The esoteric meaning behind the origins of Lord Ganesh

This blog was prompted by a recent discussion that I overheard which suggested that the story of Lord Ganesh’s origins is highly violent and does not teach the right values for our children. While I do not agree with this ill-held belief at all (in any case this is not meant to be a children’s fairy tale!), I was not in a position to protest then and have decided to write it here just as Sri Ganesh Chaturthi is about to be celebrated.

Let us first examine how the story is traditionally told. There are several versions and variations of the story, the most popular being from the Shiva Puraan. While the details may defer, let me quickly lay out the gist of the story here (which is likely common in all versions) and use it to explain the esoteric meaning of the story as it occurred to me.

The story goes that Ma Parvati (Lord Shiva’s wife) was distressed because she did not have anyone who was loyal only to her. After all their son, Lord Kartikeya’s loyalty was split between both his parents and that loyalty of all of Shiva’s entourage was first for him. So she decided to create a son who is loyal first to her. So she scrubbed the dirt off her body and created the image of a child and being the Devi, she breathed life into it. Shiva was did not know this.

Then one day, when Ma was going for a bath, she asked her newly created son to guard the door for her and let no one enter. When Lord Shiva came back he was surprised to see a young lad barring his way. Try as he might, cajole as he might, the young Ganesh would not let him in. Shiva, eventually flew into a rage and asked Indra and all the gods to attack and destroy this child who has dared to stop him. All the elements and weapons were thrown at the child but he fended them off with ease, still barring the door. Finally Lord Shiva himself uses his choice weapon, the trident, and lops the child’s head off. To pacify Parvati, Lord Shiva replaces the child’s head with that of a baby elephant, and thus is born Lord Gaj-anana (elephant faced  one).

The esoteric meaning of the same is as follows:

The Hindu way of viewing the world is that everything is the same substance, vibrating at different frequencies. The world exists because of the play between reality and maya, truth and illusion or Purush and Devi.

When someone is said to achieve enlightenment, he/she has broken through the maya and sees the world as it really is, beyond the usual five senses. Enlightenment is only possible through various types of yoga that pushes the Kundalini Shakti (the devi) that lies coiled at the base of our spine, to the top of our head when it unites with the Purusha or Shiva, resulting in the yogi getting enlightened.

The path between the base of our spine and the head happens only when yogic processes are able to unblock three channels in the spine. Hindus see the spine as the inverted figure 8 with the hollow on the left called Ida, the hollow on the right called Pingala and the meeting point called Sushumna. In fact these channels are often times depicted as a trident.

Along the path there are seven chakras which are centres in our energy body. Yogis tell of 112 chakras in our body but these seven along the spine are the principal ones. Kundalini needs to rise from below the first charka (mool adhara) to the top of the highest chakra (sahasrara). Important to note that Lord Ganesh is considered the master of the first chakra and Lord Shiva is known as the first yogi or the Adiyogi.

Now let us examine the traditional story in light of the above paragraph:

So Ganesha is created from dirt off the Devi/ Shakti’s body. The dirt represents the most superficial level of maya. It is pure delusion or falsehood. Ego is a characteristic of a deluded person. The young child guards the door to Parvati just like Mooladhara guards the Kundalini. Just like the child prevents Shiva from meeting Parvati, the Mooladhara prevents the kundalini from meeting the Sahasrara. All the elements and deities are unable to break the child just like all externalities in the world will not be able to purify the Mooladhara and persuade it to give Kundalini passage. Finally, the Adiyogi, uses his trident, or purified channels (Ida, Pingala and Sushumna) to remove the head off the arrogant child. The Head itself is a significant thing, it denotes ego. When it is said he removed the head the allusion is to a yogi using his channels to break his ego, his ego of identification with his body or identification with any sort of Maya. The replacing of an elephant’s head is also significant as since time immemorial, the elephant is a symbol of knowledge as wisdom. So Shiva destroys the ego and replaces it wisdom, allowing the union of Shakti and Purusha to take place and thus allowing enlightenment.

So in effect the story is like this: A person ego is is his biggest hurdle in his spiritual progress. His worldly activities and siddhi’s cannot help him unite his kundalini and the Sahasrara. He uses yoga to purify the three subtly channels in his spine and uses these channels to break through the Mooladhara (which Lord Ganesh rules) and welcome the Kundalini to higher planes.

So the story of Lord Ganesha’s birth has a deep esoteric meaning attached to it and is in fact the story of a yogi’s spiritual progress. It is our weakness and our deficiency and lack of diligence that we are unable to see the subtlety in it. If a layman mistakes a piece of diamond to be a piece of glass, the problem does not lie with the diamond. I hope people read and understand the underlying philosophy behind the story and behind yogic processes instead of dismissing our great epics as mere ‘stories’.

 

(My thanks to my Sadhguru and to all gurus before him, without whose inspiration the esoteric meaning above would never occurred to me).