LORD GANESH

Lord Ganesh, or Lord Ganesha is the elephant headed god. Ganesh rose to being the lord of all things that exist by triumphing over his brother, Kartikay, in a contest. The contest was a race around the whole universe, yet Ganesh did not race like his brother, he simply walked around his mother and father, Shiva and Parvati, as the center of the universe.

There are many different stories of how Lord Ganesh came to have an elephant head. One story goes that Ganesh was created by Parvati in the absence of Shiva, when Shiva returned and asked to see Parvati, Ganesh refused. Infuriated Shiva cut off his head, but later on brought life back to Ganesh and gave him a head, but the only one at the time was an elephants head. There are many other stories such as these that tell about Ganesh and his elephants head. Ganesh is the son and daughter of Parvati and Shiva, Ganesh is also one of the five prime Hindu deities ( Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva and Durga are the other four) Ganesh's head symbolizes the soul and his body symbolizes the earthly existence of human beings. The head of ganesh has wisdom and the trunk symbolizes Om, a sacred mantra.

Ganesh rides a rat that symbolizes the dominated demon of vanity and impertinence. Ganesh has many hands, in these hands he holds many objects these include a conch that makes the sound of Akash, a Laddu that symbolizes Sattva, a snake means control over poison and passion (reference to Shiva), hatchet cuts away desires, Mudra gives fearlessness, and the broken tusk is the object with which Ganesh wrote the Mahabaratha. There are 32 forms of Ganesh, the changes are usually minor, for example one form of Ganesh he is sitting on a lion rather than a rat.

People worship Ganesh beacause he symbolizes many great things such as, Lord of success, destroyer of evil and obstacles, education, knowledge, wisdom, and wealth.