Day 9: Ganesha

I’ve said before that part of what I like best about Hinduism is how you get to pick and choose your favorite deities. I also like the fact that the choices are so much fun. I mean, compare the stern God of Judaism and the suffering Jesus of Christianity with my favorite Hindu god, Ganesha. No offense to Jews or Catholics, but Ganesha is just a hell of a lot more fun.

Although there are tons of good pictures of Ganesha available online, I’m too poor (and too cheap) to pay for one, so I drew my own. I fully admit I’m not artist—that should have been obvious from my Diwali decorations—and I did this in about 5 minutes (with crayons), so I apologize for the quality, but it should be enough to give you a basic idea of what Ganesha looks like (see picture below).

First of all, he’s got the head of an elephant, which is kind of funny, especially to a former Catholic, who’s used to envisioning “God” in strictly human form—unless it’s the Holy Spirit, but that’s a whole other ball of wax, which we’ll get to sometime in December.

Second, Ganesha has got that elephant head stuck on a human body—but a great big roly-poly fat body. As someone who struggles with the up-and-down cycle of weight loss and (more often) weight gain, I can definitely appreciate the idea of an overweight deity.

I’ve read that Ganesha is the only known fat deity in any religion. I don’t know (at least not yet) whether that’s actually true, but I like the idea that it is. It makes him even more strange and unique. And before you bring up the Buddha to try to prove the theory wrong, remember that the Buddha isn’t a god, just an enlightened person (like I soon will be).

According to Hindu mythology, Ganesha ended up looking the way he does because of a very weird incident. The story goes like this: Ganesha is the son of the goddess Parvati and the god Shiva—well, sort of. Apparently, Parvati created the child Ganesha out of the dirt that came off her body while she was taking a bath. Then she put the newborn kid to work, guarding the door to her bathroom.

Shiva came home to see his wife and was understandably surprised to find a strange child blocking the door to her bathroom, so he got a little ticked off and cut off Ganesha’s head.

Parvati, also understandably, freaked out when she saw that her husband had decapitated her child. To calm her down, Shiva sent some of his men out to find a replacement head for Ganesha. They returned with an elephant head (and nobody seemed to think that was odd), so Shiva popped it on and brought Ganesha back to life.

That story, right there, is far more hilarious than anything I ever heard while growing up in the Catholic Church. But then again, the Catholic Church in general isn’t really about the entertainment factor. It’s still pretty much catering to the entertainment tastes of medieval society, which apparently thought that some fancy outfits, stained glass, and incense made for a very good time.

Anyway, Ganesha grew up to become the god of success and the destroyer of obstacles. That’s another reason I like him so much. I have plenty of obstacles—oh, like my inability to stick to an exercise routine—that I could use some help in destroying.

I almost forgot to mention one other bizarre thing about Ganesha: He’s got four arms attached to that big ole body. In one hand, he holds a goad—a stick he uses to prod human beings along the eternal path.

In another hand, he holds a noose, which he uses to catch any difficulties that his followers might face.

In the third hand is a part of his own tusk, which he uses as a pen. Legend says that he broke off the tusk himself in his fever of inspiration while he was writing the Mahabharata, one of the great Sanskrit epics. As a writer, I've got to love the image of someone being so caught up in literature that he has to use a part of his own body to keep on writing.

In the last hand, Ganesha holds a rosary, to remind us that we should always continue our quest for knowledge.

Finally, in his trunk, Ganesha carries some sweets. Although the snack is supposedly there to remind followers of the sweetness of the soul, I think it also kind of explains why Ganesha has a bit of a weight problem. But hey, how can you not love a deity who carries around a snack at all times? I think that’s something we should all be doing. The world would probably be a more cheerful place.