The Ganesha God’s Eye View
While working with National Public Television in the United States I had the opportunity to meet the author Thomas Wolfe. Thomas Wolfe was known for wearing pristine white suites which matched his full head of white hair. The only memory I have of our dialog together was his answer to my question: “Why white suites?” His answer: “Every time I experience writer’s block I buy a white suite.” As a young play write and documentary filmmaker I had yet to experience writer’s block. It was so out of the realm of my experience I didn’t even ask Mr. Wolfe the meaning of ‘writer’s block.’ I simply surmised that he must experience it a lot considering he only wears white suites.
A few years later in the midst of writing my first book I experienced writer’s block. Some days I would show up at my desk ready to go and nothing flowed. No matter what I did to move energy, I felt like a ‘blockhead’. I remembered Mr. Wolfe in his white suites and wondered what kind of a costume would serve to remove my obstacles. It was at that point a wooden statue of the Hindu deity Ganesha came into my life. Ganesha was my white suite.
We met at a shop filled with sacred statues from around the world. I immediately fell in love with this elephant headed male baring an abundant belly and a twinkle in his eye. His red body, adorned with gold and green accents, was alive. I could hear the tablas was playing calling me. This Ganesha was inviting me to dance with the divine. The owner of the shop said that Ganesha is the deity Hindus call upon to remove barriers. She also told me that this ancient Indian statue had been sitting in her store for years, waiting for the right person. I issued this jolly Ganesha an invitation into my home. Ganesha agreed and we have been friends for the past fourteen years.
Ganesha is my right hand man as I write. His energy of celebration removes the obstacle of seriousness for me. Seriousness tends to freeze the brain waves. He is my Shiva to my Shakti. Ganesha is invoked at the commencement of many Balinese ceremonies to ensure success and is positioned at the entrance of Balinese compounds. Ganesha is the deity for writers and activates wit, wisdom and knowledge. Many paintings, batiks and statues show Ganesha with a pen and a book. Ganesha is recognized as the deity who facilitated the writing of the Hindu epic scripture, the Mahabharata from which the many stories composing Balinese dances and shadow plays are derived.
The author of the Mahabharata, poet and sage, Vyasa invoked the great Ganesha to be his scribe. Ganesha gleefully accepted. He felt the writing of such a significant work to be such an honor that no ordinary pen would do. Ganesha broke off one of his tusks and made a pen out of it. This tusk became the conduit through which the divine teachings of the Mahabharata were transmitted.
After Ganesha broke off his tusk he playfully posed a condition upon Vyasa: That he dictate to him continuously without pause. Vyasa agreed to this challenge offering his own condition: That Ganesha understands every word and concept before writing it down. Thus was set up an intricate rhythm of generating and assimilating divine wisdom. When Ganesha completed writing a verse, Vyasa would dictate a profound stanza. This required Ganesha to rest, reflect and integrate the meaning of the words, giving Vyasa time for another wave of words to arrive. The writing of the greatest scripture in the Hindu tradition becomes an example of a right relationship between the messenger and scribe.
You don’t have to be a writer to be an author. Each of us is the author of our life. We receive a message from within which formulates a desire compelling a choice of action thus writing our life. We all experience times as a blockhead. The vehicle for Ganesha is a rat or mouse. This rodent is depicted underneath Ganesha’s left foot. At first glance the juxtaposition of this huge elephant man riding this tiny animal evokes absurd laughter. What I have come to know as the meaning of Mr. Rat is that wisdom is derived from accepting and understanding those gnawing creatures within us-craving, aversion, attachment-that seek to separate us from living into our innate knowledge. A rat is destructive to the rice fields, to that which provides sustaining nourishment. Our inner rats can overtake the field from which Source shines within creating a rat delusion-we begin to think that we are the rat instead of the infinitely expansive Ganesha.
One day, as I was deeply absorbed in the experience of understanding one of my inner obstacles, discontent, I took myself for a long walk in the rice fields. Nearing the end of my meditative contemplation a mouse appeared on the path. Instead of fleeing from my big, bare feet he simply stood and looked at me. I looked at him. And as I looked at him I suddenly felt myself as the huge, rotund Ganesha looking down upon this tiny mouse beneath my feet. My entire Being expanded into Light. I began to witness this moment from the Ganesha God’s Eye View.
What I saw: This discontent that is chewing away at me is so small and I am making it so big! I am judging it, maligning it and letting it manipulate me until my mind is so clouded that all I see before me is a wretched etching of a lifeless life. My discontent is this little mouse. In that moment of revelation, I slowly raised my big toe which was in front of the mouse’s nose. The mouse reacted and leaped into the ravine along with my discontent.
All of our obstacles arise from within or without as invitations to rest, reflect, digest and understand. Too often when we experience a damn in the flow of life we react as the rat to my big toe: in a flight or flight response. This reaction arises from an experience in our past that has locked itself inside of our autonomic nervous system. In this fearful reaction our heart shuts down and our mind becomes a black magic pot stewing with anger, blame and shame. Ganesha’s huge belly symbolically shows us that we contain the whole universe and that when we root into this Source we have the ability to fearlessly digest whatever experiences that life brings us.
Ganesha guides us into a balance between the spiritual and the mundane. He bestows bountiful boons for an affluent life. Every tiny creature has a purpose in this great divine play. Like the tiny mouse who can scurry into small nooks and crannies Ganesha can seek out that within our own mind has become a barrier. If we perceive and believe something to be an obstacle, so it is. If we see what is before us as a guru guiding us toward discovering alternative solutions and revealing what is hidden from view then we have the potential to cease being a block head. We then become the Ganesha God’s Eye View.
Below is a simple Ganesha chant:
Om Ghung Ganapataye Namaha!
:
Om = Activates the divine principle
Ghung = The identifying seed syllable, or bija mantra for Ganesh
Ganapataye = Another name for Ganesh
Namaha = Brining the vibration of Ganesh into your heart as your own
Pronounciation:
Om = A U M
Guhng = As it sounds
Ganapataye = gah-nah-paht-ah-yeh
Namaha - nah-mah-hah
Om Swastyatu
Contact the writer at: tarakhadro@yahoo.com
