Ganesha

Ganesha acquired his head through varying methods in different stories. In one, Shiva decapitated him because Ganesha refused to allow him to enter the bath while Parvati was bathing. Shiva had to give him the new head to placate his wife. In another version, Parvati showed the child off to Shiva, whose face burned his head to ashes, which Brahma told Shiva to replace with the first head he could find--in this case, that of an elephant. The lack of a second tusk is explained by a different myth. An avatar of Vishnu, Parashurama, once went to visit Shiva but the way was blocked by Ganesha. Parasurama threw his axe at him and Ganesha, knowing the axe had been given to him by Shiva, allowed it cut off one of his tusks.

Ganesha is known as Aumkar, because his body mirrors the shape of the Aum, the elephant god is thus seen as the embodiment of the cosmos. His elephantine head symbolizes the intelligence and beatitude of the elephant, powerful, yet gentle. His vehicle is a mouse or rat , and this symbolizes the intellect, small enough to find out any secret in the most remote of places. It also signifies his humility, that he espouses the company of one of the smaller creatures.

He is the God of luck and fortune, of doorways, of the household, and of writing, and is said to have written the Mahabharata with his broken left tusk at the dictation of the Sage Vyasa. He is the remover of obstacles, and as such it is normal to invoke him before the undertaking of any task with such incantations as "Aum Shri Ganeshaya Namah," (hail the name of Ganesha) or similar.

In India, especially in the state of Maharashtra, there is an important festival honoring Ganesha. It is celebrated for ten days starting from Ganesh Chaturthi. This was introduced by Balgangadhar Tilak as a means of promoting nationalist sentiment when India was ruled by the British. This festival is celebrated and in culminates on the day of Anant Chaturdashi when the idol of Lord Ganesha is immersed into the most convenient water body. e.g. in Bombay the idols are immersed in the Arabian Sea. In Pune the idols are immersed in the Mula-Mutha river.

Ganesh is also known by other names. such as Ganapati (Lord of the Ganas, a race of dwarf beings), Gajanana (elephant face), Vinayaka and Ayyappa.

In a study published in 1972, Dr. Lokesh Chandra traced the worship of Gaṇeśa in Japan back to 806.

External sites:

• http://hinduism.about.com/library/weekly/aa083000a.htm
• http://www.sivanandadlshq.org/religions/ganesh.htm

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