Lord Ganesha

Lord Ganesha

The foremost presiding Godhead

                                                                                                                      -Dr. Satya Pal Singh

             Almost all the religions, all over the world have faith in the very existence of the God and have accepted Him as the creator, controller and also the dissolver of the universe.  The Supreme Power has been designated or addressed with various names.  However, in the history of the world, in the ancient most literary document or literary record, the poetic sacred text, the Vedas, the central or prime name assigned to the Godhead is said to be Om.  All the seers and sages, the wise men since thousands, nay millions of years, have been reciting and repeating the same.  All the scriptures, philosophies say Upnishads, and the like begin with Om or the sacred pharse “ atha”  (let now, henceforth).  The Om of the Vedic, people, later of Hindus turned into Amen in Christians, Amin in Islamic people.  Origin of speech or language, according to Skanda Purana, is om as the root syllable (akshara – undecayable i.e. eternal).  In Om (Aum) the combination of akāra, ukāra, makāra and half unit of nasal sound make the speech – world (lingual creation) accomplished.  A is the first letter of Om,( AUM ).  In the akāra, the whole speech (the language) is accomplished as – akāra indeed is all the speech (Taittiriya – Aranyaka).

             Since about 2000 years in the past the tradition of creating idols has begun.  Thereafter, it has taken even the concrete form of the temples.  It was easy to carve idols of incarnations, leaders of the ages (Yugapurusha), the great personalities, simply due to the details available about them in the histories, puranas and stories – their physical, physiognomical information to some measures.  But when it came to formulate the image or idol of that divine personality who is the controller of the universe, omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient but formless, then our great thinkers, great intellectuals – the sculturers, on the basis of prime name Om of the lord, visualizing its form carved the idol – whose name was kept as Ganesha – Ganaraya – that too, undoubtedly for the sake of concrete form – that of Ganapati  – conceived as the most worshipworthy Godhead.  Untoubtedly, he was accepted as a symbol, a mark, a token.   

                He was regarded as the bestower of knowledge and intellect, because whole knowledge of the universe, including the speech, the language and its words and meaning - all have been issued forth from the Supreme godhead. According to Yoga Shashtra “ he is the Guru, of all the ancient (teachers) not being obstructed by the Time.”  The Lord indeed is, thus, the teacher of teachers – the first and foremost of the man.

 He is reckoned also as Ganesha and Ganapati because the word, is the noun and is derived from the root Gan – in the sense of counting, grouping, categorizing that forms the word Gan.  Ganesha and Ganapati means he who is the master (owner) of all animate and inanimate in the creation.  Also the controller, the guardian of all. 

               Ganesha is the creator of happiness and is the destroyer of unhappiness and misery.  The divine Lord, who, for the welfare of human race, has offered a beautiful, coherent, full of noble intention a scientific universe, fully equipped in every respect  - also granted us the knowledge for knowing it and has provided freedom to carry out our actions.  Who could indeed then be superior to Him as the creator of happiness and destroyer of pain and afflictions ?

            Ganapati, is the remover of all the obstacles and hindrances.  Therefore, His scientific image or idol echoes the grand one message – Oh ! people of the world, if you wish to remove obstructions, then behold me, look at me, stare at my bright, shining, open eyes, those see far far in the distance; look into the big ears that can hear from a pretty long distance; also have a glance at my amazing nose whose smelling power is simply extra ordinary – not only can it smell the present but also the future.  In fact it has already smelt it.  My memory ! is just like that of the elephant, is rather comparable to the Computer itself.  My big belly ! is the symbol of justice, equality and unity.  It is also the storehouse of information which is sent to concerned on need to know basic.  My knowledge is also like that of millions of the suns.

              Dear devotees of the Lord Ganesha ! Walk on the ideals of the Lord Ganapati, acquire the knowledge, and increase your memory by proper, adequate and sumptuous diet and capacity to carry out all the activities and behaviour.  Keep healthy your eyes, ears and nose all the while and keep them open all the time.  Keep walking on the path of justice, equality and unity – the hindrances would wither away.  And above all the society would certainly remain cultured, beautiful and also would be maintained well guarded or protected.

                                                                                                            --drsinghsp@yahoo.co.in