Ganesha Festival

August 8, 2009

Ganesha Chaturthi. Our slokas are not just strings of meaningless praise of the 33 crore deities in our pantheon. They are statements of factual truths about the Created Universe. They are scientific treatises, only written in an entirely figurative language. We do it today too. Let us take the "mouse" of a computer. Why did we choose that word for that bit of electronic equipment? What will the people a hundred years into the future understand from that word? Let us take this slokam: "Vakra Thunda MahakaayaSurya Koti Sama prabhaNirvighnam Kuru mey DevaSarva Kaaryeshu Sarvada." Ganesha is the Deity of "LIGHT". He is Himself "LIGHT". What are the characteristics of Light? Wave (not straight) = Vakra Particle = ThundaAll pervading (enormous body) = Maha kayaA crore, or 10 million (numberless) suns = Surya kotiEven Brilliance = Sama Prabha and so on.So for the scientific minded, we worship Ganesha who is "Light Deified" on this day. Ganesha is the child, who is designed from the dirt on the body of SAKTI. While SIVAM is the "being" aspect of THAT which has come into being and which we call "SRUSHTI", SAKTI is the "happening" aspect of the same. It is the primary "Energy" which brings into being all that was, is and will be. (I do not know of a scientific equivalent in English for this word.This primeval "Energy" is not the same as what we refer to as "matter and energy") In our philosophy, as well as in all very ancient philosophies of the world, this Primal Energy or SAKTI is always viewed as female. All of Creation is created from/by SAKTI, but SAKTI herself is uncreatable for She is the Source. Therefore all of the perceivable and non-perceivable Creation, including our Universe is a "coarser" expression of this SAKTI. An analogy could be the difference between your thoughts or imagination of a painting, a building, a computer programme etc. and this thought being expressed in the form of an actual painting, building or programme. The "thought" does not have any substance to it, but it is where all that you have created originated. This actually material creation is made of matter and energy that is coarser than the thought that was its origin.

The awakened SAKTI is the stillness of SIVAM that has become active or un-still. This first unstill-ness is the "vibration" or the AUM. From this NADA BINDU emerges the first aspect of Creation, that is LIGHT which even though is the finest form of energy, is still coarser than SAKTI.(This LIGHT is not the Light that we generally know of. It is the LIGHT that gives Light, its Light.) This is why another name for Ganesha is OMKARA. And this is why Ganesha is said to have been created from the scurf of SAKTI's body. It could also mean that Ganesha is the first in the movement from a state of "Stasis",or "Achalana" or SATTVA, when no Creation is possible, to the state of "Chalana" or disturbance which produces RAJAS and TAMAS, which are the two aspects of Creation. To remind us of all this, we traditionally design the Ganesha vigrahams for Ganesha Chaturthi, out of COW-DUNG which is most auspicious, or TURMERIC POWDER, or lastly out of fresh, unbaked CLAY. These three, when they go back to the soil, enrich it. This is a symbolic act that reminds us that LIGHT is the origin of this Earth, and all that becomes Life on it and all that sustains this life in the form of food. In earlier times Ganesha Chaturthi was celebrated with small finger-sized idols made of cow-dung, turmeric or clay.

The present flamboyant celebrations began during the time of our struggle for Independence, when leaders like Lokamanya Tilak used this festival to forge a nationalistic feeling. That is the strength of our traditions. We can adapt them to serve so many situations. As long as we take care to not lose the truth behind them. Om Namha Shivaya !

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