All undretakings start with a prayer to Lord Ganesha. This is to ensure that the work so undertaken is successfully completed without any hassle. Lord Ganesha is the God who removes all obstacles. He is called Vighneshwara,the Remover of all obstacles. Is this a mere superstition, or has it any scientific basis for such a belief? It is a re-statement of the popular saying,' Work is worship'. If the work we take up is done with all earnestness and sincerity,as if that is a worship to god, can any so-called obstacle stop it? With perseverence and fortitude, tenacity and faith, any sustained effort has the capacity to remove any or all obstacles that threaten to stall an undertaking. Ganesha has the head of an elephant. It looks rediculous for the ignorant, but symbolically He is a realised Man of Perfection, a spiritual seeker and the qualities of head and heart that take us to Godhood. Every limb of His body conveys a meaning, a message for the seekers in us. Look at His big head that represents vast Knowledge, an intellectual acuemen necessary to unravel the depths of the scriptures - the Vedanta. The very first requirement of a seeker is to listen(Sravanam)to the Sastras and the Guru. This is symbolically represented in Ganesha as having very big ears. The two tusks that project on either side of the trunk represents the two pairs of opposites that we encounter in this world; opposites like to do or not to do, to do this way or that way, whether it brings success or failure, happiness or sorrow,praise or censure, loss or gain,honour or dis-honour, likes or dis-likes and so on and so forth. The trunk draws a line between these pairs and selects the right path to follow. In other words,it represents the discriminative(Viveka)faculty in us which should guide a seeker on to a spiritual path. This faculty of discrimination should be both at the grosser level of the outside world as well as the subtler realms of the inner personality layer. And we all know that the trunk of an elephant is both gross and subtle-gross to uproot a big tree and subtle enough to pick up a small coin on the ground. Lord Ganesha has a very wide mouth,a big belly (Lambodara), and an un-satiable hunger that can eat up anything and everything.There is a mythological story of Kubera, the God of Wealth being humbled by Ganesha when the former invited Ganesha for lunch but could not even give Him sufficient breakfast. Finally, when Kubera accepted defeat,Ganesha's mother, Devi Parvathi,gave her son a Tulasi leaf which satiated all His appetite. The underlying significance of this story is that desire for material things is insatiable; the more one has, the more he wants. Is there anyone in the world who is completely satisfied with his material demands and says, "thus far ,and no further." The belly of Ganesha is ever expanding and it can take up anything. Only spiritual knowledge completes a man and makes him full. This is represented bu the Tulasi leaf given by Parvathi. In His intelligence,Ganesha is par-excellance. Do you not know the story of Ganesha,who, instead of going round the world,went round His parents and succeeded. Such a God has an insignificant mouse as His Vahana! The mouse is notorious in eating up an entire barn of rice once it is let in. Similarly, Desire is very dangerous to a spiritual seeker. Like the mouse,it can eat up all the merits of a seeker. One has to break his Ego for Realisation. He has to knock it down continuously. That is why when we go to Ganesha, we knock down our forehead with both the fists and do catch up the ears and surrender. In short,Lord Ganesha represents all that a spiritual seeker should strive for to fulfil the purpose of human birth. May Lord Ganesha make us worthy of His grace and give us the necessary qualities to understand, appreciate and be one with HIM !
The advent of Lord Krishna on the earth - as the eighth and Purna Avatara of the Supreme Being,Vishnu. The important symbolic significance is the birth or awakening of God-consciousness in the prison of our heart which is well fortified by the Ego with all evil,Asuric and demoanic tendencies and as such inaccessible for any divine or sublime thought. Krishna was born in such a prison. He had to fight with many evil tendencies, the chief being Kamsa. It is not that easy to fight with one's own evil habits. It requires steadfastness, fortitude, courage and a will to realise that Truth. Let the birth of this Truth destroy its close relative(Mama),the Ego that masqurades as the real Self and holds as captives the very parents of the Lord (the means of attaining divinity) in his impregnable fort. May this bring peace and prosperity, and lead us on towards Him.
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