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Ganesha: Difference between revisions
typos
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Ganesha is depicted with the head of an elephant. Author Alain Daniélou explains that | Ganesha is depicted with the head of an elephant. Author Alain Daniélou explains that | ||
<blockquote>Gaapati stands for one of the basic concepts of Hindu mythological symbolism,... the notion that man is the image of God.... Gaapati is represented as an elephant-headed man to express the unity of the small being, the microcosm, that is man, and the Great Being, the macrocosm, pictured as an elephant.<ref>Alain Daniélou, ''The Gods of India: Hindu Polytheism'' (New York: Inner Traditions International, 1985), pp. 292, 293.</ref> | <blockquote>Gaapati stands for one of the basic concepts of Hindu mythological symbolism,... the notion that man is the image of God.... Gaapati is represented as an elephant-headed man to express the unity of the small being, the microcosm, that is man, and the Great Being, the macrocosm, pictured as an elephant.<ref>Alain Daniélou, ''The Gods of India: Hindu Polytheism'' (New York: Inner Traditions International, 1985), pp. 292, 293.</ref></blockquote> | ||
The elephant head is a very mystical awareness of the mind of God. This is the great virtue of the elephant: immense physical strength combined with almost infinite memory. There, that memory is a focal point symbolic of the cosmic computer. The elephant is quite apparent and present in India, not foreign to one’s concept, so it represents a virtue. | The elephant head is a very mystical awareness of the mind of God. This is the great virtue of the elephant: immense physical strength combined with almost infinite memory. There, that memory is a focal point symbolic of the cosmic computer. The elephant is quite apparent and present in India, not foreign to one’s concept, so it represents a virtue. | ||
Ganesha then, as in all of the Hindu deities, becomes a personification of a [[God | Ganesha then, as in all of the Hindu deities, becomes a personification of a [[God consciousness]]. The name itself is evocative of the light and that energy. The visualization of the elephant form is as good as any, because God is everything and all things. So when you say, “Why an elephant?” the Hindu would say, “Why not an elephant!” It’s all in our conceptualization. The elephant in its absurdity forces us to transcend the form, whereas if we were looking at the image of perfect God, we might fall in love with that God and be consumed by our own idolatry. | ||
Therefore, there is that obvious point of a quantum leap that is taken. One looks at this Ganesha, God in disguise, and one smiles and is liberated from the form, goes behind the form, into a very cosmic sense of not only a person of the [[Holy Ghost]] but a very infinite principle. It is an energy, a light, and yet a person with whom you can converse, talk to about the project you are about to begin, the cycle you are about to start. | Therefore, there is that obvious point of a quantum leap that is taken. One looks at this Ganesha, God in disguise, and one smiles and is liberated from the form, goes behind the form, into a very cosmic sense of not only a person of the [[Holy Ghost]] but a very infinite principle. It is an energy, a light, and yet a person with whom you can converse, talk to about the project you are about to begin, the cycle you are about to start. | ||