Lord Ganesh
This last summer, I was exposed to Ganesh or Ganapati in a Tibetan Buddhist context. Up to this point, I’d only been familiar with him from the Hindu context:
I’d always been fond of Ganesh as an opener of ways, a clearer of obstacles. I am friends with a number of Shaivite Tantrikas and they are all quite fond of him. Whether I could be considered a strict Buddhist Tantric practitioner is pretty open to questions on most days. Ganesh was once the primary deity of some tantric sects, as Mike Magee mentions
here:
Until the middle ages c.e., it appears that there was a separate cult of tantriks, the Ganapatyas, who followed this Deva and his Shakti. Like Shiva, he was worshipped via a linga, but in this case red.
Mike also quotes Arthur Avalon on Mahaganapati:
“…he is to be meditated upon as seated on a lotus consisting of the letters of the alphabet. The sadhaka should meditate upon an island composed of nine gems, placed in an ocean of sugarcane juice; a soft gentle breeze blows over the island and makes the waves wash the shore thereof. The place is a forest of Mandara, Parijata and other Kalpa trees and creepers, and the light from the gems thereon casts a red glow on the ground. The six gladdening seasons are always there. The sun and moon brighten up the place. In the middle of the island is a Parijata tree whereon are the nine gems and beneath it is the great Pitha (altar) on which is the lotus whereon is seated Mahaganapati. His face is that of the great elephant with the moon on it. He is red and has three eyes. He is held in loving embrace by his beloved who is seated in his lap and has a lotus in her hand. In each of his ten hands he is holding a pomegranate, a mace, a bow, a trident, a discus, a lotus, a noose, a red water-lily, a sheaf of paddy and his own tusk. He is holding a jewelled jar in his trunk. By the flapping of his ears, he is driving away the bees attracted to his temples by the fluid exuding therefrom, and he is scattering gems from out of the jar held in his trunk. He is wearing a ruby-studded crown and is adorned with gem.”
Sharadatilakatantra, Agamanusandhana Samiti, 1933.
This last summer, at retreat, I found out that Ganesh, like many Hindu gods, had been taken up by the tantric Buddhist practitioners long ago. Recently, I found images of a Tibetan Buddhist thangka to him, showing him in a very Tibetan style:
In any case, I found this pretty interesting though not for any easy to explain reason.
August 5th, 2008 at 8:48 am
Lord Ganesh is an universal deity and His aura has its roots practically worldwide. His form has been seen in Greece as the Greek God of wisdom, Janus, where he is depicted with the head of an elephant and like Ganesh he is also invoked at the commencement of prayers and auspicious events.
Rome: In Rome, He is known as the God of learning and depicted with a quill and inkpot.
In Sri Lanka, Lord Ganesh is known as Pillaiyar or Gana Deviyo. In Jaffna, He is known as the guardian of the crops and so we see many of His temples near the fields. The Karunakara Pilliayar Temple is said to be constructed by Karunakara Tondaiman, the commander of Kulottunga Chola I dating back to 1070-1118 AD.
The rest of the article is available on http://nayna.in/blog/divine-grace/lord-ganesh-the-worlds-most-popular-deity/
September 3rd, 2008 at 12:19 pm
'Syamantak' diamond and the curse of Seeing moon in Vinayagar Chaturti Day
Continuing with the divine tales of Sri Krishna, Lord Mahadeva told Parvati—
Read this story if you mistakenly seen the moon today no evil will befall you thru the year….
Sri Krishna had 16 thousand queens among whom Satyabhama, Kalindi, Mitravinda, etc. were prominent.King Sattajit had a priceless diamond named–Syamantak, which he had presented to his younger brother–Prasena. Sri Krishna was fascinated by that diamond and demanded it from Prasena, which he refused to part with.
One day, Sri Krishna alongwith Prasena and other yadavas went into the forest for hunting. While chasing a deer, Prasena seceded from his group and was killed by a lion. The lion took the diamond and started playing with it. Incidentally, Jambavan–who had once fought along with Sri Ram against Ravana, saw the lion playing with the diamond. He killed that lion and took the diamond in his possession.
When Sri Krishna returned to Dwarka, he was surprised by a strange rumour, which pervaded the whole city. Some people suspected that Sri Krishna had killed Prasena for the diamond.Sri Krishna was very much distributed by this baseless rumour. To clear the doubts, he went into the forest accompanied by all the residents of Dwarka and showed the dead body of Prasena, which was still lying there. When people saw the mutilated corpse of Prasena, which bore marks of the lion's claws and canines, they became convinced of Sri Krishna's innocense.
While returning back to Dwarka, Sri Krishna saw an effulgent cave. Sri Krishna was very surprised and wanted to find out the source of light. He entered the cave and saw Prasena's diamond hanging on top of a cradle, in which a child was lying. A woman was singing a lulaby so that the child falls asleep—'The lion killed Prasena while Jambavan killed the lion and acquired this diamond from its possession. O child! Don't cry as this priceless diamond belongs to your father.'Sri Krishna furiously blew his conch. Jambavan came out from the cave after listening to the sound of the conch. A fierce duel took place between them, which continued for ten days. At last, Jambavan realized that the person against whom he was fighting was none other than Sri Ram himself. Jambhavan then gave his daughter–Jambavati to Krishna in marriage and gave lot of wealth as dowry including that 'Syamantak' diamond. Bhadraraj had three daughters–Sulakshamana, Nagnajiti and Susheela. Sri Krishna had married all three of them in a 'Swayamwara'. This way, Sri Krishna had altogether eight prominent queen consorts–Rukmini, Satyabhama, Kalindi, Mitravinda, Jambavati, Nagnajiti, Sulakshamana and Susheela.