My Broken Ganesha & Bad Luck

Ganesha: Lord of Success
From Subhamoy Das,Your Guide to Hinduism.

Ganesha — the elephant-deity riding a mouse — has become one of the commonest mnemonics for anything associated with Hinduism. This not only suggests the importance of Ganesha, but also shows how popular and pervasive this deity is in the minds of the masses.

The Lord of Success. The son of Shiva and Parvati, Ganesha has an elephantine countenance with a curved trunk and big ears, and a huge pot-bellied body of a human being. He is the Lord of success and destroyer of evils and obstacles. He is also worshipped as the god of education, knowledge, wisdom and wealth. In fact, Ganesha is one of the five prime Hindu deities (Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva and Durga being the other four) whose idolatry is glorified as the panchayatana puja.

Significance of the Ganesha Form. Ganesha's head symbolizes the Atman or the soul, which is the ultimate supreme reality of human existence, and his human body signifies Maya or the earthly existence of human beings. The elephant head denotes wisdom and its trunk represents Om, the sound symbol of cosmic reality. In his upper right hand Ganesha holds a goad, which helps him propel mankind forward on the eternal path and remove obstacles from the way. The noose in Ganesha's left hand is a gentle implement to capture all difficulties.

The broken tusk that Ganesha holds like a pen in his lower right hand is a symbol of sacrifice, which he broke for writing the Mahabharata. The rosary in his other hand suggests that the pursuit of knowledge should be continuous. The laddoo (sweet) he holds in his trunk indicates that one must discover the sweetness of the Atman. His fan-like ears convey that he is all ears to our petition. The snake that runs round his waist represents energy in all forms. And he is humble enough to ride the lowest of creatures, a mouse.

How Ganesha Got His Head. The story of the birth of this zoomorphic deity, as depicted in the Shiva Purana, goes like this: Once goddess Parvati, while bathing, created a boy out of the dirt of her body and assigned him the task of guarding the entrance to her bathroom. When Shiva, her husband returned, he was surprised to find a stranger denying him access, and struck off the boy's head in rage. Parvati broke down in utter grief and to soothe her, Shiva sent out his squad (gana) to fetch the head of any sleeping being who was facing the north. The company found a sleeping elephant and brought back its severed head, which was then attached to the body of the boy. Shiva restored its life and made him the leader (pati) of his troops. Hence his name 'Ganapati'. Shiva also bestowed a boon that people would worship him and invoke his name before undertaking any venture.

However, there's another less popular story of his origin, found in the Brahma Vaivarta Purana: Shiva asked Parvati to observe the punyaka vrata for a year to appease Vishnu in order to have a son. When a son was born to her, all the gods and goddesses assembled to rejoice on its birth. Lord Shani, the son of Surya (Sun-God), was also present but he refused to look at the infant. Perturbed at this behaviour, Parvati asked him the reason, and Shani replied that his looking at baby would harm the newborn. However, on Parvati's insistence when Shani eyed the baby, the child's head was severed instantly. All the gods started to bemoan, whereupon Vishnu hurried to the bank of river Pushpabhadra and brought back the head of a young elephant, and joined it to the baby's body, thus reviving it.

Ganesha, the Destroyer of Pride. Ganesha is also the destroyer of vanity, selfishness and pride. He is the personification of material universe in all its various magnificent manifestations. "All Hindus worship Ganesha regardless of their sectarian belief," says D N Singh in A Study of Hinduism. "He is both the beginning of the religion and the meeting ground for all Hindus."

Ganesh Chaturthi. The devotees of Ganesha are known as 'Ganapatyas', and the festival to celebrate and glorify him is called Ganesh Chaturthi.

A broken statue of Ganesha can give it's owner bad luck. Just this week, I read an article in the Philadelphia Metro newspaper that my wife, Sunnie, showed me about a woman who went missing in Chicago after trying to prevent bad luck from occurring due to a broken Ganesha by following advice from a Hindu religious leader. I really do hope & pray that the police find her alive. Here is an excerpt of the story. "A statue of Ganesha, the Hindu Deity of good fortune and wisdom, was mailed to the family by relatives but arrived broken, her husband said. A religious leader told them it should be wrapped in a red cloth and placed in a lake or a river to prevent bad luck, he said."

