Salutations to Lord Ganesha the Divine_Mathematician, Super_Spiritual_Leader, Commander of Supernatural_Intelligence and the Unique Universal_Trouble_Shooter.
Every Vedic ‘God’ is actually a theoretical philosophical ‘Concept’, well defined and evolved by the Vedic sages, as they got involved in their efforts to understand “Mother Nature” and all about her past, present and future activities. Here are some intellectual churnings about the Vedopanishadic ‘Concept’ of Lord Ganesha and the ways of getting benefited from him.
Heavy dependence on ‘Intelligence’ and ‘Knowledge’ is the basic demand of the modern concept of building any ‘Knowledge based Society’. Most developed nations are already claiming that their citizens are living in a knowledge-based society and India is building up it’s educational, political and social systems to attain this goal within the next few decades. Presently we are assessing the “Intellectual capability” of any individual on the basis of his-
a) Mathematical computational capability
b) Vast memory storage & quick memorization
c) Ability to solve quiz’s, puzzles etc.
d) Ability and linguistic command in debates etc.
All these capabilities are performed by one’s Consciously Awakened Intelligence (CAI) and believed to be carried out via the person’s brain, in its awakened state and in good health. Any person is unable to access CAI, when affected by high fever or under the influence of drugs, wine etc. On the other hand, every person is also in possession of (24×7) All_time active divine ‘Intellectual_Power’ (AADIP), which is not in his willful control, but it instantaneously works and takes action in the best interest of the person, even when a) in deep sleep or b) unconscious or c) in coma etc. e.g. If the person gets pricked by a sharp thorn or a needle (administering some medicine), even that a) small injury, b) it’s location and c) extent etc. are carefully noted and instantaneously a well-planned activity is initiated to cure this problem (विघ्न) of injury. In Vedic terminology, this divine computational and intellectual support provided in every such action, can be recognized as provided by the divine power (सिद्धि_बुद्धि_पति, विघ्न_हर्ता) Lord Ganesha.
In fact, this divine supernatural mathematically computing expertise mode or facet of Mother Nature is omni_time, omnipresent in the entire universe and takes suitable actions in every living as well as, nonliving species from an atom’s beautiful atomic structure to beautiful structures of huge_galaxies. These are just a couple of examples reasonably known to the modern science. There are many more presences such as black_holes, dark_matter, etc. which are just getting vaguely visualized and the nature of their internal structures and life spans etc. are just like fictitious predictions at the present moment of time.
Everything that happens in this universe, happens as per the laws of Mother Nature and all modern scientists are always busy in trying to understand these laws, (so that they can hopefully be used to create new facilities, prosperity, entertainments etc. for global human welfare). Logically therefore, on the universal scale of operations of Mother Nature, almost infinite number of these natural computational analysis are continuously being carried out in top priority and subsequently, the activities follow the outcome (results) of these calculations. The birth, growth, aging, decay and death of stars, planets, galaxies, black holes etc. all fall within this logical prediction.
The Vedic sages have therefore given the honor of “First_Salutations” (आद्य_वंदनीयत्व) to this theoretical concept of Lord_Ganesha. This is one of the ways of Vedopanishadic attempts to understand the universal activities of Mother Nature. Like other Vedic concepts, this divine concept is also projected to have a symbolic human form with fat_big_belly, along with the head like an elephant. There is almost a dozen or more ways explained in Pauranic texts to understand this symbolic representation. One of the best ways is as follows. The manifested ‘Universe’ is logically expected to have the shape of a huge spheroidal with its size depending on its age from its birth. This spheroidal (ब्रह्माण्ड) tied up with time (शेष_मौञ्जीबंधनम्) is the big_fat_belly (लम्बोदर) of Lord Ganesha. The two sets of three characteristics (सत्व, रज, तम & उत्पत्ति, स्थिति, लय) are represented by the elephant like head & the trunk (शुण्डा) represents the tie_up between the (सगुण, साकार) belly and the (निर्गुण, निराकार) head.
To understand the spiritual or divine nature of humanly accessible ‘CAI’ “(Consciously Awakened Intelligence)” and it’s relationship with “AADIP” (the ‘All_time active divine ‘Intellectual_Power’), it is obvious that ‘CAI’ is limited whereas “AADIP” is almost unlimited. The CAI cannot be accessed and used by the awakened spirit (or jīvātmā) without the knowledge (and indirect approval) of the AADIP present within himself/ herself. The personality of every living species, is a complex combination of structures conveniently understood in several parallel ways. Even non-Vedic religious scriptures describe them in similar fashions of combinations of their faiths.
In Vedopanishadic literature, every living species is made out of –
a) A gross physical body whose characteristics can be measured. e.g. height, weight, shape, size, limbs (like hands, legs etc.), bones, skin, hairs etc.
b) Several automated or semi_automated systems (इन्द्रियाणि) working in a coordinated fashion as part & parcel of this gross physical body (with partial control of CAI on a few of them). e.g. the breathing system, the digestive system, the blood circulatory system, the nervous sensory system, etc.
c) An inner subtle presence called ‘Mind’ which does not possess any characteristics which can be detected and measured by any instrumental applications (available till date).
d) Still subtler level of presence called as ‘Intellect’ which also does not possess any characteristics which can be detected and measured by any instrumental applications (available till date). It is vaguely believed that this presence resides in the brain. But we find intellectually brilliant responses coming from species like viruses, plants etc.) which have no ‘Brain’.
e) Still deeper subtle level of presence called as ‘Spirit’ (जीवात्मा) which also does not possess any characteristics which can be detected and measured by any instrumental applications (available till date) but whose presence or absence is the most crucial difference in a living species and its dead body.
f) Still further deeper subtle level of presence called as ‘Mini_God_supreme’ (परमात्मा) which also does not possess any characteristics which can be detected and measured by any instrumental applications (available till date) but whose presence activates auto_response activities even after the death via ‘AADIP’ (to destroy the dead body, which are used by the doctors to prepare their postmortem reports).
In theoretical essence, both जीवात्मा and परमात्मा are almost identical.
Now, ‘Yoga’ techniques (especially the Patanjali Astānga Yoga आत्म_संयमन, चित्त_वृत्ति_निरोधन, राजयोग) procedures are designed to try to establish an intellectual cum emotional link or bond between the जीवात्मा and परमात्मा, via CAI and AADIP. There are five modes or moods of functioning of ‘चित्त’ (जीवात्मा, Consciousness) called as-
1) मूढ : meaning foolish (ignorant),
2) क्षिप्त : extrovert ( jumping’s towards surrounding environment, incidences, objects etc.),
3) विक्षिप्त : scattered, distracted, agitated lured by extrovert objectives,
4) एकाग्र : highly focused and concentrated
5) निरुद्ध : highly disciplined
For divine ‘Peace’, ‘Tranquility’, ‘Silence’, ‘Happiness’ the गणेश_योग practitioners must rely on एकाग्र & निरुद्ध states of their consciousness. Salutations to Lord_Ganesha the Divine_Mathematician & Commander of Supernatural_Intelligence.
Dr. Dhananjay B. Ghare, Former Scientist, IISC, Bengaluru
Vedic WAVES 