Of all the festivals in the Hindu calendar, closest to most hearts is the Ganesh Utsav. This festival fills the whole house with an unnamable life force which pulsates with a palpable energy. No, it is not merely the spruced up feel. The very household blooms with a divinity.
Ganesha is everything. With His invocation begins every holy function. He is intelligence incarnate, and yet there is a gentleness to him. Remember the story of the circumambulation of the whole universe? For him, his parents are the world, a choice which is both, deep affection and smart wit.
A non-entity like a mouse is his vehicle. As he is very much a folk godhead as much as a Vaidic presence, is not it but natural that he should control the rodent, enemy number one of the agrarian way of life?
Actually, he is so very appealing because simultaneously he can be everything. He is an abstract form, yet his very shape is hyper concrete. He is divine but has an elephant head. He may have huge ears, small eyes, a big belly, incidentally though each of these has a deep symbolic meaning, and yet he is beauty incarnate.
To every artist, accomplished or otherwise, he invites to explore his self, to understand his form, and thus in the process grow. He would be with us till Saturday. Hence every day, on my status where I share our blog, I shall be uploading my (he)art as it depicts him, though I cannot upload these images here for your perusal as the format does not support such a function.
Pratima @ Each day till Saturday, I shall attempt a translation of his unique manifestations either in Sanskrit and/or Marathi. Hence no quote, no word of the day till Saturday. Instead, an attempt at a better, closer understanding of the Great God Ganesha!
Today let me try translating the first few invocatory lines from the "Atharv Shirsha.
" Om, paeans to Thee, O Lord of the 'Gana'/Thou art Essence incarnate/Thou art Action itself/Thou art the Upholder himself/ The destroyer incarnate Thou art! Indeed art Thou this entire universe/Thou, the forever revelation of the Atman!