If you are Hindu or living in India, I am sure you have heard the story about Lord Ganesh receiving his elephant head. I used to enjoy it as just another story, till I came to know its deep spiritual significance. Let me make a humble attempt to share it with you.
As the story goes, maa Parvati created Ganesh’s idol out of herself, and put life in it, making him a tender loving boy. One day she tasked that boy to guard the door of the cave while she took bath. Ganesh being an obedient son, jumped on the task. It so happened that Lord Shiv-ji after his meditation and came home, only to see the unknown young boy. He was guarding the door of his own home, stopping him from entering. Despite Shiv-ji’s repeated requests to let him enter, Ganesh didn’t budge. Inevitable as it is, Shiv-ji destroyed him by chopping his head off but later giving reviving him on Maa Parvati’s insistence, by giving him an elephant’s head with a new identity, a new life. In this new life, new identity, Ganesha became an symbol of wisdom and destroyer of all obstacles.
While this is a beautiful story that touches heart of devotee strengthening his devotion. Nevertheless, staying at the level of mere story will make us lose the pearl of deep vedantic knowledge hidden in the shell. There is a subtle but strong message hidden in the symbolism. The original form of Ganesh symbolizes a creation only out of prakṛti. That Ganesh lacked puruṣa tatva. Prakṛti on her own is insentient in vedantic terminology. It is jaḍa. She is beautiful but incomplete. She lacks caitanya – sentiency, the discerning power of intellect to recognize good vs bad, right vs wrong. This kept Ganesh in ignorance and stopped him to recognize śrī parameśvara in the form of Lord Shiv standing in front of him.
To complete him, Shiv-ji had no choice than remove his ego (Ganesh’s human head) and then giving him wisdom by adding puruṣa tatva in him (giving elephant’s head). This caitanya gave him discriminatory intellect that enabled him to destroy his own ignorance. He also became remover of obstacles from the path of everyone who worships him by sharing that wisdom with his devotees. Shiv-ji also gave him boon to be the first one to be worshipped. This has a beautiful symbolic meaning. When we start any worship worthy effort, scriptures advise us to drop our ego first and act from the level of wisdom. That will certainly bring in favorable results.
We resemble only prakṛti when we are born, with no discriminatory intellect. Most of us chooses to stay like that, living animalistic life, wearing a cloak of human body, pursuing our innate instincts of survival and propagation. Only a few brave ones chose to take the higher path, destroy their ego, only to be reborn in a new avatar with bright effulgence of caitanya / puruṣa tatva. This makes them truly complete.
May the lord destroy our ego-laden forms and give us a new form with HIS own essence.
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