Ganesha, The Elephant, the remover of obstacles

According to Hindu texts, Ganesha confronts Shiva, his inner Self, and he is relieved of his limited understanding. The elephant head represents the knowledge of the Self, the source of our intelligence.

Ganesha symbolizes that we can remove all obstacles in life with the knowledge of our true nature. Like the Sun, he kills the Night – our ignorance. And what is left is the shining Self, the Sun – pure bliss, that can only see itself in the whole creation.

The Gods asked Shiva to give out the Vedas because the world was suffering from a lack of self-knowledge. He agreed to teach them, but he would not repeat a single word. Ganesha started to write the knowledge, but in the middle of Shiva’s teaching, his pen ran out of ink.

Fearing he would miss something important, he broke off his tusk and continued to write. This means that the words of the Vedas destroy dualistic views. As Ganesha did, it is important to attain the absolute knowledge of the Self, and in doing so, every identification will be removed. The broken tusk is a symbol of enlightenment.

Ganesha’s full round belly symbolizes the wholeness and completeness of the Self. Nothing can be added or subtracted, thus the Self is always satisfied. It also represents the whole cosmos. All the realms, above and below, are inside Ganesha’s cosmic belly. These are held together by the cosmic energy (kundalini) symbolized by the huge snake that runs around his waist.

Ganesha has a small mouse worshiping at its feet. Rodents are symbols of desire. Because it feels limited and incomplete, the ego has a continuous desire to complete itself by doing and obtaining things in this world. However, desires cannot control the enlightened, which are non-doers.

Ganesha’s four arms symbolize the emotional function, the thinking function, the sense of “me”, and the body.

In his upper left hand, he holds an open lotus. The lotus is a symbol of enlightenment because it closes in the night (ignorance), and opens in the day (self-knowledge).

His upper right hand carries an axe that represents discrimination, the power to distinguish what is real from what is apparently real. The Self alone is real and its forms are apparently real.

His lower right hand is the gesture of fearlessness and is inscribed with an OM, which represents awareness in the three states of consciousness: waking, dreaming, and deep sleep.

In the lower left hand, Ganesha holds a big bowl of sweets. This means that the Self is Bliss, the sweetest thing. There can be nothing better or sweeter than one’s self.

Ganesha wears a beautiful golden crown, symbolizing that the Self has supremacy and power over everything, it is the source of everything, it is almighty and rules the entire existence.