The Metaphorical Ganesh

Among all the Hindu deities, my favourite is Ganesh, with his pot-belly and the face of an elephant. In this post I want to talk about my fascination with Ganesh ji and how I understand his metaphorical meanings, as well as, about a book called “Ginger and Ganesh” which I read recently.

The above image of Ganesh is from Guwahati in the north-east of India, where I lived for a couple of years. I love the 3 baby monkeys playing on the statue of Ganesh ji. It expresses perfectly how I see Ganesh as a deity. However, let me start this post with the book.

The Book: Ginger and Ganesh

Nani Power’s quirky book “Ginger and Ganesh – An Adventure in Indian Cooking, Culture and Love” (2019, Counterpoint, Berkeley) is a personal memoir of her love story with an Indian student and an exploration of Indian homes in North Virginia (USA) in search of traditional Indian recipes.

The book is dedicated to the Ganesh, “O elephant-faced God, Ganesha, you are served by the attendants of Shiva and you eat forest apples and blackberries. You are Uma’s son, the destroyer of sorrows. I bow to the lotus feet of the remover of obstacles”.

In the book, she explains her fascination with the figure of Ganesh: “On this path I met Sri Ganesh. You may be familiar with him: he is the ever-popular elephant-headed deity, accompanied by a tiny mouse. He has a large jovial belly, and holds a conch shell. I’m not sure why he in particular ignited my passion for this culture and beyond, but perhaps it was the fact that his statue was present the first time I tasted the incendiary potions of India I came to love. Or maybe, the wisdom and calm that he emanates soothed my world-weary soul, and he seemed to be a constant reminder—at the doorway of most houses, or in their altars—that I was on a spiritual path as well as physical.”

In the book, stories of encounters with Indian families alternate with vegetarian recipes and brief reflections about Ganesh ji, after she had placed a simple advertisement in the Craiglist about wishing to learn traditional Indian recipes. The book chronicles her experiences over a period of one year, summarised in the following words:

Almost imperceptibly, the culture of this rich and varied country slithered into my life like a sinuous cobra, combining the modern ways of the United States with the Technicolor of India, while I ate some damn good food. I wanted to understand the Indian culture and people; and what seemed so enchanting was that I was constantly being surprised and challenged by how complex—and contradictory—it can be. While at one time thousands of years old, in another time it seems jauntily modern, yet where this occurs bewilders me. I have learned to keep an open mind. Now, after this year of cooking real Indian food, I realize that the only real way to learn to cook is through the senses and heart. It turns out that it is the only real way to live and to love, as well …This simple year long cooking lesson—innocently started as a little two-line ad on Craigslist because I was frustrated with my lame attempts at Palak Paneer—taught me a lot more than how to make a killer spinach and cheese curry. It smashed open my heart, in so many ways. The kindness of the women, the beauty of the culture, the explosion of flavors, and, curiously, the very physical act of cooking led me to examine what is beyond all this: the spiritual realm.

Ganesh, the People’s God

The word Ganesh is made of Gan (people) and Ish (God) and he is one of the most popular deities in Hinduism.

Hinduism has different and sometimes contradictory ways of defining and understanding God. There are Hindu hymns which talk of God as a formless, beginning-less, ending-less, eternal consciousness which pervades all atoms and molecules. God is also present in each of us, humans, animals and plants, as part of our consciousness, as part of our soul. Then there are Hindu hymns which identify God through human and animal avatars – the pantheon of 33 million major and minor Gods.

Each Hindu deity is known by different names in different parts of India and Ganesh ji is no exception. Some of his other names are – Ganapati (people’s leader), Adidev (ancient God), Gajanan (elephant face), Gaurinandan (son of Gauri), Lambodara (big belly), Prathameesh (first God) and Vidyadhar (one who holds knowledge).

Mythology About Ganesh

The Hindu Gods can be seen as statues of deities, some of them in strange shapes and forms linked with mythologies. They can also be seen as symbols of different aspects of the human reality with deeper meanings.

The mythological stories about Ganesh ji, present him as the creation of Parvati (the daughter of the Himalaya mountain), the consort of Shiva. While Shiva is away on a long journey, Parvati creates Ganesh out of her own body. When Shiva comes back, Ganesha is a child, who does not recognise him. Since his mother is taking a bath, he blocks Shiva’s path, refusing to let him enter their home. An angry Shiva cuts his head. When Parvati finds this out, she is grief-stricken so, Shiva sends his men to look for a substitute head, and those men bring the head of an elephant. Thus, Ganesh ends up with an elephant's head.

