09/13/2021
Today is Ganesh Chaturthi, a popular Indian festival that celebrates Ganesha, the elephant-headed deity known for his ability to overcome obstacles. I have always approached my understanding of the Hindu deities as archetypes within nature and within ourselves. From that perspective, I’m able to connect to their energies directly and on these special festivals, I focus my meditations on deepening my understanding.
I was told many years ago by a Vedic scholar that although Ganesha’s head was perceived by artists to be an elephant, it actually represents the human nervous system — his trunk is the spine, the face the medulla, and the ears the cerebellum. This view of Ganesha really appealed to me as a neurologist and helped me to better connect to his known role in unleashing one’s intellectual capacity. Ganesha inspired sage Vyasa to dictate the Mahabharata (one of the most important literary works in India) to him as he wrote down each word.
This year as we approach Ganesh Chaturthi, I have been contemplating how our intellect can be used to either remove obstacles in our lives or create them. Much of our experience in life is reflected by our interpretation and subsequent judgement of events or objects. Even when it comes to a simple thing such as eating foods, our mind will choose certain foods even though they are harmful to the body because our mind has labeled them as “tasty” — and reject other healthy options because our mind has labeled them as “not tasty.” In reality, tastes are just sensory input on the tongue that the brain interprets, and the body requires a variety of tastes to stay healthy, including foods that are bitter.
How do we begin to use our intellectual capacity to remove obstacles in our lives rather than create them? One step is to simply become aware of your preferences and acknowledge that they are neither right nor wrong, but rather a conditioned response to something. Because our preferences are conditioned, they can be reconditioned towards ones that actually remove the obstacles in our life.
Today, take this challenge — if there is a choice that you know is good for you that you choose to avoid because of a conditioned preference, try doing it just for today and observe your mind’s reaction to breaking a conditioned response. Perhaps it is eating a bitter vegetable in place of a pastry, or going to sleep by 10pm rather than staying up until after midnight. Whatever the behavior, contemplate the energy of Ganesha as one who is capable of removing obstacles through the use of the intellect, and see how that energy manifests in your life today. Let me know what happens!
