Category Archives: Gods and Myths

Ganesh at the Threshold of a New Year

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A beautiful wooden Ganesh came into my possession over the holidays, and paired with the fact that he is the Lord of Thresholds and Beginnings, he’s been on my mind as we enter this New Year.

Ganapati has many names, among them Vigneshvara. Vigna means obstacle, and Ishvara is Lord, and many praise him as the Remover of Obstacles. But more literally he is the Lord OF Obstacles. I’ve been thinking about this a bit as I review my last year and consider my intentions for the coming year. I’ve been contemplating how I work with obstacles, and how Vigneshvara can support me.

When I was living in India for a short time, one day I noticed the school children crowding around to pay homage to Ganesh at one of his shrines. I was curious as to what was going on and was informed that it was exam time, and the children were seeking support on their exams. This is an example of how Ganesh is often approached: as a good luck charm.

On New Year’s day I found myself chanting the Ganapati Atharvashirsha Upanishad, in honor of the new Year and all I would face this coming year. Wouldn’t it be nice if Ganapati just cleared the path for me like some kind of good luck charm, removing any obstacles that might block my desires from coming into fruition? We all hope for smooth sailing as we negotiate our lives, but when I invoke Ganapati, I understand it is not simply a transactional prayer, but has more layers of profound meaning.

When I invoke Vigneshvara, I am calling upon a particular quality, or set of qualities, that he exemplifies. As the Lord of Obstacles, Ganapati is that energy that supports me in negotiating the inevitable challenges that arise in my life.

In fact, could it be that the Lord of Obstacles is that which creates or places the very obstacles that need to be experienced? Challenges can be some of the best things to happen in our life, though in the moment we may not feel that way. In this last year, I experienced unexpected challenges in some of my relationships that caused me to look deep within myself, which served to shift some of my behavioral patterns, and look carefully at my responsibility in creating challenges. It also instigated some changes in how I communicate and how I commit my time.

You likely have heard the expression “when one door closes, another opens.” And what is a door, but an obstacle, closing off one direction, so another can be taken? Sometimes Ganesh shows up as that extreme occurrence when we have no choice but to radically change direction. And he is that energy that helps us negotiate obstacles in the most benevolent way.

For as the names Ganapati and Ganesh suggest, he is the Lord of the Ganas, of all the categories or terms of existence. When our desires are misaligned, when they are not serving the highest, Ganapati arranges the terms of our existence such that a more auspicious arrangement in encouraged.

And ultimately, Ganesh is that quality of the divine we invoke to encourage us to seek that alignment such that our desires reflect divine will. For when our actions emerge from the highest desire to align, Ganesh will then be the remover of obstacles.

CONTEMPALTIONS

Consider the last period of your life and the obstacles you have encountered. What have you learned from them?

What strategies do you use to more gracefully negotiate the inevitable obstacles that arise in your life?

How do you align with your highest desires?

Teachings of Hanuman: Using the Skillful Approach

In one of the many stories about Hanuman, the hungry young monkey spied what looked like a juicy red fruit and leapt into the sky to grab it. Since it was actually the sun, he had to be stopped, and in doing so Hanuman was injured. There are many teachings from this story, but one of the more subtle ones is that Hanuman learns that rash behavior has consequences and that one must exercise skillful means in pursuit of one’s desires.

Hanuman’s greatest desire is to be in service of the divine, particularly Rama, and as the story above exemplifies, in his childhood and youth he learns he must be skillful in applying  his substantial power.  He displays this ability on several occasions in the great Indian epic in which he figures prominently, the Ramayana, helping Rama recover his consort Sita, who has been abducted by the evil demon Ravana.

When Hanuman discovers where Sita has been held captive, he finds her distressed and considering suicide. He sits in a tree, observing.  He knows he must act quickly, yet he pauses to consider carefully how best to approach. “After deep deliberation, Hanuman decided on the safest and wisest course! Softly, sweetly, clearly and in cultured accents, he narrated the story of Rama.”* Sita, though initially fearful of the monkey, is delighted by his words, and they connect through further conversation.

You may know of occasions in your life when you were more or less skillful in different situations, even when your desire is pure. I had a desire to address racial tensions, and to do so I began graduate school at a Midwestern university.  I was 21 years of age, feeling a bit rebellious, and looked like the California Deadhead hippie I was. I found that both the faculty and other graduate students had trouble taking me seriously, so much so, that I ended up leaving after a year.  I transferred to a different graduate school and decided to take another approach, presenting myself more conservatively and as a serious student, and I found I was accepted much more readily and ranked at the top of my class. Eventually it didn’t matter if I wore my blazer or my tie-dyes, as I had made the connection successfully, and was able to publish several papers on group relations in prestigious scholarly journals.

This isn’t a teaching about changing yourself in order to please others. It is about finding your heart’s desire and being skillful about your pursuit of that desire.  If you follow your desire to its core, you may find that ultimately you want to be of service in some way, that you have your own unique gift for the world. And, in fact, each of us already changes into different ways of being in our lives as we approach the roles of employee, boss, teacher, student, spouse, brother or sister, child, parent, etc.  In each of these roles, to be of the most service, we must be skillful in finding a way to connect.

PRACTICE

–    As you practice yoga asana, pick some particular alignment principle to focus on, something the teacher is emphasizing or that you need to work on.  Notice what you do to skillfully apply that principle as you move through the variously shaped poses.
–    Write in your journal: “my heart’s desire is…..”.  Remember what is most important to you. Come back to that desire again and again.
–    Make a list of the different roles you have in your life.  How is your heart’s desire reflected in each? Is there nuance? Does remembering your heart’s desire help?  Can you think of more skillful ways to approach some of these relationships?
–    When Hanuman finds Sita, he pauses to watch and contemplate the right approach. Can you think of instances in your life when this could be useful? Try it out in some difficult situation.
–    Consider and journal about situations in your life when you were more or less skillful.  How could you have been more skillful when you weren’t? Allow yourself to learn from your mistakes.
–    If you have any particularly sticky relationships or situations in your life right now, contemplate and journal: a) what is your desire in this situation, and b) how might you most skillfully move in that direction.

*The quote is from Swami Venkatesananda’s version of the Ramayana of Valmiki.  Thanks to Douglas Brooks for his telling of these stories.