GANESHA CHATURTHI: Some Underlying Spiritual Teachings

Hari Warrier

Ganesha Chaturthi is observed as the birthday of Lord Ganesha, the elephant-headed god with the engaging smile and a potbelly. 

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The story is a familiar one.

Parvathi, the wife of Shiva, was upset that her husband would keep popping up whenever she took a bath. She tried to get people to guard the door, but who would dare stop the lord of the realm? At her wit’s end, Parvathi decided that what she needed was someone who owed his existence and allegiance to her and her alone.

So from the sweat and dirt on her body, she fashioned the mud figurine of a boy, and breathed life into him. This boy she assigned the task of guarding the door while she bathed.

The essence of the story is that Shiva sauntered in as usual, was soundly repelled by the boy, and retreated nonplussed. No matter whom he sent to chase the boy away, everyone returned, thoroughly beaten up.

The skirmish develops into a war, and eventually the boy is slain. The mother is incensed, and releases her anger to destroy the world. Brahma brokers a truce, and Parvathi spells out her conditions: Restore my son’s life, give him a position in the divine pantheon, decree that he shall be worshipped before all other devas. The conditions are accepted, but the boy’s head cannot be found. He is bestowed the head of an elephant, and given the name Ganesha, and the leadership of the hordes of Shiva called Bhoota Gana. All is well that ends well.

This is highly satisfactory as a story, but bears reflection for the esoteric student.

Why, for instance, would Parvathi, the embodiment of Shakti, a celestial being, need a BATH? What on earth made her so dirty that she could actually fashion a statue out of her sweat and grime? If she had the power to threaten destruction to the entire creation, why on earth could she not keep her husband out of her bathroom? And how do celestial beings be man and wife — they are disembodied beings. And lastly, how can an elephant head sit on the neck of a little boy?

Good questions, right?

So obviously there is more to this story than what we are told.

To start with, Shiva is the will or power aspect of the Trinity, and represents the yang or Purusha principle in this narrative. Parvathi or Shakti represents the yin, the Prakriti. Purusha signifies the Spirit, and Prakriti, matter. 

On another level, Shiva is known as the Adi Guru or the first guru, and Parvathi the disciple, renowned for her bhakti towards Shiva and receiving teachings from Shiva. The yin bhakti of the disciple unerringly draws the yang of the Teacher, the Guru, towards her. The “bath” of Parvathi denotes the divine downpour as she is blissfully engrossed in meditation. 

In this narrative, as the Shiva energy descends down the sushumna, it encounters the ego — what we call Jivatma or the Incarnate Soul — and the disciple, lost in meditation, is unaware of this encounter. 

The ego, completely in the grip of Maya, knows itself as the spawn of the mother aspect, and is ignorant of his own true nature and the identity of his father. Naturally, he gets into a showdown with the interloper Shiva. After all, a sheath cannot contain two swords.

The Devas combine to help Shiva vanquish the boy. At this point, the boy does not even have a name. It is to be noted that the full Trinity participates in this battle. The ego is slain. 

Shorn of Hindu symbolism, the energy descending down the sushumna is the father aspect — the energy of the divine spark passing through the higher soul. The chakras signify the devas, who enter the aura laterally from various divine planes.

The story thus far signifies the improper awakening of the Kundalini energy, which threatens destruction of the entire creation — the bodies of the disciple. (For proper awakening, the ‘child’ must have the blessings of the father, and permit, so to say, Shiva calling on Parvati.)

With the intervention of Brahma (discernment, divine intelligence), a rapprochement is brought about between Shiva and Parvati, and the ‘child’ is restored to life — but now in a spiritually ‘elevated’ form.

The child’s elephant head signifies an awakened Kundalini (elephant symbolises the basic chakra. the boy having the head of an elephant signifies the energy of the basic travelling to the crown - awakened kundalini. The walk of an elephant symbolises the manner in which the kundalini energy travels up the spine, with a swaying motion, that is also similar to the slithering of a serpent). 

Now, the child and his Father are one. Before any deva, he is worshipped — that is, his real Self. Remember, the body is the temple of the soul. The soul worships god (divine spark) using the body.

The “hordes of Shiva” are called the Bhoota Ganas, hordes of the past/dead — this signifies the disciple’s past conditioning, the accumulated thought forms, the vasanas (tendencies), the prarabdhas (obligations) and the karmas. Isha, the soul/father aspect, takes charge of the “past hordes”, and becomes Ganesha (Gana + Isha) or Ganapati, who is worshipped ahead of the other Devas. This has reference to the chronology of linking chakras, which cannot be discussed in detail here.

The qualities of the reinstated Ganesha embody the proper awakening of the Kundalini — the elephant head symbolising the awakened Kundalini, the snake around the stomach the technique of synthesising and storing golden prune, his complexion and smiling demeanour signifying a pleasant disposition, or loving energy.

The battle of the boy Ganesha with the Devas is also reflected in the story of the battle of Luv-Kush with the army of Rama. However, since this tale is connected to the Love aspect of god - Vishnu - there is no blood and gore, and the boys become aware of their father, and their own true nature, relatively peacefully.

Jesus got crucified by the Romans and rose back up from the dead. “I and my father are one,” he said. The story is one of great suffering and piety, and no war of weapons.

The essence of the Ganesha story is that Shiva is the power aspect of the Trinity, hence the story is laden with the metaphor of destruction, which is not so much to be seen in the story of Luv-Kush, brought up by their mother sans any idea of who their father is.

The slaying of the ego is also symbolised in stories such as the killing of Vali and Ravana by Rama, the vanquishing of Mahabali by Vamana, and the destruction of Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakashipu by Varaha and Narasimha respectively. 

POSTSCRIPT: What about the Chaturthi in Ganesha Chaturthi?

Chaturthi means “the fourth”. In esoteric parlance this refers to the fourth chakra — the heart centre. The son is “born” in the fourth chakra — one chakra above the one it was ruling hitherto.