Thursday, July 8, 2010

The Greatness Of Lord Ganesha - Lord Of Wisdom And Success

Our concept of ‘ishtadeiva’ encourages us to worship God through our favourite deity or avathara, but every Hindu will worship the elephant headed Vinayagar, who is often lovingly referred to as ‘Pillayar’. Hence, He is the most powerful unifying force in Hinduism and is even claimed to be ‘in charge of Hinduism’.

In fact, He is worshipped in some form or other in many parts of the world and is the most popular object of worship in Maharashtra state in India. First worship is always to Vinayagar, who is propitiated first and foremost even in the celestial world. He exists in physical form with elephant head and trunk in the astral and celestial worlds.

Among all God forms, Vinayagar best manifest AUM the pranava in both form and sound. An elephant roar resembles AUM, which is the primary sound of creation which originated from sound (not light). Vinayagar’s trunk is naadam (sound) and its curled tip is bindu (energy).

Vinayagar is revered as the Lord of wisdom, success and memory for many reasons – large brain and ears (hearing everything), small eyes (discrimination) etc. He is a total ‘brahmachari’ but His divine intellect (buddhi) and success (siddhi) are sometimes portrayed as His two ‘wives’. (This is a misnomer).

Vinayagar sits at the moolathara chakra (spiritual centre) at the lower most part of our spine and gradually propels our kundalini energy upwards towards the manipura chakra higher up. He is the 1st step in kundalini yoga.

He knows best our past karmas and hence guides us accordingly. He is also the guardian and custodian of the gravitational force and so most concerned with our worldly life, creating obstacles when we are wrong, and removing obstacles when we are on the right path. Even Lord Muruga was unable to win Valli over till He had propitiated His elder brother Vinayagar, who then appeared (as the pranava) to Valli in the elephant form.

Vinayagar’s wisdom is seen in several episodes. In the contest for the fruit of wisdom (jnanapalam). While Muruga raced away on His peacock round the universe, Vinayagar calmly circumambulated His parents (Siva and Parvathi) claiming the entire universe to be in them and thus won the fruit of wisdom.

He teaches that no physical sacrifice is too great for destroying evil as well as for propagating spiritual knowledge and dharma. For the former He used His right tusk as a weapon to subdue Mausika the mouse-headed demon. For the latter He broke His right tusk to complete writing the Mahabharatha (the greatest epic of all time) while it was dictated by Sage Veda Vyasa (in 8800 verses) who had found Vinayagar to be the most qualified ONE to write the epic.

Vinayagar’s five (5) shaktis are love and compassion for family, for relatives and friends, for culture and discipline, for dharma, and for charity.

Lord of Wisdom and Success - Dr. K. Dharmaratnam, Klang

қαvї - கவி

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