My Broken Ganesha & Bad Luck. By now you are wondering where am I going with this story? Ok, let me take you back a few years. It is October, 2005, Me, Sunnie, Bobby, & Aidan took a trip up to Jenkintown to goto a New Age store called Aphrodites Dove which now has since gone out of business. This by the way was when I first decided to become a Wiccan and we went there to get Craft supplies for my Altar. While looking around the store, Sunnie spied the above Ganesha oil burner, and because she really liked it, I bought it for her. We took it home and because our house was in the midst of a remodel, we kept it in the box it came in safely in our bedroom, or so we thought.

About a couple of months later, I was vacuuming the carpet in our room and inadvertantly ran over the small box that contained Ganesha and broke him into a couple of pieces. Three of the hands were broken along with a part of his knee. I didn't realize it until a few minutes later when I opened the box and saw it broken. I tried to gorilla glue it and it didn't hold too well. I believe that this was close to Christmas that year and come February, 7th, 2006, I got hurt at work and herniated 3 new discs. Now I had 6 herniations and was once again out on Workers Comp.

Over the course of just about 2 years now, the bad luck started to pile on that either effected me or a member of my family:

• I got fired from my job as Maintenance Supervisor in September of 2006 for being out hurt for 6 months.
• I had 5 more herniations occur just this past year due to the other 6 effecting my back & neck.
• My knees are now going bad as well starting with my left knee in December of 2006 and my right knee within the last few months.
• My transmission in my truck is going bad & has no Reverse. A new tranny will cost $1800.
• I lost $400 a month due to a fast one my old Comp Lawyer pulled on me by when he filed a petition to keep the Insurance Company from kicking me off of Comp, he claims that this counts as funds recovered so according to the paper I signed, he is entitled to it.
• My laptop died just this past August.
• My father-in-law passed away in this past August as well.
• My wife, Sunnie, injured her wrist at work a few months ago & it is getting worse.
• My son Bobby fractured his wrist a few weeks ago.
• The original contractor I hired to build the addition to my house, had a hole dug for the basement & then took off with the $12,000 that I gave him as payment to start the work & which a lawyer I hired to sue him, found out that he flew the coup & can't be found.
• The 1st Coven I belonged to booted me out just this past March due to immature BS.
• And finally, some very personal things are happening (or should I say not happening, if you know what I mean ) to a 40 year old male.

I might of missed a few minor things, but you get the picture of what is happening. So anyhow, it is now Friday, December 28, 2007, and I took a step in the right direction to end the bad luck. I followed the advice that the religious leader gave that Chicago woman & her family, wrap Ganesha is a red cloth and place him in a river!

Before I went to Physical Therapy (PT) yesterday, I placed the broken Ganesha on my Altar in the morning as I was doing my morning prayers, lit the candle that came with it, cleansed him with incense, & prayed that he will have a safe journey down the river. I extinguished the candle and carefully wrapped him in a red cloth and bound him in a green cord that I had. I then again moved the wrapped Ganesha through the smoke from my Altar's incense & again prayed that the bad luck will be no more and carried him to the car. I went to PT and received a great massage and then drove to the river to place Ganesha in the Delaware River. I went to where the ball fields are at Pennypack Park on the River behind the Prisons at Rhawn Street & State Road, parked my car, walked to the furthest point on the manmade fishing reef, said a prayer wishing Ganesha a safe journey, and placed him in the river. He didn't sink at all. He kind of just floated there for a bit, rolled over, caught a current, and then slowly floated away. I stood there for about 5 minutes and watched him just floating there, then finally I walked back to my car and then with each step, I just felt the burden of bad luck get lifted off of me.

I talked to Sunnie later that day and she felt as if the cloud of bad luck has left her as well. We talked about how strange it would be that if on Saturday the 29th of December, the $20 lottery ticket we bought as part of the Million Dollar PA Lottery Raffle would be one of the 5 lucky winners of a million bucks (I would be happy with one of the $100,000 prizes too!). But the way our luck has been, I feel that divine intervention would have to occur to break the streak of bad luck that has happened and hopefully, that placing a broken Ganesha wrapped in a red cloth in the Delaware River was the right course of action to end our Bad Luck!

Happy Holidays & have a Great New Year!

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