सनातन पुस्तकालय Sanatan Cultural Library

Ganesha is the first-worshipped (prathama-pujya) of all Hindu deities: no puja, wedding, housewarming or journey traditionally begins without invoking him. He is Vighneshvara — the lord of obstacles — who places difficulties in the path of the unworthy and removes them for the sincere. His elephant head signifies vast wisdom and memory; his small mouse mount shows that the mightiest intelligence can travel by the humblest means; his large belly holds the whole universe, digesting all experience with equanimity. As lord of the ganas (Shiva's hosts) he commands the categories of existence itself, which is why grammarians, accountants, writers and students have always claimed him as their own.

The best-loved account of his birth comes from the Shiva Purana: Parvati shaped a boy from the turmeric paste of her own body and set him to guard her door. When Shiva returned and was refused entry by the unknown boy, a battle followed in which the boy's head was severed. To console the grieving Parvati, Shiva restored him to life with the head of an elephant and named him head of his ganas — Ganapati. His broken tusk carries two famous tales: that he snapped it off to write the Mahabharata as Vyasa dictated without pause, and that he hurled it at the moon when it mocked his fall from his mouse — which is why looking at the moon on Ganesh Chaturthi is traditionally avoided. In the contest with his brother Kartikeya to circle the world, Ganesha simply walked around his parents, declaring them his world — and won.

Ganesha is offered modaks and laddus, durva grass (three or five blades), red flowers and red sandal paste. His japa mantra is “oṃ gaṃ gaṇapataye namaḥ”, and any new undertaking begins with “śrī gaṇeśāya namaḥ” written or spoken. Wednesdays and the two monthly Chaturthis are his days: Vinayaka Chaturthi in the bright fortnight and Sankashti Chaturthi in the dark, the latter fasted until moonrise. The grand annual festival is Ganesh Chaturthi in Bhadrapada, when clay murtis are installed at home for one and a half, three, five, seven or ten days and farewelled with visarjan by Anant Chaturdashi.