Photo's copyright held by Meady's Musings Production 2008.
Today is Ganesh Chauth or Chaturthi I'm not going to go into any lengthy description of it as again the web is already buzzing with such information and a search for Ganesh Chaturthi or Ganesh Chauth will give you more than enough information. It will kick off a ten days of celebrations called Ganesh Utsav which will end on Sun 14 Sept 08. The festival of Ganesh is celebrated throughout the Hindu world and in particular in the state of Maharashtra in India where Ganesh is like the equivalent of the patron saint in Catholicism...he is the deity of that state...guess like Saint Patrick's Day with the Irish and those of Irish origin. As a result there are huge celebrations in Mumbai formerly known as Bombay which is in that state and home of the 'Bollywood' film industry. There, even though they are muslim, the family of Salim Khan noted script writer and father of famous heart throb and actor Salman Khan take part fully in the celebrations at their home. I don't know if maybe this has anything to do with Salim's success as a script writer but as a writer myself but of much lesser fame...I like to think of Ganesh as the primeval scribe as I've been told a story by my grandfather that Ganesh was the first writer as he was given the task to write down the Mahabharat(the longest epic tale ever in Hinduism). Only Ganesh was capable of such a task as only he had the intellect to be able to keep up with the narrator and to write it down...only he could hold the verses in his head and comprehend them and translate what was said into coherent text.
Indeed in Hinduism Ganesh is seen as being of high intellect and worshipped as a store house of knowledge and being pro learning and knowledge. Hence he is worshipped alongside Saraswati by those seeking success in learning. Apart from this Ganesh is seen as the remover of all obstacles and so usually worshipped at the start of all projects and so in Hinduism as practised in Trinidad he is worshipped at the start of all pooja (prayers). So he removes all obstacles that might be put in the path of the purohit (pundit) and devotee carrying out the pooja. I guess he with all his amazing knowledge and intellect is able to guide the devotee and purohit to find a connection with the divine or the spiritual plane. Hmmm...so maybe Ganesh would be a good helper in this exercise...this experiment in Universal Collective Prayer? Oh Great One please guide us in this exercise.
All of this talk of Ganesh also reminds me of the time when another incredible phenomenon in Universal Collective Prayer occurred and all over the Hindu world murtis of Ganesh were drinking milk. I myself had this experience in my own family prayer room and I find it especially amusing (being also from a science background) that Indian scientists had the audacity to simply explain this away as capillary action...amusing :) Oh come on as scientists do proper experimentation! How could capillary action be the explanation? I don't want my blog to ever be about arguments though...so I won't rough up those scientists and their theories on this forum...perhaps on my Meady's Musings blog one day I will take them to task. But for sure phenomenon like that is part of what experiments in Universal Collective Prayer should be all about.
So I ask all of you to take part in Universal Collective Prayer on this day of Ganesh Chauth and for the entire festival of Ganesh. I don't know much about the details but I understand that Buddhists and Jains also revere Ganesh (Ganapati) as a saint or enlightened being. And well look in Mumbai you even have some broad minded Muslims joining in the festivities as I mentioned earlier. The festival is celebrated fully in Trinidad in temples throughout the nation and you can also carry out fasting, prayers and full poojas in your home.
I'm attaching an image of a Ganesh murti after I had already worshipped it during my Satyanarayan pooja that I carried out on Sat 24 Aug 08 for as I said earlier Ganesh is normally worshipped at the start of most poojas in Trinidad. I'm attaching it for you to contemplate on the form and look for guidance or inspiration through meditation by focussing on it.
Ganesh's Blessings, Wisdom and Guidance to All Beings! Happy Ganesh Utsav! Or as they say in Maharashtra (in Marathi I assume)- Ganapati Bappa Moriya!
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