Spiritual Import of Religious Festivals :Ch-7. Part -3.

Chapter 7: Lord Ganesa – The Remover of Obstacles.

Part-3.

We are terribly afraid of obstacles.

There is no other fear in this world except of obstacles.

So, we always cry, "Remove the obstacles, clear the path, cleanse the road."

On the fourth day of the bright half of the lunar month of Bhadrapada (August-September) every year, the great Lord Ganapati, called the Lord of Hosts, is worshipped throughout India, and perhaps in many other parts of the world also.

There is no Hindu who does not recognise the pre-eminence of the worship of this mysteriously conceived deity called Ganapati whose name occurs right in the beginning of the Rig Veda itself, the earliest of scriptures, where pointedly the name is taken in a Mantra, "Gananam tva ganapatim havamahe..."


Tradition conceives this great Remover of Obstacles, Ganapati, as the son of Lord Siva, with a proboscis of an elephant and a protuberant belly, with weapons of various types and with His right hand in a benign gesture of goodwill, grace and blessing.

The family of Bhagavan Siva is of a peculiar setup.

The Lord of all the worlds lives as one possessing nothing!

This manner of living in Mount Kailasa by the great Master of Yogis, Lord Siva, is perhaps a demonstration of the great definition of the glory of Bhagavan, the Supreme Being as possessed of all-knowledge, all-power and all-renunciation.

Swami Krishnananda
To be continued  ....