Ganesh Visarjan - An Earth Honouring Ritual

Om Shree Ganeshaye Namaha

Anyone who follows Hinduism knows that no prayer or ritual starts without worshipping Ganesha first, almost all homes have a Ganesha statue or picture and each one worships him in their own way.

For me, Ganesha Chathurthi meant the beginning of festival time in India, Also all these festivals come in the period known as Dakshinayana, it is a time when the Earth seems to be moving in a downward sphere in the Celestial realm which is also regarded as the dark period and related to the feminine aspect of things,  Which means honoring Mother Earth our ancestors and making peace with our past, clearing things that do not serve us anymore so we can rise higher on the evolution ladder. Then of course the beginning has to be done by invoking Ganesha so that we can overcome our obstacles with wisdom & discernment.

Now most stories in our scriptures are symbolic and the story of the birth of Ganesha goes as such,; Ganesha was a creation of Ma Parvathi or Shakti - like we all are, we are all creations of the Divine Mother, and he was to protect his mother from anyone who came in including Lord Shiva, who was technically his Father, but in his ignorance he did not recognise Shiva and stopped him from coming into the area where Ma Parvathi was bathing.

Likewise in our ignorance we do not realise what is good for us and what isn't and thus end up making a mistake, it is sometimes through our mistakes that we realise what we have done and we become wiser for the next time 🙂... Now Shiva decided he needs to impart wisdom to his Son, so he cut off Ganesha's head... the head here symbolises the Ego mind, the stubbornness and stupidity that we do because of our thoughts which are not in place when we work out of the ego and hence end up messing our lives further.

When Ganesha's head is cut off the Divine Mother comes in and ask's Shiva to revive her son, and like any good husband Shiva wants to make his wife happy and wanted to add value to what he destroyed, he replaces the head(mind) of Ganesha with Wisdom, Mindfulness and great memory (symbolised by the Elephant's head).. This can also be called a spiritual rebirth of Ganesha, Now for those of you who have noticed the ancient texts and the picture of the Chakras on them, the Root(Mooldhara) Chakra is always symbolised by an Elephant... Why is that ? Also the Kundalini or the Energy of Shakti/Ma Parvathi ( sometimes symbolised by a cobra)  is also located in that area as well.

It is when we raise that Shakti from the base of the Spine to the top of our head that we become spiritually & mentally strong, also known as Kundalini rising.. The symbolism of the Elephant head means that whatever obstables come in tha path of our enlightenment or kundalini awakening we need to overcome them with our inner power (Will power), Wisdom or Love and Intelligence... These three qualities are also the qualities of the Trinity of God, symbolised by the Trishul.

• On top of his head Ganesha has a Golden Crown and a ball on top symbolising the 12th Chakra or some call it the seat of the Soul..

• Ganesha's trunk is mostly to the left(known as the feminine side/Parvathi/non-violence), Son of the Divine Mother. His right tusk is broken and left is intact, the right side is the masculine energy and it is related to severity and harshness, since Lord Ganesha believed in non-violence that tusk is shown as broken and he uses his brain instead of his limbs to overcome obstacles.

 This is shown in the story where Ganesha and Lord Karthikeya are asked to go around the world seven times to prove their strength and might, Lord Karthikeya diligently sets off to fulfill his goal  whereas Ganesha gets onto his Mouse which is his vehical (Symbolic for the pineal gland, anyone who has done Astral travel knows the power of the pineal gland) and he goes around his parents Shiva-Shakti who mean the entire Universe for him. The mouse symbolises the pineal gland and by meditating on the pineal gland you achieve oneness with your higher self and oneness with the entire Parabrahman or Universe.

There is one more thing i would like to share and that is the posture in which Ganesha sits, you will always notice this left foot is touching the perineum area or close to it.. There are certain nadi's there and connected to the left foot which activate the Shushumna through which the kundalini rises...when we sit like this we send Energy from the lower chakras to the upper chakras and thus our brain centers and nervous system gets stronger... This is also the reason why Siddhasana and Mahamudra asan in yoga are considered good for awakening the Kundalini energy.. When you are studying or meditating this is a good posture to sit in.

The part where it becomes Earth Honouring is when we embody any object with love, prayers, devotion for a continued period of time and then surrender that to the waters of Mother Earth, Energetically what is happening is, because water stores memory and emotions which is now scientifically proven by Dr. Masaru Emoto and many others thereafter - All that Love, Devotion and prayers that we shower the idols with go into the water and change the energy of the land as the powerful vibrations are absorbed by the waters of the Earth and anything done Collectively has much more power than single or few people doing it - which has been demonstrated by the Maharishi experiment and the Global consciousness project 2.0.

Our Ancestors knew the importance of giving back to mother Earth and thus all over the world indigenous people have created rituals to honor her in different ways.

All these Stories and rituals had a much larger meaning and significance behind them, however during the course of so many years, wars, degradation of culture to suit our own needs and beliefs the wisdom of our ancestors has got lost in transit and we need to understand the why and energy behind rituals rather than just following them blindly - After all it is the intention that gives the ritual its power.