On the Path of My Sadhana, What Does a Ganesha Puja Mean to Me?
The journey of my life has taken me through various twists and bends, putting me in spaces where I questioned whether I really wanted to get onto the path of belief and rituals at the same time it took me onto the paths where I blindly followed what was told without questioning or looking for answers.
The fear that if I did something wrong, would often linger at the back of my mind when I went about organizing and doing things, remembering vaguely or faintly from what I would see my elders following and doing. Never once I raised a question, why certain rituals were done, never once did I question why I was doing or not doing something , what was told was accepted without any kind of resistance or question.
Today as I have gotten onto my path of my spiritual journey and I have often asked myself, what is it that I am trying to accomplish? and what is it that I am seeking? Questions that I have often asked myself for the last 10 years, today the answers are all out there for me. I was nudged to put it in a blog and share it with those who are looking for some answers. One of the questions that often hangs like a sword above me is, Am I being religious or spiritual?
From my viewpoint of my Sadhana (Spiritual Practices), something that I have started doing and I have realized that for me it’s a simple practice that I follow in a disciplined way. As I perceive, Lord Ganesha is the ruler of Mooladhara Chakra (Primordial base centre). One point that I would like to state here, some might have other perspectives which is their choice and I am not negating such beliefs.
What I learnt and read about is how Adi Shankaracharya described Lord Ganesha in a unique and an amazing way. The form of Lord Ganesha that Adi Shankaracharya has projected to us is that of Parabramha–Supreme Brahman. “Ajam Nirvikalpam Nirakaram Ekam” – Lord Ganesh is verily the “Parabrahma – Supreme Brahman.
A major learning for me is that the sadhana makes you realize that the energy is Beyond Birth (Ajam), Beyond Imagination (Nirvikalpam) and Beyond Form (Nirakaram) and Ekam (Absolute) – the power of consciousness is Absolute. Something that is very difficult to understand if we are ignorant about the concept of energy. This power or energy is absolute which is Omnipresent (Sarvavyapi) when it’s extended and sought to experience towards Mooladhara it can also be seen as Lord Ganesha.
From this perspective, irrespective of the externally depicted form of Ganesha., like Elephant faced, of course there is a reason behind this depiction – as the Ruler of Knowledge and Education. One needs to know that Knowledge and Education for a person can happen only when there is Awareness. Bringing this into your consciousness and trying to understand the form of knowledge that can be acquired knowing that there is energy all around us and we are one with it is the most difficult part.
When there is Inertia or lack of awareness – Knowledge, educational progress in life is not possible. Therefore if you want to awaken this power of consciousness, then the ruler of this power, Lord Ganesha is to be invoked. Instead of treating Lord Ganesh as an external power or an outside element, we can consider him as a center (Chakra) of our own power. This was a huge learning experience for me. When we pray and meditate on Lord Ganesha by installing Lord Ganesha within ourselves, at the first or primary chakra (Mooladhara).
Through the process of meditation we could connect and there should be nothing in our thoughts – in simple words move towards the stillness of your thoughts. There should be nothing external or thoughts that could be of no use which can distract you in a way, but try to focus on a particular positive thought. Then we experience a formless form and manifest a form of Ganesha in our thoughts.
Those who can’t experience the formless, over a period of sustained experience of manifested form they can reach the formless Brahman.
This Absolute power which is the very cause of the whole universe from which everything originated, that which keeps things going, the same power into which everything would be dissolved, this Causal Absolute Power is Paramatma (Supreme Soul) or also be seen as universal consciousness.
Bringing the awareness that, this supreme Soul Paramatma, is formless, has no boundaries and is not defined by gender. We give various forms and connect to certain idols to help bring the focus and attention to manifest what’s in our heart.
The journey started with me being a strong believer that god and I are different. There is absolutely no way that I could go close to him. My journey has now transformed into a beautiful one where I now realize and know that I don’t need to go hunting for god all over the place when he/ she is residing in my heart and my breath.
This has changed my entire path into a path of a beautiful belief where I sit to do my puja and rituals, knowing that these are rituals which I do to anchor and ground myself and not to please God. Neither am I sitting in a space trying to please people around me, nor am I trying to please the Lord. It is more in a conversation that happens between me and the energy that resides in my heart and the different chakras of my very body.
