Often the Hindu God Ganesh Signifies Wisdom and SuccessPosted by Briggs Collier on April 25th, 2021 A year or two ago I finally met someone I had known for quite some time, but only on the net. I pointed out that she always wore exactly the same pendant, a strange figure of a man with an elephants head and wondered why this elegant lady would be so attached to what appeared as if a funny plastic figure. When I finally got round to asking her about it, I was ashamed of my ignorance. It had been the 1st time I had heard about the Hindu God Ganesh. To a western eye, Ganesh looks really strange; an almost comical figure who has a man's body (and a bit of a paunch) an elephants head, four hands (at least), only one tusk, and spends his time riding around on an extremely small mouse. But Ganesh is not a clown and to see him as a tale would be to misunderstand centuries of belief and symbolism. He could be highly revered in the Hindu religion, where the same attributes, looked at in a different way, make him the embodiment of wisdom and learning, the patron of science and the arts, the remover of obstacles, and hence called on at the start of every enterprise because the god of success. check here had been as such that my friend wore her pendant, not plastic but early jade, a talisman designed to bring success to each one of her ventures. The Hindu religion is quite old and practiced over a wide area, so that it isn't surprising that there are many stories concerning the origin of the Hindu gods. In most Hindu traditions, Ganesh may be the son of Shiva and his wife Parvati. Hindu's recognize four major denominations all of whom regard Parvati and Shiva as important, but for the Shakta, Parvati, whose name means 'she of the mountains' may be the Supreme Being and Shiva is her consort. It was Parvati who created Ganesh. Parvati is said to value her privacy, so one day when she wished to bathe and had no-one around to keep watch out for her, Parvati used turmeric paste to make a boy. She gave him life and asked him to be sure to guard her privacy, which is how Ganesh was born, without the real intervention from his 'father' Shiva. When Shiva returned home he wished to go inside, but Ganesh followed his Mother's instructions and stopped him. There was a battle, and Shiva, who's Lord of Destruction, cut off the boy's head. When Additional info saw what had happened, Parvati's anger knew no bounds. She demanded that Shiva amend the situation, so he sent his servants to create back the head of the first living thing they found. The head belonged to an elderly elephant that they had found in the same way he was about to die, so Ganesh was cut back to life and given the elephant's head. By association Ganesh is regarded as strong, affectionate and loyal. Such a large head can only be a sign of wisdom and intelligence, while the huge ears are used to carefully separate the good and the bad also to listen to the requests of supplicants. Like the elephant Ganesh is powerful if provoked, but loving when shown kindness. Unlike most elephants, Ganesh has only one tusk. There are many stories of the reason behind the broken tusk; the most used is that Ganesh was presented with the job of recording the epic tale known as the Mahabharata. At one point his pen failed and rather than stop, Ganesh removed his tusk and carried on, showing he was ready to make a sacrifice to acquire knowledge. Other, less poetic stories say that the tusk was removed by a villain who stole it to make ivory earrings for beautiful ladies. It isn't always immediately obvious that statues of Ganesh have four (and sometimes more) hands. One is usually shown in abhaya pose that's held up with palm out and fingers pointing upwards, while the second holds a sweet, symbolic of the inner self. The other two hands will usually contain a goad and a noose, the former used to prod followers along the path of truth, as the latter represents 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, wandering in and out, but tamed by the greater power of the whole. Many devotees believe that the strange shape of the one tusked elephant headed God mirrors the symbol AUM, a symbol which represents the primeval sound which was first thing to be created and from which all of those other universe arose. This is actually the symbol which is commonly used to represent most of Hinduism and its beliefs. Even though Hindu religion has four main denominations, all worship Ganesh, whose image can be found across India, Nepal and many areas of the Far East. For Buddhists, Ganesh appears as the god Vinayaka and is usually shown dancing. His statues appear in Nepal and Tibet. In Japan he is seen as a minor god and teenagers call on him when looking for success in love. Throughout Malaysia, Java, Bali and Borneo there are temples to Ganesh and in Thailand his position as remover of obstacles and patron of the arts mean that there exists a ceremony where offerings are created to Ganesh 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 despite spreading over the Eastern world Ganesh was unknown in Europe until relatively recently, while some scholars, commenting on a statue of Ganesh where he is shown with two heads (one of an elephant one of a guy) facing in opposite directions have likened the image compared to that of Janus, both headed God of the Romans, but no actual link between your two has been found.Like it? 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