#Ganesh Chaturthi : Rationale behind the Worship : 22-Aug-2020 : Sudhir Bhargava : Organiser : Media Report.

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# OPINION : Thursday, August 27, 2020. 7:57.PM. - 2229.

##Ganesh is part of spiritual activity connected with the human brain and forms an important component of the great ‘Spiritual Heritage of India’

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Every year when Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated and Hindus chant Ganpati Bappa Moriya with full reverence in Maharashtra and other parts of the country, controversy erupts and tensions get to be reported on social media and in press. Many among Hindus and other religions ask why an elephant faced God is worshipped terming such behaviour as irrational. Many remain unconvinced with explanations and logic that is provided. The fact is that concept of Ganesh is part of spiritual activity connected with the human brain and forms an important component of the great ‘Spiritual Heritage of India’.

It was Bhrigu Rishi who introduced the concept and recommended worshipping of elephant faced Ganesh in one of the oldest Upanishads of Vedic scriptures called the Tattriya Upanishad. Bhrigu Rishi was compatriot of Manu and both had given Manu Smriti some 10,000 years ago at the end of last ice age in the Vedic state of Brahmavarta. Bhrigu contributed to other scriptures, Samhitas and Rigveda etc. also. The concept of Ganesh still prevails and Lord Ganesh, the prime spiritual God among Hindus is worshipped in many parts of the world and throughout India in different forms.

Let us understand what Bhrigu Rishi meant by advising people to worship the elephant faced Ganesh?

A gist of all Vedic scriptures reveals that Vedic Sanskriti revolves around Cosmic Energies and Human Brain. It always propagates to maintain a relation and contact between the two. It is also called a state of Yoga. These scriptures call upon people to continue to enhance the efficiency of brain and accord most respect to people who work on jobs ‘involving’ the brain. Manu called those ‘Brahmins’ who were educated and performed jobs involving ‘Brahamn’ and asked for maximum respect to be given to them. This concept is not in Vedic Sanskriti alone; every modern society worldwide gives respect and rewards to those who are well educated and are in brain-oriented activities.

Keeping the importance of Brain, and for improving its overall efficiency, Bhrigu Rishi suggested concentrating, meditating and worshipping the elephant faced figure Ganesh, located at the ‘Base of Skull’ of every human as shown in the adjoining model of a ‘Shivalaya’. The base of the skull in our brain, that forms the ‘Elephant Face’ contains some of the most important components of the brain, that play a vital role in regulating the spiritual energies in a human. It analyses information coming to the brain and increases the overall efficiency of the brain. The ears of Elephant are represented by ‘Corpus Callosum’, the bundle of nerve tissues that connect the right and left hemispheres of the brain enabling communications between the two hemispheres, while the trunk is the ‘Medulla’, the neuronal mass that controls involuntary functions like breathing among others, Ek Dant of Elephant is represented by the ‘Pineal Gland’ and other component ‘Pituitary Gland’ are part of Elephant’s face. These four components of brain are all-important in the working of brain, and accordingly emerges the importance accorded to ‘Elephant Face’ in brain.

One survey reveals that every Hindu when asked to tell why Ganesha is Elephant faced knows about the story of Shiva-Parvati-Ganesha. The story goes that once while Shiva was out of his abode, the Shivalaya, his wife Parvati asked her son Ganesh to watch at the gate of house and not allow anyone into the Shivalaya. Obedient Ganesh holds necessary powers to execute his mother’s command and in keeping with them indeed did not allow any body in. When his father ‘Shiva’ desired to enter his own house, Ganesh even stopped him using his powers. Shiva tried in vain and became desperate by Ganesh’s actions. Finally, Shiva had to kill and behead Ganesh to enter his own house. Later, on the insistence of Parvati, Shiva could put only a child elephant’s head on Ganesh’s body to bring him alive. Every Ganesh worshipper knows this story narrated in Puranas, though many do not believe it. The fact, however, remains that story narrates a ‘Spiritual Process’, that takes place in the human brain and brings out the following points:

1) House of Shiva, or Shivalaya, the human skull, has the son ‘Elephant faced’ ‘Ganesh’ located at the entrance or the ‘gate of brain’. Neurologists term it as the ‘Base of Skull’.

2) Ganesh has powers to stop any form of energy from entering the Shivalaya including Shiva himself.

Explaining the story in spiritual or neurological terms, all the informations coming to human brain in the form of energy from 5 different sources that is, seeing, hearing, smelling, touching and tasting (Five Indriyaans) have to pass through the Ganesh located at the entry of the brain or at ‘Base of Skull’. And secondly, a proper analysis of incoming information and sending the same to respective chambers in brain as per their grouping is also the function of Ganesh. Here if Ganesh is not in harmony and stable condition, it may not analyse the incoming information properly. It may err on what it hears, sees or feels. Also it could send the information, which it receives, to a wrong chamber in brain jeopardising the memory of the person who may lose the information all together and thereby confusing the mind further.