As we have the Ganesh festival, I have completely transformed my entire practice and belief from the last one year. The celebration, the joy as well as the festivity remains, but the focus and attention for me now is looking into my inner light and trying to connect to the energy that sits in complete stillness in me. Moving away from the belief that God and I are different I see us as one and the same.
I bring the energy from my heart when I invoke the Divine energy after the sankalpa (Intention) bringing forth the energy I pamper and connect to the energy with Mantras and slokas, realizing that these are not praises and the energy, but these are potent aksharas (Alphabets) that is opening up my meridians releasing the blocks, connecting my mind, body and soul to the universal consciousness and bringing me onto the path of self realization with ease and comfort.
What started as a journey where I saw us as two different entities I now see ourselves blended as one. Through conversations moving with comfort, focusing on my heart desires. I bring my thoughts and prayers out into the universe, surrendering, knowing that whether the energy is sitting in the idol or its formless, I realize that it’s a free flowing energy without boundaries and as I put in my prayers to the world, the universe is out there to bring in the manifestation of what I want.
In case we begin worshipping Ganesha as a Goal which is not a superior form of worship or like an external source. We can get lost in the sea of Maya and try to swim the currents of confusion and chaos. There might be a feeling that we are unable to reach the divine consciousness or feel the connection. Any worship based on external materialistic objects like Goal or aim, means there is no identification with self and a separation is seen.
Therefore Lord Ganesha is the cause as well as the knowledge of the reasons for that cause, the seer, and the Absolute – that is the power of knowing the facts of universal consciousness. These things are not understood by many of us but the learned Rishis and Munis (Saints) who realized this, created different kinds of myths and stories for making it easily comprehensible and thus beneficial to everyone. When we make an Idol of Ganesha, we infuse life in it, what we commonly call as Prana Pratishta– it means let my life be infused in the idol in front of me.
Let the divine energy be manifested within my life force (Prana) go and get installed in this Idol so that we can have a chance to pamper and take care of this energy. In the form of an Idol and worship (puja). If you carefully notice, Puja is an artful expression of our inner feelings (Bhaav).
During Prana Pratishta, we state that the divine’s life power is my life power and then we pray, “O God! Who is within me always, please manifest and stay in this Idol for a while because I wish to acknowledge and pamper you. Whatever I have been given is a great favor from you, which I wish to offer it back to you” So we offer Water, fruits, flowers which is the universe's bestowment to us in any case.
The luminescence called God which is formless, beyond imagination and eternal power embedded within ourselves, is invoked, invited and infused into Manifest in the form of an idol for us devotees to connect to and give it a name and acknowledge energy . This is the first step in doing any puja including the Ganesha Puja.
We are perpetually given the sun, moon which revolves around us which we offer it back in the form of Camphor light fire and take it round the Idol (Arti). In this manner, a devotee displays his/ her inner feelings during the act of Puja.
After the puja, the devotee says O Lord! Now you may go back to my heart which is your abode. This process is called Visarjan. The specific process of restoring and re-creating the divine energy to his/ her abode is Visarjan. Kindly go back to my heart from where you came out to manifest in this idol just like how we take out the ornaments from the safe during festivals, wear it and return it back to the safe after the celebrations.
These forms of celebrations help us in increasing enthusiasm and devotion (gratefulness) in our life. Thus, when we perform or worship, it should not be with anyone or to any person, it is with love and devotion. Mental Worship (worshipping in our minds) is a better form than External symbolic worship.
When each atom of our being is filled with this power, enthusiasm and happiness just overflows and bubbles in us. It is not necessary to show this outside. This display of enthusiasm, smile or happiness is useless. The inner blossoming is the Origin of Happiness – the love, enthusiasm and playfulness emanates from this space. Only if we have this Absolute power can we experience the beautiful divine energy in various forms. If we have even an iota of awareness, then we can recognize this.
A beautiful learning, and realization, which has brought about a space of continuous improvement and meaning in my life. My heart is always filled with gratitude. The feeling of bliss is something which I adorn. This I could only experience when I realized the joy and happiness that I could have of doing a certain Pooja not as a religious aspect, but from the point of spirituality. Where I trust and believe that everything is one and the same, and there is no difference.
Acknowledging this, knowing that my breath, the breath of air around me, the energy that is there in the plants in the animals, and all the objects around me has an element and fragment and aspect of the divine universal consciousness in it. This helps us manifest and bring what we want onto our doorstep.
