, His Knowledge and His Omniscience, and your

present condition! Compare it and contrast it. What Sadhana, what meditation,

what Yoga can you do! The moment you begin to take one

step in the direction of this holy movement towards God, the world pounces upon

you with all its army, because the world is quantitatively larger. We live in a

world of quantities. We require quantitative food, quantitative drink,

quantitative physical appurtenances, and everything we require and ask for in

life is only a quantity rather than a quality. So the quantity of the world

being larger than the quantity of our physical personality, we cannot face it.

So there is this humble acceptance of submission and a prayer to the great

Almighty as manifest in Ganapati.

font-family:Arial">There is another story as to why He is worshipped first on

all occasions. It appears Parvati, the consort of

Lord Siva, went for a bath, may be in the Ganga. She scrubbed her body and out of

the dirt of her body she made a small image of a boy, gave life to it by her

touch and ordained him not to allow entry to any person when she is taking bath

in the river. Accordingly, that boy stood guarding. At that moment, the great

Lord Siva Himself came and the boy prevented His entry, because he cannot

recognise Lord Siva, whom he has not seen. He has only the order of his Mother

that nobody should enter. He immediately objected to the brave entry of Lord

Siva into the vicinity where Parvati was taking bath.

You can imagine the feeling of Lord Siva. "What is this? The little chap

is standing and preventing me from seeing my own consort!" He immediately

chopped off Ganapati's head and he fell down dead.

When Parvati came up, she was aghast and said:

"Oh Lord, You have killed my boy, he is my own child, and I am deeply

hurt. What have you done! Oh, my Lord!" She bet her

breast and would not speak. She started weeping. The Lord Siva said, "Do

not weep, I shall give life to him." But

ironically enough, He would not put the same head back. We do not know the

reason why He did this. He told, "Bring the head of someone who is

sleeping with his head towards the north." This is why it is said that you

should not sleep with your head towards the north. Otherwise, Siva will search

for you! And they found nobody except an elephant lying with its head towards

the north. Its head was severed and brought. The elephant's head was attached

to the trunk of this boy and life was given by the Great Siva. He became alive

and was named as Ganapati, which designation was bestowed upon him by Lord Siva

Himself, may be to pacify Parvati or to bring about a

peaceful atmosphere around. Lord Siva not only gave him life, but also made him

the leader of His hosts. Ganapati, is therefore, the

leader of the hosts of Lord Siva Himself. There is a large audience before Lord

Siva, consisting of varieties of Ganas. Ganas are demigods; they are neither human nor superhuman,

but a peculiar type. Sometimes they look like astral beings. These Ganas are

ruled by Ganapati under the order of Siva. So

Ganapati means the Generalissimo, as it were, of the hosts who always live in

Kailasa. Apart from making Ganapati the Leader of hosts,

Lord Siva bestowed another blessing on Him, saying: "You shall be the

first one to be worshipped on all occasion." So this is the order or the

ordinance of Lord Siva. The ordinance stands for ever. It is a permanent

ordinance from the Great Master: "No one will be worshipped before you,

not even me. After you are worshipped alone, will anybody else be worshipped."

We won't worship Lord Siva or Lord Narayana without first worshipping Ganapati.

"Om Gam Ganapataye Namah," is a

Mantra to propitiate Ganapati.

font-family:Arial">Human mind is elated and enthused by hearing stories. Image,

painting, music, idols, dance, any kind of picturesque presentation of religion

and spirituality or philosophy is generally more appealing than cut and dry

logic, as you know very well. So the Puranas and the

Epics bring home to us the idea of the necessity to accept the power of God as

the only medium by which obstacles can be removed. So, He is called

Vighnesvara, the God who is not merely the Ganapati or the ruler of the hosts

or Ganas, but also a Remover of all impediments on

alt paths.

font-family:Arial">I have heard a story when I was a small boy told by a

neighbour. There was a person who never believed in Gods and when his

daughter's marriage was to be performed, someone said, "First of all you

must worship Ganesa. Do not be in a hurry." He

replied, "Let him be Ganesa or his grandfather,

I do not care for anybody." He took the Murti of Ganesa

and threw it into the tank. And suddenly, they say, there was a fire and the

whole marriage Pandal was aflame. People bet their

breasts, cried, ran to the tank and brought back the image. And then, it is

said, there was rain, after Ganesa was worshipped.

These are all stories and we have to take them for what they are worth.

font-family:Arial">But there is something mysterious about things. Everything

is not clear to the minds of men. There are great secrets. And as I began by

saying, the spiritual path is itself a great secret. The little Japa that you

do, the scriptures that you read, the audience that you hold and whatever you

appear to be doing, is only an outer crust of the mystery of life. The mystery

is finally in yourself. You yourself do not know who

is goading you to think in this manner. That goading principle is the mystery.

If you recognise this mystery within you which mystifies even your intelligence

and your efforts, you will be humble, simple and small before God, because

spiritual Sadhana is an art of becoming smaller and smaller. It is not to

become bigger and bigger. A person becomes smaller and smaller as he approaches

God, just as a candle flame becomes dimmer and dimmer as it goes nearer and

nearer to the sun; and just before the sun, it is not there? You cannot see

even its existence. It vanishes. Likewise, when we approach God, we become

smaller and smaller, humbler and humbler, littler and littler, until we become

nothing. In this nothingness, we will find God Himself filling us. When there

is total emptiness created by an abolition of ourselves, in this emptiness or

vacuum created, God fills Himself. 'Empty thyself and

I shall fill thee'--says Jesus Christ. The Mahaganapati Purana,

the Ganapati Atharvasirsha Upanishad, the Ganesa Gita and several anecdotes

occurring in the Mahabharata and the other Puranas

glorify this aspect of the Supreme Almighty which requires our submission at

His feet, and expects us to recognise Him as the sole power that can remove all

obstacles on the path of the spiritual seeker towards the attainment of

Godhead. This seems to be a part of the meaning hidden behind the holy worship

of Bhagavan Ganapati or Sri Ganesa or Mahaganapati. A

dread enters our minds when we think of His Name on account of the feeling that

any displeasure on His part may be a doom to us. People are afraid even to

forget taking the holy Prasada of Sri Satyanarayana Puja because of the story behind it. Do you

know what will happen to you if you do not take the Prasada?

It is mentioned in the story that the whole thing will be finished--all your

wealth, property, wife, children, etc., will go to dogs in one second. The fear

of it makes you bow down and wait for the Prasada

even if it is late in the night. These stories are not meaningless narrations

of cock and bull incidents. They instil into our minds a divine urge and a fear

of the Divine Presence. After all we are human beings who are ruled more by

sentiments and feelings than by our reason or our so-called understanding. This

psychology of the human being is taken advantage of by the writers of the Epics

and the Puranas to instill

faith in our hearts through these stories. Thus is a little tribute to the

glory of Maha Ganapati.

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12.0pt;font-family:Arial">OM TAT SAT

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