The particular Hindu God Ganesh Provides Wisdom and Success
A year or two ago I finally met someone I had known for many years, but only on the net. I pointed out that she always wore the same pendant, a strange figure of a man with an elephants head and wondered why this elegant lady would be so attached to what appeared as if a funny plastic figure. When I finally got round to asking her about any of it, I was ashamed of my ignorance. It was the very first time I had heard of the Hindu God Ganesh.
To a western eye, Ganesh looks really strange; an almost comical figure who has a man's body (and a paunch) an elephants head, four hands (at least), only one tusk, and spends his time riding around on an extremely small mouse. But Ganesh isn't a clown also to see him as a tale is to misunderstand centuries of belief and symbolism. Hindu Gods is highly revered in the Hindu religion, where in fact the same attributes, looked at in a different way, make him the embodiment of wisdom and learning, the patron of science and the arts, the remover of obstacles, and therefore called on at the beginning of every enterprise because the god of success. It had been as such that my pal wore her pendant, not plastic but very old jade, a talisman made to bring success to each one of her ventures.
The Hindu religion is very old and practiced over a wide area, so that it isn't surprising that there are many stories concerning the origin of the Hindu gods. Generally in most Hindu traditions, Ganesh may be the son of Shiva and his wife Parvati. Hindu's recognize four major denominations all of whom regard Parvati and Shiva as important, but for the Shakta, Parvati, whose name means 'she of the mountains' is the Supreme Being and Shiva is her consort. It was Parvati who created Ganesh.
Parvati is said to value her privacy, so one day when she wanted to bathe and had no-one around to keep watch out for her, Parvati used turmeric paste to create a boy. She gave him life and asked him to be certain to guard her privacy, which is how Ganesh was born, without the real intervention from his 'father' Shiva.
When Shiva returned home he wished to go inside, but Ganesh followed his Mother's instructions and stopped him. There is a battle, and Shiva, who is Lord of Destruction, take off the boy's head.
When she saw what had happened, Parvati's anger knew no bounds. She demanded that Shiva amend the problem, so he sent his servants to bring back the head of the first living thing they found. The head belonged to an elderly elephant that they had found just as he was going to die, so Ganesh was brought back to life and given the elephant's head.
By association Ganesh is undoubtedly strong, affectionate and loyal. This type of large head can only be considered a sign of wisdom and intelligence, as the huge ears are used to carefully separate the good and the bad and to listen to the requests of supplicants. Like the elephant Ganesh is powerful if provoked, but loving when shown kindness. Unlike most elephants, Ganesh has only one tusk.
There are many stories of the reason for the broken tusk; the most used is that Ganesh was given the job of writing down the epic tale referred to as the Mahabharata. At one point his pen failed and instead of stop, Ganesh removed his tusk and carried on, showing he was ready to make a sacrifice to acquire knowledge. Other, less poetic stories say that the tusk was removed by way of a villain who stole it to make ivory earrings for beautiful ladies.
It isn't always immediately obvious that statues of Ganesh have four (and sometimes more) hands. One is usually shown in abhaya pose that is organized with palm out and fingers pointing upwards, while the second holds a sweet, symbolic of the inner self. The other two hands will usually include a goad and a noose, the former being used to prod followers along the path of truth, as the latter represents the snare of earthly desires. At his feet most statues of Ganesh show a mouse, his traditional steed. The mouse is the symbol of the intellect, wandering in and out, but tamed by the greater power of the whole.
Many devotees believe that the strange shape of the one tusked elephant headed God mirrors the symbol AUM, a symbol which represents the primeval sound that was the initial thing to be created and that all of those other universe arose. It is the symbol which is popular to represent most of Hinduism and its beliefs.
Although the Hindu religion has four main denominations, all worship Ganesh, whose image can be found across India, Nepal and several areas of the Far East. For Additional info , Ganesh appears as the god Vinayaka and is normally shown dancing. His statues appear in Nepal and Tibet. In Japan he could be seen as a minor god and young people call on him when searching for success in love. Throughout Malaysia, Java, Bali and Borneo you can find temples to Ganesh and in Thailand his position as remover of obstacles and patron of the arts mean that there exists a ceremony where offerings are created to Ganesh before any movie or TV series starts shooting.