Also when an answer is sought from the brain by a human and information has to be picked up from various chambers, it is once again the role of Ganesh that comes to fore. It not only picks the relevant information from various groupings in the brain but also transmits it through speech or writes in a coordinated manner to make others understand the answer. This trait involves the intelligence and consciousness of any human and his Ganesh plays the entire role in the process.

Thus a peaceful, well composed and perfect in harmony Ganesh will improve the efficiency of the brain and help take ‘rational’ and right decisions. As against this a disturbed Ganesh may not enable taking of right decisions. It is in this format that Vedic seers and scriptures have called Ganesh as the prime God, the Karta or a doer, a God that can give us prosperity, happiness and solace by keeping it in well-composed form. It has its relevance and importance and its sciences should be understood for better results.
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##Lord Ganesha: the Path and the Goal – Swami Chinmayananda : Tapovan Prasad, August 1966 : Chinmaya Mission.

The Supreme Reality is unknown; the human equipment cannot directly come in contact with It. Hence various idols are provided in the Hindu mythological literature, to serve as a means to reach the unknown ideal. Idols by themselves are not the Reality, but only pointers, indicating It. Lord Ganesha is one such idol having a mystic significance. Besides being a figurative representation of the Supreme Goal, the idol of Vinayaka itself suggests the means and the method by which one can reach the goal of Perfection indicated therein.

Ganesha is one of the sons of Lord Siva. Siva means auspiciousness or Brahman, and his son, symbolizes the Man-of-Realization.

*Ganesha & Lord Shiva

Lord Ganapati has a human form with a conspicuously large stomach and an elephant’s head, in which one of the tusks is broken. He sits with one leg folded up and at his feet is his vehicle, a tiny rat, sitting amidst an abundance of food, but looking up to him without touching any of it. You may like to read “Significance of Lord Ganesha“

Ganapati is described in the Puranas as having been beheaded and his head replaced with that of an elephant. The idea expressed therein is that man gains profound knowledge and wisdom through study of and reflection on the scriptural truths. Even in common parlance, we figuratively use ‘big-head’ to denote superior Wisdom.

The intellect or the discriminating faculty in man is said to be located in his head. So too, in Ganesha’s supreme wisdom we find two types of intellectual discrimination – the gross and the subtle. The field of discrimination of the gross is the realm of objects and beings of the world which is purely objective; whereas the field of the subtle is the subjective discrimination between the real and the unreal, the infinite and the finite, the imperishable and the perishable, etc.

In Vigneswara, there is a happy combination of these two faculties. This idea has been well brought out by the trunk, which represents the intellect, protruding from out of his head. The trunk of an elephant has the unique capacity of engaging both in gross activities like uprooting a tree and in subtle operations such as picking a needle from the ground.

A Man of Realization is therefore perfect in his discrimination, judgement and application not only in the subtle themes of spiritualism but also in the gross world of materialism. Such a Man of Perfection, who is ever rooted in the Supreme Wisdom, has no longer any likes or dislikes and consequently he is not swayed by agreeable or disagreeable circumstances and environments created by such pairs of opposites. This idea is represented by having one of the two tusks broken.

Even when man does not create any likes and dislikes by himself, the outside world itself provides disturbances like heat and cold, peace and war, birth and death and such other trials and tribulations. But in such a godly man, all these external challenges are easily digested in his large stomach – Vinayaka stomachs them all and has always a keen appetite to live life.

The Lord sits with one leg folded up and with the other resting on the ground which signifies that he is in single pointed concentration upon the Supreme Brahman while he still lives in the world.

At the feet of the Lord is a tiny rat looking up to him asking permission, as it were, to eat the luxurious food spread around him. The rat symbolises the ego or desire. A rat has a small mouth and tiny sharp teeth but, when given freedom, slowly consumes even a barnful of grain. Similarly, one little desire entertained by man can destroy all the wealth and goodness earned by him over many long years. Thus Vishwamitra’s tapas was destroyed by the enchanting damsel Menaka.

*Lord Ganesha & Rat

The rat looking up, therefore, denotes that the desires in the man of perfection are kept under perfect control and all his activities are motivated by his clear discrimination rather than an emotional craving to enjoy the variety of sense objects which are always available in plenty for such men.

There is a common belief that, on the Vinayaka Chaturthi Day, it is inauspicious to see the moon. The Puranic story goes that the moon saw Ganesha riding on his tiny rat and laughed at the ludicrous scene. Hence the moon was condemned and people are forbidden to see her on this day. The moon is the presiding deity of the intellect.

The moon laughing at Ganesha riding on his vehicle indicates the lesser and perverted intellects scoffing at the man of realization who is sincerely endeavouring, with his limited equipment, to convey the message of the transcendent Reality to mankind. He finds it almost impossible to convey his infinite experience through the medium of the limited ego – the perceiver-feeler-thinker.

Hence we find words and deeds of all spiritual masters are peculiar and incomprehensible. But the generation, who mock at such great souls, cease to learn the higher values of life and naturally meet with degradation and disaster.

May Lord Ganesha give us the strength and courage to pursue the path which He has led, and gain the goal which He has reached.
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JAI HIND
JAI BHARATHAM
VANDHE MATHARAM
BHARAT MATHA KI JAI.

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