5 WEEK OLD BABY

Lord of Categories
Ganapati or Genesha, the Lord of Categories: All that can be counted or comprehended is a category (gana). The principle of all the classifications through which the relations between different orders of things, between the macrocosm and the microcosm, can be understood is called the lord-of-categories (Ganapati).

I bow to you, lord of categories. You alone are the visible form of the principle. You alone are the creator, you alone are the sustainer, you alone are the destroyer, you alone are unmistakably the Principle-of-All (Brahma), the true Self. (Ganesha Upanishad)

Ganesha or Ganapati is an extremely popular God in India. He is called Vighneshvara or Vighnaharta, the Lord of and destroyer of obstacles. People mostly worship Him asking for siddhi, success in undertakings, and buddhi, intelligence. He is worshipped before any venture is started. He is also the God of education, knowledge and wisdom, literature, and the fine arts.

Ganesha is also one of the five Gods the worship of whom was popularised by Adi Shankaracharya; the other four are Vishnu, Shiva, Devi and Surya. The worship of these five deities is called the pancAyatana pUjA. In some cases, a sixth God, Skanda is also worshipped.

Philosophical Significance of Ganesha's form
Ganesha's elephantine head and human body are explained as follows in the Mudgala Purana:

Ganesha's human body representing 'tvam', His elephantine countenance representing 'tat' and their joining together signifies the nondifference of 'tvam' (You) and 'tat' (Brahman). Thus, the body of Ganesha is the visible representation of the highest reality, Brahman, realised from 'tat tvam asi'.

Another explanation has it that Ganesha's head signifies Atman the Highest Reality, while the body below the neck represents mAyA, the principle of phenomenal existence. The Atman's involvement with the world is characterised by the assumption of mind and speech.

Ganesha's ears, which appear like large winnowing baskets, have a philosophical significance too. Just as one uses a winnowing basket to separate grains from dirt, one must use discrimination (viveka) to separate the real (Brahman) from the unreal (mAyA) in life. Here the grains stand for Brahman and the dirt signifies mAyA. Or, Ganesha's ears indicate that such discrimination between Brahman and mAyA is to be gained by taking recourse to SravaNa or hearing. Listening to the scriptures from a Guru will lead to proper discrimination and Brahman realisation.


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Ganesha Legends
Perhaps the most popular story regarding Ganesha's origin is the one derived from the Shiva Purana. Mother Parvati once wanted to take a bath and created a boy from the dirt of Her own body, asking him to stand as a guard outside while She bathed. In the meantime Lord Shiva returned home to find a stranger at His door, preventing Him from entering. In anger, Shiva cut off the boy's head, upon which Parvati was stricken with great grief. In order to console Her, Shiva sent out His troops (gaNa) to fetch the head of anyone found sleeping with his head pointing to the north. They found an elephant sleeping thus and brought back its head.

Shiva then attached the elephantine head to the body of the boy and revived him. He named the boy Ganapati or commander of His troops, and granted Him a boon that anyone would have to worship Him (Ganesha) before beginning any undertaking.

The Brahma vaivarta Purana narrates a different story regarding the origin of Ganapati. Shiva instructed Parvati, who wanted to have a son, to observe the puNyaka vrata for a year to propitiate Vishnu.

O Beautiful Goddess! Perform the worship of Hari by observing the punyaka vrata for a year. The Lord of Gopikas, the Lord of all creatures, Krishna Himself will be born as your son, as a result of the vrata.

On completion of the vrata by Parvati, it was announced that Krishna would incarnate Himself as Her son in every kalpa. Accordingly, Krishna was born as a charming infant, delighting Parvati who celebrated the event with great enthusiasm.

All the Gods arrived to have a look at the baby. But Shani, the son of Surya, did not look at him and stared at the ground instead. Upon Parvati's questioning regarding his behaviour, Shani said that his look would harm the baby. Parvati, however, insisted that he should look at the baby. In deference to Her wish Shani cast his eyes on the baby. Due to his malevolent glance, the baby's head was severed and flew to Goloka, the abode of Krishna. Parvati and all the Gods assembled there, including Shiva, were grief-stricken.

Thereupon, Vishnu mounted Garuda and rushed to the banks of the Pushpa-bhadra river and brought back the head of a young elephant. The head of the elephant was joined with the headless body of Parvati's son, reviving him. All the Gods blessed Ganesha and wished Him power and prosperity. Vishnu blessed Ganesha thus:

Ganesha, the popular hindu elephant-god.

When one day the godess Parvati was bathing, she scrubbed some dirt off her arms and starting playing with it, molding it into the shape of a little boy. Parvati brought the boy to life and told it to go outside and keep watch so that no one would disturb her in taking a bath. When a short while later Shiva (the god) came by, the boy Ganesha stopped him from going in. Enraged, Shiva cut off the boy's head and entered anyway. When Parvati made clear to her husband that he had just killed his own son, Shiva felt regretful and went into the forest. When he came across a mother- and baby-elephant, he killed the latter and cut off its head, putting it on top of the headless boy's body upon return and bringing him back to life.

In my opinion one of the extraordinary aspects of this story was that (according to our tour-guide of that day, who happened to also be named Shiva) after this whole history, Ganesha apparently didn't care any resentment towards Shiva.

In most Ganesha-statues you'll see the trunk curling towards the left-hand side, when it curls towards the right-hand side it indicates that the Ganesha depicted is contemptuous -- which in turn means you'll need to bring it a lot of offerings to keep it content. Note that on this statue, Ganesha's trunk is broken off (probably damage inflicted by the invaders). The broken-off tusk however, is a feature that you'll see in a lot of Ganesha images, if you look closely you'll see that he's holding the broken-off part of the tusk in his lower right hand (although I forgot what the exact meaning of this is).