Happy Ganesh Chaturthi!

September 6^th – 7^th, 2024 kicks off a birthday party for the Hindu god Ganesh, initiating ten days of celebrations that reach from India to across the world.

Festivities include devotional rites, song, dance, floral offerings, and a fast followed by feasting on Ganesh’s favourite dishes. Elaborate processionals carry garlanded clay Ganesh statues, both colossal and small, through the streets, and into the nearest body of water where these statues dissolve. This ritual recognizes impermanence, and is believed to remove obstacles for whoever makes this offering.

Despite the festivities in his name, pot-bellied, good-natured Ganesh is no mere party animal. He assists in human effort and grants passage to all the Gods.

Reverent Affection

From a multiverse of 330 million Hindu gods, Ganesh is instantly recognizable to devotees and non-Hindus alike. It isn’t disrespectful to liken his appeal to our love for elephants: in India, they’re considered earthly incarnations of this deity. Ironically, it’s Ganesh’s elephant attributes that make him relatable to human nature.

We behold the elephant with awe: its piercing eyes seem to discern our character and read our intentions. A marvel of cognitive ability, emotional depth and complex communication – including infrasound – the elephant is wise beyond words. As the elephant has the largest brain of any land animal, Ganesh is the God of intellect and knowledge. His ears symbolize that listening is the path to wisdom.

Ganesha’s persona is affable, but he’s in command. Chaturthi commemorates when his father, Lord Shiva, declared Ganesh’s central importance. Ganesh must be honoured before the performance of rituals for any other Hindu deity. Only then will Ganesh open the way for prayers to reach the Gods, just as an elephant clears vegetation and tramples a path for others to follow. Before starting any new enterprise, it’s essential to honour The Remover of Obstacles.

Bumpy Beginnings

Ganesh’s journey began with a rough start: his appearance results from a repaired misfortune. How a divine boy got an elephant’s head, I’ll leave for you to investigate. Suffice to say, his first meeting with Lord Shiva got off on the wrong foot. Nevertheless, Ganesh proudly wears Shiva’s trident symbol on his forehead. As a baby, Ganesh is depicted happily crawling on the floor, or seated with his parents as part of a loving family. According to one version of his story, remember the next time you add turmeric to a dish, Ganesh was sculpted from the spice before given the breath of life by his mother, the goddess Parvati.

Super Stenographer

The adult Ganesh sports a broken tusk – an unseemly defect for a god – but this symbolizes how sacrifice is required to create something of value, such as the epic poem The Mahabharata. Volunteering as secretary to the sage Maharishi Vyasa, Ganesh was so dedicated to this task that he broke off a tusk to dip into ink, after his quill failed. In one sitting, he transcribed Vyasa’s dictation, creating the longest poem in existence, consisting of 1.8 million words. Today, you can read The Mahabharata, time willing – a compendium of myth, history and philosophy. It’s estimated to have taken over 600 years to compose. Ganesh’s mammoth achievement (pun intended) conveys the perseverance needed to complete a worthy project.

Ganesh is also The Destroyer of Vanity. As Maharishi Vyasa is revered as the epic’s author, Ganesh as scribe, is the role model for unselfish teamwork.

 Mighty Mouse Taxi

When not writing or pondering manuscripts, Ganesh finds time to dance, nosh on desserts and travel with his BFF, Mooshika the Mouse. This wee beastie sits at Ganesh’s feet, offering Laddus to share: a sweet made from chickpea flour, sugar and clarified butter. Their improbable friendship is the magic of harmonized opposites. Mooshika was once a demon running amok, but after Ganesh spared his life, Mooshika agreed to be transformed into a mouse to serve as a vehicle and miraculously carry Ganesh wherever he needed to go. This tale can be interpreted as a children’s story – such as “Ganesh and The Little Mouse” by Toronto author Anjali Joshi- or as a metaphor for mastering the mind.

The scurrying mouse mind is reactive, instinctive and driven by hunger and fear. However, if the mouse mind – or desire- is tamed by wisdom, it becomes elevated and propels intellectual curiosity. In tandem, Ganesh and Mooshika are free to travel everywhere.

Dance Like Nobody’s Watching

From a non-Hindu’s perspective, Ganesh and Mooshika’s antics might recall Disney animations, such as Dumbo’s friendship with Timothy Q. Mouse. An actual cartoon portrayal is “Bal Ganesh (2017) in which the child Ganesh and Mooshika go Bollywood with a dance troop of mice. 

The dance is delightful, but note that Ganesh keeps time with a child’s version of Shiva’s Drum. According to Hinduism, Ganesh indeed emulates his father’s Dance of Creation and Destruction; a variation of the dance of The Destroyer of Worlds described in The Bhagavad-Gita, as quoted by Physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, in reference to the atomic bomb. Ganesh, in adult form with four-to-sixteen arms, wields an axe, sword, spear, bow, arrow, club, noose, hammer and mace. Should we be alarmed?

These weapons symbolize agents of change. Ganesh plays Shiva’s Drum to mark the passage of time; the rhythm of all that is transitory. The Dance of Creation is consistent with Ganesh’s blessings. The Dance of Destruction ushers out what is exhausted so the new can begin, eradicating what stands in the way of progress. These inseparable dances are an exercise in non-duality. What is positive or negative change is a matter of universal perspective.

To achieve our goals, we must change our circumstances, beginning with identifying and shifting the obstacles within. There is joy in transformation and the rewards of success. Ganesh, The Lord of Good Fortune, opens the way for all who love him.

About the Author:

Gamesha Artwork and this text is Copyright 2024 Lisa Iris. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted with written permission from Crystalwind.ca and Antonio DeLiberato Exclusive Worldwide agents for Ganesha by Lisa Iris.
Lisa Iris is an artist and proprietress of MYTHOS Art and Counselling 289 High St., Fort Erie, ON. Her artwork is represented exclusively by crystalwind.ca and is featured in The Crystal Wind Oracle by Antonio DeLiberato.
Lisa enjoys opening her home to kindred spirits for conversation and for making magic happen.

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