Saturday 6 May 2017

Lord Ganesha and the Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram

Ganesha is the Power that removes obstacles by the force of Knowledge.

                                                     *   *  *

Ganesha (among other things) is the Devata of spiritual Knowledge.

                   -   Sri Aurobindo


(On Yoga 2, Letters on Yoga, Tome 1, pp. 377-378)

                                                    *   *  *

You see, this is how it happened: there's this Ganesh ... We had a meditation (this was more than thirty years ago) in the room where 'Prosperity' is now distributed. There were eight or ten of us, I believe. We used to make sentences with flowers; I arranged the flowers, and each one made a sentence with the different flowers I had put there. And one day when the subject of prosperity or wealth came up, I thought (they always say that Ganesh is the god of money, of fortune, of the world's wealth), I thought, 'Isn't this whole story of the god with an elephant trunk merely a lot of human imagination?' Thereupon, we meditated. And who should I see walk in and park himself in front of me but a living being, absolutely alive and luminous, with a trunk that long ... and smiling! So then, in my meditation, I said, 'Ah! So it's true that you exist!' - 'Of course I exist! And you may ask me for whatever you wish, from a monetary standpoint, of course, and I will give it to you!'
So I asked. And for about ten years, it poured in, like this (gesture of torrents). It was incredible. I would ask, and at the next Darshan, or a month or several days later, depending, there it was.

(Mother's Agenda, Vol. 1, July 6, 1958, page 175)

Europeans don't have the inner sense at all. To them, everything is like this (gesture), a surface - not even that, a film on the surface. And they can't feel anything behind. But it's an absolutely real fact that the Presence is there - I guarantee it. People have given me statuettes of various gods, little things in metal, wood or ivory; and as soon as I take one in my hand, the god is there. I have a Ganesh [[Ganesh (or Ganapati): The first son of the Supreme Mother, represented with an elephant trunk and an ample belly. Ganesh is the god who presides over material realizations (over money in particular). He is also known as the scribe of divine knowledge. ]] (I have been given several) and if I take it in my hand and look at it for a moment, he's there. I have a little one by my bedside where I work, eat, and meditate. And then there is a Narayana [[Narayana: another name of Vishnu, one of the gods of the Hindu trinity. He watches over the creation, whereas Brahma is the creator and Shiva the destroyer. ]] which comes from the Himalayas, from Badrinath. I use them both as paperweights for my handkerchiefs! (My handkerchiefs are kept on a little table next to my bed, and I keep Ganapati  and Narayana on top of them.) And no one touches them but me - I pick them up, take a fresh handkerchief, and put them back again. Once I blended some nail polish myself, and before applying it, I put some on Ganapati's forehead and stomach and fingertips! We are on the best of terms, very friendly. So to me, you see, all this is very true. ...

(Mother’s Agenda, Vol. 2, April 29, 1961, Page 193)

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