Sacred Beginnings with Sri Ganesha

Reprinted from blog.BalancedSpirituality.com

Om gam ganapataye namaha
I offer my love and devotion to Sri Ganesha; please grant me success in my noble endeavor

As this is my first post, I thought it fitting to make a prayer to Sri Ganesha in the very beginning. Most people have seen images of Sri Ganesha, the elephant-headed god of Hinduism. Many people find him cute, adorable, and even a little humorous. After all, he's holding a plate of delicious sweets, his round belly betrays his obvious liking of said sweets, and yet his vehicle is a tiny little mouse. All in all, he seems like a groovy guy to hang out with!

In India, Ganesha is universally loved and worshipped. In fact, according to Hindu tradition, every religious ceremony and every important undertaking can only start after worshipping Ganesha and requesting his auspicious blessings. I've often wondered about the true significance and import of this unique deity. Over the years, I've learned a lot about Ganesha from a number of spiritual teachers, including Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami and Amma Karunamayi, and I've come to have a deep appreciation for this sweet and lovable deity. It turns out that in spite of his light-hearted external appearance, Ganesha is actually the embodiment of an infinite and all-pervasive divine energy. Though he is approached much like one would approach a respected older brother for help and guidance, he represents a vast and formless principle of divine power.

Sri Ganesha - The Power to Make an Auspicious Beginning

What is Ganesha's special power? It is the power to begin any venture with intelligence, ingenuity, and strong will-power, so that the job gets done and gets done right. Ganesha helps to clear any and every obstacle that comes your way. Now the significance of his elephant head comes into focus! Imagine a huge elephant in an Indian forest, using his powerful trunk and tusks to clear away logs, brush, and anything else that gets in his way. When he's done, there's a lovely, smooth path left for all the other forest creatures to walk on. It's easy to see how ancient Indian sages would have found powerful symbolism in the image of an elephant's head. Just as an elephant can toss heavy tree trunks with ease, Ganesha easily removes all kinds of seemingly immovable obstacles from our lives when we invoke his blessings.

In India, it's believed that the beginning of any venture sets the tone for the entire effort; thus, it is very important to make the beginning as auspicious and positive as possible. Just think of our Western expressions, "Looks like she got out of bed on the wrong side," or "Let's start things off on the right foot." Clearly, it's a lot better to start things right than to start on the "wrong foot" and have to make up for lost time later. Hindus believe that any activity worth doing should be blessed by God, and the form of God who blesses all beginnings is Sri Ganesha. Of course, there is a deeper significance to this, which has to do with the fact that Ganesha resides in the root chakra, the first chakra where we begin our inner spiritual journey. But more on that in the future.

This brings me to an important point about Hinduism. Many people think Hinduism is polytheistic, but this is not accurate. In the Vedic period of ancient India, the Vedic seers conceived of a single, vast and undifferentiated supreme reality, which they termed "Brahman." But they also perceived that this one reality manifested itself in many ways. The one ultimate reality was the supreme Godhead, but it could express itself as individual deities or divine beings. Another way of thinking of it is that Brahman is like a large multifaceted diamond, and approaching any deity or form of God is like peering into that diamond through one particular facet. Each facet is a different "face" of the gem, but it is connected to the other facets because they're all part of the same gem. So as you look at each facet, you are perceiving the diamond from different angles, but you are in fact peering into the heart of the diamond through the facet, into the essence of Divinity. Each so-called deity is a unique facet of the Divine allowing us entrance into the supreme and undifferentiated Brahman. So this is why I prefer to say that Ganesha is a "form of God" who blesses our undertakings, and not a "deity" who we must propitiate to receive blessings. Ganesha is not separate from the supreme Brahman, the supreme Godhead or ultimate divine consciousness. He is simply a powerful ray emanating from the blazing sun of Divinity.

How to Attract Sri Ganesha's Auspicious Energy

There are many ways to worship Ganesha, and each way invokes his energy in a slightly different way for different purposes. The Vedic seers of ancient India have perceived many sacred mantras and hymns that invoke Ganesha's energy in a very powerful way. One example is the mantra I began this post with, a very simple yet very powerful mantra. Other examples include the Ganesha Gayatri Mantra, the Ganesha Pratah Smaranam, and the Ganapati Atharvasirsham, which I will be happy to share and discuss in future posts.

In addition to mantras and pujas, there are certain behaviors that will certainly attract the special light of Ganesha's grace. Whenever we act with self-confidence, courage, and determination, we attract Ganesha's grace. In addition, Ganesha's blessings flow towards those who perform selfless and noble acts in service to others. Sri Ganesha is very kind and easy to please; he is always with any sincere seeker, whether they are aware of his existence or not. When we pray to him, he will certainly bless us to become successful in all our noble endeavors. I am so happy to begin this new blog by talking about Sri Ganesha. May he bless us all!

Lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu
May all the beings in all the beautiful worlds be happy