Ganesha: Portal to Success
-or- Imaginative Creativity as
Prayer
Ganesh as "Lord of Categories" is the master of names and labels, the words we use to convey thoughts that begin as wordless impulses and knowings. Categorical thinking is the main reason for unhappiness. I wanted 'this' and got 'that' instead; chocolate vs. vanilla, a good time vs. a boring time. We tie ourselves up in labels which become solid expectations and then make war with the difference between what we thought something was and what it actually turned out to be. Our "obstacles" are actually categories that we cling to tightly. Ganesh, as the "Lord of that motley group (categories)" is an entity that can protect, inform, and bring peace when obstacles become the walls that define our version of hell. Who or what is he?
Ganesh is the awareness of the edge that separates warring categories. A steak can be "medium-well, or "rare". They seem like important differences--the time a piece of meat spends in the fire. Humans tend to create cultures and self-images based on those kinds of differences. Sometimes the degree of subtlety and nuance between the differences become hugely important markers for how refined or cultured a person is. In other words, the categories of taste or refinement, the expectations and entitlements are the weapons used in a war on Reality. Ganesh, the awareness of differences, can become an unbeatable warrior to lay us low (defender of Reality) or he can be a gatekeeper who allows us to taste the sweetness of Reality; comportment in the asking is all important. Entitlement and rigid expectations will bring reality down on my head and crush my royal pretensions. A humble attitude toward reality, even when it serves up the wrong thing, can reveal sweets.
Matanga Vadana
song invoking Ganesha (Literal
interpretation below)
1 Matanga Vadana Ananda sadana Elephant faced sage, Vessel of pure
joy,
2 Mahadeva Shiva Shambho Nandana You
are dear to the Primal Giver of all Good
3 Matanga vadana Ananda Sadana Bliss
arrives with the face of wisdom and
4 Maya Vinashaka Mushika Vahan the
Illusion destroyer travels on a mouse.
5 Mata Maheshwari Bhavani Nandana Dear
to the Cosmic Mother of all becoming,
6 Maha Ganapate Mangala Charana The
Absolute Lord of thugs, gangs, and
Categories of thought, Auspiciousness itself
Is
where you touch this Earth (your feet).
(Line by line effective interpretation)
1. Awareness and detachment make obstacles to happiness disappear.
2. Awareness is an aspect of "space" itself, the quality that allows things to exist at all.
3. A path of real happiness looks like wisdom.
4. Delusion is dispelled by attending to detail, noticing subtle shifts in mood and expectation.
5. Awareness connects us to The Earth which is the source of all good things.
6. When the awareness of awareness itself becomes physical/practical, one can see the sacred quality of life.
Desire or longing is an inherent
condition of any sentient being.
Desire results in a build up of inner tension
which seeks release in satisfaction, the fulfillment of the desire in form, in
specific objects. The modern materialist
culture of commerce and consumption utilizes the ‘desire for peace’ by
inventing tools which are designed to maximize and extend inner unrest, the
imbalance between desire and its’ objects.
The human bio-mechanical machine is designed to identify a desire and
fulfill it. ‘Mastering’ desire means
‘surrendering’ to it as an expression of life itself (Bhava: becoming/feeling).
‘Dharma’ can be understood as ‘truth desire’, sorting out the scattered whims
that are the result of cultural conditioning from longing that moves in true
ways for individual and collective good.
Ganesha is an archetypal being which stands between realms, or
categories(gana). Addressing this entity
is an act of ‘putting on’ it’s energy which is to take on powers of
discrimination and insight while maintaining a playful attitude; mastering the
local conditions of self while practicing subservience to the twin
manifestations of ultimate reality, awareness and becoming. (Shiva-Bhavani).
Matanga Vadana Ananda sadana
The skull of the elephant has a huge hole
where the human would have solid bone, as though the elephant’s mind is open to
the cosmos in subtle and incomprehensible ways, a possibility that is
graphically supported by the trunk which projects from the hole. The serpentine flexibility, the power to
uproot a tree, the subtlety to pick up a twig is like a fleshy emanation of
mind. These qualities are those of the
sage, whose focused concentration becomes an appendage of attention, unlimited
by distance or size. These qualities are
a vessel (sadana) which contain Joy, the expansive ‘urge to express’. This line alone describes the whole path to
personal fulfillment as an extension of Universal Intelligence.
