Last Wednesday, on Ganesh Chaturthi, a Punjabi friend interestedly watched me receive sms greetings from Mumbai and Chennai. “What’s his story?” she asked, though she ritually buys Lakshmi-Ganesh clay images each year for the prayer on Diwali evening. Perhaps this most endearing aspect of Divinity is considered a regional deity by some in the North because of the importance of ‘Ganapati’ as a festival in Maharashtra ever since its rejuvenation in those parts as a nationalistic rallying point by Lokmanya Tilak.Ganesha/Ganapati means lord/leader of the Ganas, the motley crew that capered in Shivji’s bharat when he went to marry Parvati. Ganesha got to lead them later, after Parvati created him during a bath with the scurf from her own body. A meaningful lila (story of Divine Play) is of how Sage Narada strolled by Kailash one day with a marvellous mango, invested with special powers. Both Kartikeya and Ganesha wanted it, so a competition was devised. Whoever went around the world first would get the fruit. Kartikeya flew off on his peacock with a pitying look at Ganesha’s mouse. But the wise elder brother just folded his hands, shut his eyes in meditation and circled his seated parents, for wasn’t the whole world embodied in Shiva-Parvati? No need to wonder who won.Kartikeya was so mortified, cluck our old mythmakers lovingly of their darling “Kumar”, their youthful spear-throwing hero, that he went off to claim South India as his domain, where he is still loved to bits (his cult originally centred around Rohtak: another story). However, when Kartikeya, called Murugan, the Beautiful One, needed help to win the forest maiden, Valli, it was Ganesha who both strategised and acted, true to his other name, Vigneshwaraya, the Lord Who Removes Obstacles. The South dotes on Ganesha also as the ancient deity of the land and generally knows his stories. But somehow, it’s very moving that many in the dear old North, not bothering overmuch with whys and wherefores, also hold fast to Ganesha going just by their gut feeling of connecting with Goodness. As 17th century French mathematician-philosopher Pascal said, the heart has its reasons, which reason does not know.
