The Significance of Ganesh in Hindu Culture
A couple of years back I at long last met a person I'd known for countless years, but only on the internet. I noticed that this person always wore the same pendant, an odd figure which has an elephant's head. I wondered why such sophisticated woman was so enamored with what appeared to be a lighthearted plastic figure. When I ultimately was able to ask the woman about this, I was embarrassed with my ignorance. It turned out to be the first time I had heard of the Hindu God Ganesh. To a western eye, Ganesh looks very strange; a practically comical figure that has a man's physique (and a bit of a paunch) an elephant's head, 4 arms (at least), a single tusk, who spends his time riding around on a really small mouse. But Ganesh isn't a clown and to view him to be a joke would be to misunderstand generations of belief and symbolism. He is an important figure in the Hindu faith, where the exact same attributes, viewed in another way, make him the embodiment of intelligence and learning, the patron of scientific discipline and the arts, the remover of obstacles, and therefore prayed to at the beginning of every enterprise as the god of success. It was as such that my friend donned her pendant, not really plastic but very old jade, a talisman meant to carry accomplishment to every one of her ventures. Like many other Hindu statues and talismans, a Ganesha statue represents specific aspirations of a productive life. The Hindu religion is very old and practiced over a wide area, so it isn't really astonishing that there are many tales about the origin of the Hindu gods. In most Hindu customs, Ganesh is the child of Shiva and his wife Parvati. Hindu's recognize 4 main denominations all of who value Parvati and Shiva as significant, but for the Shakta, Parvati, whose name means 'she of the mountains' is a Supreme Being and Shiva is her consort. Legend says it was Parvati who created Ganesh. Parvati is said to value her privacy, so one day when she planned to wash and had no-one around to keep watch for her, Parvati used turmeric paste to produce a boy. The goddess afforded him life and expected him to guard her privacy, and this is the way Ganesh came to be, with no real involvement from his 'father' Shiva. When Shiva came back home he sought to go inside, yet Ganesh followed his Mother's directions and stopped him. There was a battle, and Shiva, who is Lord of Destruction, chopped off the boy's head. When she saw what had happened, Parvati's anger knew no bounds. She demanded that Shiva amend the matter, so he sent his servants to bring back the head from the first living thing they found. The head belonged to an aged elephant they'd seen just as he was about to perish, so Ganesh was brought back to life and given the elephant's head. By association Ganesh is regarded as formidable, affectionate and faithful. A very massive head can only be a signal of knowledge and cleverness, and the enormous ears are used to carefully separate the good and the bad and to listen to the requests of supplicants. Like the elephant Ganesh is dangerous if provoked, but caring when shown kindness. Unlike most elephants, Ganesh has only one tusk. There are numerous tales of the true reason for the shattered tusk; the most famous is that Ganesh was given the job of writing down the legendary account known as the Mahabharata. At some point his pen failed and rather than stopping, Ganesh removed his tusk and carried on, demonstrating he was ready to make a sacrifice to obtain knowledge. Some other, less poetic stories say that the tusk was taken by a villain who stole it to create ivory earrings for beautiful women. It is not always immediately obvious that a Ganesh statue has four (and sometimes more) hands. One is shown in abhaya pose that's held up with palm out and fingers directed upwards, as the second holds a sweet, a symbol of the interior self. And the second two hands will usually contain a goad and a noose, the former being used to prod followers along the path of truth, as the latter signifies the snare of earthly desires. At his feet most statues of Ganesh show a mouse, his traditional steed. The mouse is the symbol of the intellect, roaming in and out, but tamed from the greater power of the whole. Numerous devotees believe the peculiar form of the one tusked elephant headed God mirrors the symbol AUM, a symbol which connotes the primeval sound which was the first thing to be created and from which the entire content of the universe came into being. This is actually the symbolic representation that is commonly employed to symbolize all Hinduism and its beliefs. Even though the Hindu religion has four main sects, all worship Ganesh, in whose representation can be found across India, Nepal and many regions of the Far East. For Buddhists Ganesh appears as the god Vinayaka and is generally shown dancing. His statues appear in Nepal and Tibet. In Japan he is seen as a minor god and young people call on him when looking for success in love. Throughout Malaysia, Java, Bali and Borneo you will find temples to Ganesh as well as in Thailand. There his position as remover of obstacles and patron of the arts mean that there's a service where offerings are made to Ganesh just before any movie or TV series starts shooting. Indonesia is a Muslim country, but even there Ganesh is revered and his image can be found in many Cambodian temples. Yet in spite of spreading across the Eastern world Ganesh was unknown in Europe until fairly recently, though some scholars, commenting on a statue of Ganesh where he's shown with two heads (one of an elephant one of a man) facing in opposite directions have likened the image to that of Janus, the two headed God of the Romans, but no actual link between the two has been identified. Whatever your own take on the gods of the east or of the ancients, their sculpture and related symbolism will always be thought provoking. However we view something, other civilizations usually saw it differently; one reason museum quality statues and other artifacts make fascinating and artistic conversation pieces for any home.
Tags: Belief, Clown, Elephant, Ganesh, ganesh sculpture, ganesh statue, ganesh statues, ganesha sculpture, ganesha statue, Generations, Hindu Culture, Hindu Faith, hindu god, hindu statue, Joke, Nbsp, Paunch, Physique, Sophisticated Woman, Symbolism, Tusk
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