Mahadeva Shiva Shambho Nandana
Shiva Shambho is the name for the
ultimate source of happiness. There is a
theory in quantum physics that anomalies at the subatomic level (bi-location,
telepathy, time travel) are explained by a self-aware universe. First there is awareness as the always and
everywhere basis for anything at all.
The body as a metaphor supports the idea of a self-aware universe. It has been clinically observed that physical
reaction precedes thought and that physiological changes anticipate
environmental stimulation; logically
explained only by a unity in time and space which transcends the
subject-object, Newtonian universe. This
Space/Awareness or ‘Akash’ is Shiva. It
is the field of all possibilities. It
operates through ‘rules’ while not mechanical.
It is subatomically sensitive but not personal. It is the source of all gifts, but shows no
favoritism. It chooses altruistic attention, reverence for the smallest, and
unswerving focus as its’ way into the world.
Maya Vinashaka Mushika Vahana
Illusions steal our attention. The mind is convinced of plans, goals, or
means, which are mental affectations with no counterpart in Akash, the Aware
Universe. An example would be the goal
of physical fitness. It is an ambiguous
category of ‘health awareness’ composed of numerous personal, circumstantial, and
cultural conditions; elusive, shifting, never attainable. Wealth is likewise chimerical, conditional,
shifting. So what is real? What deserves
attention? Mushika Vahana, we steal
Reality back like a mouse lives; in stealth, attending to the smallest crumb,
vigilant for intruders. We listen in
alertness, engaging our senses, and find a safe place for retreat, unreachable
by potential threats. The sharpened,
engaged senses find real joy, gratitude and benefit in their objects. Practically speaking, “I can only know what I
want” if I know what I like. The senses
are the gates where reality meets the mind, or where the mind projects reality.
Mata Maheshwari Bhavani Nandana
This line invokes the feminine complement
of ‘feeling’ and ‘being’ to the masculine description of ‘Aware Space’. The aware universe is the dynamic urge to
become. The mind extends into the senses
as the Self- Aware Universe effervesces in sub atomic processes, the idea
‘wants’ resolution in form. This love
that the feminine has for Ganesha, the gate keeper of new projects emphasizes
something that is opaque to us, who are lost in the nihilism imposed by the
Newtonian mechanistic world view. The
world “wants” to be here; to grow, expand, and explore every possibility. The analogy of a dancer, undulating,
experimenting, projecting mood, leading the mind into fantasy and imagery is
appropriate to the stuff that we call ‘matter’.
Our role is that of channel, the conduit of self-aware longing projected
into creation. Like our sub-atomic
counterparts we effervesce with ideas, projects, creations of all kinds from
the subtlest thought-forms to epochs as collective endeavors. Our only choice in the matter is to know
ourselves, and to see the proof in our true creations. ‘Maya Vinashaka’, the illusion destroyer is
the practice of self-knowledge. Wealth
as ‘money in the bank’ is a cultural definition which does not really describe
‘a state of weal , well-being, abundant life.
A truth seeker is asked to continuously examine definitions (categories
of thinking) and word meanings in the process of understanding ‘the
presentation’ of the world (Bhavani-matter arising) and awareness of it
(Shiva-consciousness).
Maha Ganapate Mangala Charana
‘Auspiciousness’ relates to good
fortune. When ‘the feet’ of a deity are
described as auspicious, it can be taken at least two ways. One way is that the feet, the point of
contact with the earth are venerable, the source of fortune. This is a call to worship, looking outward,
invoking the kind glance of forces of the beyond. Another view is that the auspicious indicates
the presence of the deity. Moments of
subtlety, joy, inspiration, awe, profound quiet, speechless wonder are
themselves the incarnation to the deity AS our life. These moments, being of super physical origin
are ‘out of time’. The tendency is to
want to extend these moments in time or space. This is greed, which is an
illusion. Joy cannot be extended as one
can extend an arm, or a kindness. These
are ‘mine’ to manage. When joy is my
naturally aware state, then it can be extended.
A beggar can express gratitude for a quarter, not extend it into a
dollar. Until one lives in an unbroken
state of joy, he is a beggar at the door of ‘Shambho’ the Source of all good,
‘the Field of infinite Awareness/Possibility.
Such a one can ask for more, or give away what he has been given, but it
is beyond him to extend joy in time or space.
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