Metaphorical Understandings of Ganesh

I am sure that Freud would have a theory about meanings and significance of Ganesh linking him with sex or sexuality. However, I think that Ganesha is a metaphorical representation of human brain and the different functions of mind in Hinduism.

The story of the replacement of Ganesh’s head with that of an elephant can be seen as a metaphor for human evolution, the arrival of Homo sapiens, those with the memory and intelligence. Elephants are known for their memory and their intelligence, and thus Ganesh can be seen as a representation of the human brain and therefore, of the emotions and instincts, as well as of the rational mind.

Different names of Ganesh point towards the different functions of the brain. As Vighnakarta and Vinayak, he is the one who creates obstacles; and as Avighna, Siddhivinayak and Vighnaharan, he is also the one who overcomes obstacles. As Vidyadhar, he holds all the knowledge. As Yogadeep, he is the one who does yoga and meditation. As Uddanda, he is the wild one, the one difficult to control. As Sarvasiddhanta he controls different skills. As Harsha and Pramod, he signifies happiness. As Kaveesha, he inspires our poetry and creativity. As Ekadrishta, he controls our mind’s focus and attention.

Thus, for me Ganesh is the guide to the path of meditation and reflection for controlling the mind and the senses, for focusing our attention and building our strengths. He reminds us that we create our own obstacles and teaches us to empower ourselves for overcoming those obstacles.

Conclusions

I like the figure of Ganesh ji because I think that the combination of his human and animal forms, is an important reminder to humanity to respect the earth, the environment and the nature. His vehicle, the tiny mouse, is another reminder that every life on our planet, even that of the smallest creature, is important for our biodiversity and for the future of humanity.

Hinduism has different human-animal mixed figures including those of Hanuman and Narsimha. It also has some animal and bird forms as deities, such as those of Varaha and Garuda. All the different Gods and Goddesses of Hinduism are linked to an animal and to a plant. Thus, every life form and every component of nature is seen as sacred. As we move recklessly towards destruction of nature and of biodiversity, it reminds us to be responsible for the way we use technology and safeguard the nature for the future of humanity.

Finally I also like that our Gods can have deeper metaphorical meanings, like the significance of Ganesh as a representation of Brain and mind. This way of understanding religion is more complex and non-linear, it does not have the God as a saviour or as someone who punishes you for your sins or tells you what to do or not do, instead, it is guide to the reality and complexity of life.

*****

#ganeshji #hinduism #religion #philisophy #nanipower #bookreview #recipes #indiancooking

From Niemeyer to Ai Wei Wei - Brazil Diary

I had visited a lot of countries for work. When ever anyone asked me about my favourite country, I used to answer Brazil. I loved the country for its wonderful people and for the large number of friends I had there. Now I try to avoid travel as much as possible, the only travel I want to do it for meeting family (below, WWII memorial in Rio de Janeiro).

Over the past 35 years, I must have visited Brazil at least ten times, however it was a long time since I had been to Rio. This journey took me back to Rio de Janeiro after almost 20 years. It was also an opportunity to visit two other little known cities - Niteroi and Campo Grande. I could also see the works of two important personalities - the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer and the Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei. Here are some notes from my Brazil diary.

Campo Grande

Campo Grande is a relatively new capital town of the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, which was carved out of the southern part of Mato Grosso in 1977. The city has grown mostly over the last 20 years, though it is a relatively small capital with less than a million inhabitants. I was there for a few days to conduct a couple of seminars on community-based rehabilitation (CBR) and emancipatory disability research (EDR) in the schools of nursing and physiotherapy. It seemed a kind of unexiciting town, spread over a vast area with low anonymous kind of buildings.

I was staying with a friend near the medical college and one evening, went for a walk to the Lago do Amor (Lake of Love), which had a large number of white herons and a funny looking sculpture of two kissing fish (in the image below).

One morning I went to visit the city landmark, the Park of Indigenous Nations, named because of a museum about local indigenous cultures inside the park. The park has a nice lake, though when I visited, it had been dried and desilting was going on. It also has a futuristic looking acquarium, whose construction is going on for many years. The most beautiful part of this visit was to see free-moving animals including a Capybara and a whole group of Quati (in the image below).

The park also has a big Indios monument (in the image below).

Finally it has the Don Bosco Museum on Indegenous Cultures, which presents the different indio-cultures from this part of Brazil, especially from Pantanal area including Guatò, Kadiweu, Kaiowà-Guarani and different groups living along Uaupés river.

