It’s Ganesh Chaturthi season again. Therefore it is time for the annual post. Of the 330 million devas of the Hindu dharma, Ganesha is my favorite for a variety of reasons, chief among them being that my interests closely mirror his.
He likes food; he likes reading and writing; he loves music; likes traveling; he is lazy and is easily bribed, and so on. Ganesha is always depicted with food. After the sage Vyasa composed the Mahabharata, he dictated the massive 100,000 verses to Ganesha as the scribe.
Ganesha is the one whose blessings are invoked before any undertaking because he is the “remover of obstacles.” There are hundreds of stories associated with him. I’ve recorded a few over the years on this blog. As I’m in a bit of hurry today, I will keep this short.
Let me begin with the most common invocation to Ganesha in Sanskrit:
Vakratunda Mahakaaya
Suryakoti Samaprabha
Nirvighnam Kuru Mey Deva
Sarva Kaaryeshu Sarvada
Translation:
One with the curved trunk and a mighty body,
One with the magnificence of ten million suns,
I pray to you Deva, to remove the obstacles
To all the actions I intend to perform.
Like most Hindus in India and across the world, I have a Ganesha on my dashboard of my car. I begin no journey without a “Om Ganesha-ye Namah”. My dashboard Ganesha has always delivered — no accident however small in over 1 million kms of driving!
Seriously though, I have things to do. I have bribed Ganesha already and I hope he keeps his end of the bargain and removes all obstacles. If I fail to finish my work, I know whom to blame.
Here’s a nice aarti to Ganesh. May Ganesha’s blessing be with you always.
Atanu Dey : Life is a Random Draw 