There is a big, beautiful and elegant Ganesha’s picture hanging in the front wall as you enter our Yoga studio. Why the large elephant-headed god’s picture with his pot belly and pudgy figure is placed in a Yoga studio, instead of shining mirrors? Either being multi-culturally grown Malaysians, who got accustomed to diverse religious figures, or just plainly out of indifference, people rarely question me about it and I don’t elaborate it either when no one asks. But, certainly I didn’t put his picture there for no reason or just as a decoration pieces.
Ganesha, in Hinduism, is the guardian deity of Yoga, meditation and astrology, of the subjects I happened to study simultaneously over the past decades. When I began my soul searching, I found myself naturally drawn to all the three, one by one, because they seemed to be connected each other. So I studied them with particular interest ever since I started my journey in late 80’s. But as a Korean origin, I never knew or heard of him before, not until, my then-boy friend hubby gave me a present, a small and beautiful bronze Ganesha statue, that occupies the corner of our home alter till now. I learned of this lovely deity’s many crazy antics from Hindu mythology afterward. Since then, he occupied a special place in my heart and I thought it would be most appropriate to share some of his myths with my yoga students as an opening to the Yoga story series.
Ganesha is a master of Yoga despite of his round figure. He has very flexible body, and brilliant and expansive mind, who is a renowned Vedic scholar that wrote the great Indian epic Mahabharata. He is also the remover of obstacles, and no Hindu prayer or ritual, especially for planetary propitiation, may commence without a prayer to Ganesha. He is generous and easy to please who grants every wishes of his devotees when asked with sincere and genuine hearts. He gives progeny to the childless, he gives knowledge to the seeker, and prosperity to those who desire material gains. The sheer size and power of the elephant, who can remove any obstacle on his path, makes Ganesha the god who removes all obstacles from the paths of his devotees.
Ganesha is the first son of Shiva and Parvati, one of the most powerful gods in the Hindu Trinity pantheon and his equally almighty goddess wife. How then, Ganesha ended up with an elephant head, despite being a prince to the couple who had no match in the entire universe with their combined beauty, power, and strength? As the story goes;
“One day, as the goddess was going for her bath, she rubbed oil and dust from her body and created a young boy, into whom she infused life. Parvati told him that he was her son and asked him to keep watch while she went to bathe. Soon after, Shiva came to see his wife, but the boy would not let him in. He cut off the boy’s head in anger. Parvati, when she saw her headless son, was furious and threatened to destroy the heavens and earth, for she was also Shakti, the Ultimate Power. To pacify her, Shiva order his army of ganas (dwarfs) to bring the head of the first living being with his head to the north, which is the auspicious direction associated with wisdom. The first living being they met was an elephant sleeping with its head to the north. They brought back the animal’s head, which Shiva placed on the severed body. Parvati was overjoyed and named her son Ganesha or Ganapati, Lord of the Ganas.”
Ganesha is the most beloved of all the Hindu deities, for he combines in himself the elephant, a sacred and much-loved animal that is gentle and kind even as he is large and strong. There are amusing stories who loves with all things that are sweet, especially modaka, the sweet Indian desert, customarily offered by his devotees during Puja (Hindu prayer session).
“On one of his exploits, Ganesha actually consumed so many sweet cakes that his belly was full to bursting. He decided it was time to head home and relax his stuffed belly, so he hopped on his trusty “steed,” a tiny mouse. Because the mouse is such a small vehicle, Ganesha has to practice extraordinary balance to keep his hulking frame on the erratic creature (remember he is the master of yoga).
The pair was cruising smoothly along when a very long cobra slithered onto their path and frightened the mouse. The mouse darted one way and Ganesha fell the other. When he hit the ground, his overstuffed belly exploded and sweet cakes rained everywhere. This greatly perturbed Ganesha, who was upset not only by the cobra’s disruption of his ride, but at the loss of sweet fullness of his tummy. He walked around, collecting all the sweet cakes and stuffed them one by one, back into his belly. Then, he snatched up the cobra and tied it around his waist to cinch it shut. All the while, the moon, Chandra, was watching the extravaganza, and couldn’t help exploding into laughter at Ganesha’s crazy antics.
Ganesha got angry and broke off a piece of his tusk and threw it at the moon, cursing him to stop shining. So there was no more night and the sun shone incessantly night and day. With no night, no dawn, and no dusk, love was lost to the world. There was no place for romance, and men and gods alike became scorched and hopeless upon the hot earth. So the gods pleaded with Ganesha to take back his curse. Ganesha relented, but limited the moon’s shining to alternate fortnights, which is why the moon waxes and wanes. This, he decided, would be a permanent lesson for the moon so it would remember never to laugh at him again.”
Thus, we too, might be tempted to just laugh or smile after hearing of Ganesha’s episode with the moon, but, its myth is more than just a funny story that which carries profound symbols in it.
His corpulent body reminds us that outward appearance has nothing to do with inner beauty, with his huge belly representing his ability to swallow the sorrows of the universe. As the elephant is large yet, gentle, Ganesha represents the importance of right over might.
The head of the elephant is symbolic of his superior intelligence: wisdom and the strength of the mind, and the ability to remove obstacles. His large ears sift out the bad, so that only the truth can be heard. His broken tusk in his hand symbolizes knowledge, for he used it to write the Mahabharata.
The snake around his waist symbolizes cosmic energy (shushuma) that is dormant at the base of our spine, which can be awakened by balancing the sun (pingala nadi, or yang in Chinese) and the moon (ida nadi, yin) energies through yoga. The noose represents worldly attachments, which are like a noose around one’s neck. The modaka is reminiscent of the sweetness of one’s inner self, while Ganesha’s vehicle mouse, the tiny animal represents the equal importance of big and small people to God. Sometimes he holds rosary beads, a reminder of the importance of prayer.
Now, when you know what Ganesha is all about, how can you not love and adore him, even if you are not a Hindu? Thus, I pay my respect to him whenever I caught his eyes peeping while I conduct the yoga classes. Though I’m not a Hindu, but more of a student of Yoga from a different race, I don’t think it matters to him. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have blessed my life to thread solely along the paths of Yoga. I can’t imagine myself what would have become have I not entered in this path…I feel truly blessed to have known him, of whom I commute with the prayer I learned from my astrology teacher,
Vakratunda maha kaya, surya koti samaprabha, Nirvighnam Kurume deva sarva Karyeshu sarvada.
(You of the twisted trunk and massive body, With the dazzle and light of a million suns: Lead me on a path that has no obstacles or hindrances, Clearing the way in all that I do, ever, always.)
So next time when you come into the studio or engage yourself in the practice of yoga, meditation or spiritual study, it will be helpful to remember Ganesha’s story, to hold your balancing of body, mind and spirit in joyous, relaxed but delicate manner with focus. Or else, the mouse will topple you over sideways to become a laughing stock to the moon, and lose all sweetness and love in life… If any of you want to learn the melody of how to sing Ganesha’s prayer, let me know, I can easily teach you during the yoga class. I taught it to the yoga kids, and they just love it immediately…