On my way back from Park, I got a woman Uber driver, Mari Gisele, who was overjoyed when she discovered that I was Indian. She said that she was an Ayovasca tribal shaman and that their indio-culture has many beliefs similar to Hinduism. While driving the car, she sang for me some Shiva prayers, concluding them with a loud "Jai Shambhu Shanker" and "Har Har Mahadev". It was completely unexpected and exciting.

Niteroi

This is an old historical town, situated across the Bay of Guanabara opposite Rio de Janeiro. Till 1970s, when Rio was the capital of Brazil, Nietroi was the capital of Rio de Janeiro state. Now, its claim to fame is the wonderful views of the Rio skyline across the bay. Another reason of its fame are a group of buildings designed by Oscar Niemeyer.

Alcohol Drinking Cultures in India and Brazil

I was staying close to the city centre and the boat terminal, from where a 20 minutes boat ride takes you to Rio. One evening I went for a walk along Avenida Milton Tavares. Along the sea, the road had small shacks, where people sat drinking beer and enjoying the view. It brought to my mind a similar walk along the sea in Fort Kochi in India and was wondering how the two cultures, Indian and Brazilian, have such distinct alcohol cultures. In Fort Kochi, you can't have a glass of cold beer except in some high class hotel or in dark and dingy bars, where people carry beer bottles wrapped in newspapers or drink fugitively to get drunk. Here, you just have a glass of cold beer just like you would have a soft drink. Most people just want a little buzz and they are not trying to get drunk.

Island of Boa Viagem

The walk brought me to the beautiful island of Boa Viagem (Good journey), which is connected to mainland by a bridge (in the image below). Unfortunately, the island can't be visited since it is occupied by military. It is surprising how much power military has in Brazil, they occupy prime lands and are very much in your face. Since Brazil has no wars with any of its neighbours, the military is controlling the Brazilian people only. Probably the history of this military power goes back to the time when it was a military dictatorship.

Further up from the island of Boa Viagem, is an iconic Niemeyer building - the saucer shaped Contemporary Art Museum, known as MAC. It looks like a space ship waiting to take off (in the image below). The permanent exhibition at MAC has the works of 4 Brazilian artists - Antonio Dias, Antonio Manuel, Ivan Serpa and Rubens Gerchman.

At the MAC, one evening I saw an amazing sunset with the red sky and beautiful skyline of Rio. 

Another nice walk was towards the boat station. Beyond the boat station, I walked towards the bus terminal. Through the covered market I reached the Niemeyer park which has 3 buildings designed by Oscar Niemeyer. This reminded me of huge squares and futuristic buildings designed by him in Brazilia.

Rio de Janeiro

I could visit Rio a few times. The first time, I had a seminar in the school of nursing which is located just next to the famous landmark, the Pao de Acucar (Sugarloaf hill). Twenty years ago, I had taken the cable car to visit its top. During lunch time, with some of the professors, we went to eat in the military canteen located in front of it (even here Military occupies some of the best prime land of the city). The image below has me with the teachers of the School of Nursing and some Brazilian friends.

One day in Rio, I went to see the Museum de Amanha (Tomorrow's museum). It has a beautiful building, like a giant white alligator (in the image below). However, inside I was expecting to see more use of innovative technology, while it only has a lot of computer screens where you are expected to read about the future and the climate change.

I also went to see city art museum, contemporary art museum and the second world war memorial.

However, the highlight of my visit to Rio was to accidentally find an exhibition of the Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei, which was absolutely amazing. WeiWei is like Niemeyer, some of his installations are massive. I hope to write one full post about this exhibition. Here let me tell you about one of his installations, which had hundreds of ceramic flowers woven into a white carpet. This installation referred to the period when he was under house arrest in China. To protest, he had put a bicycle in front of his house and everyday in the bicycle basket he used to put flowers. These ceramic flowers are a representation of his flower-protest (a close-up in the image below).

Another wonderful experience was at the Rio Museum of Contemporary Art. It was a Saturday and outside the museum, different groups of young people were practicing dances. It was there that from inside the museum glass walls, I saw an amazing dance performance. Most persons of this group were young trans-sexual young men and their dance was just amazing. I was so fascinated by them that I forgot that I could have made a video. By the time I had thought of the video, they had almost finished.

Conclusions

I missed not seeing so many of my old Brazilian friends during this visit. The highlights of this visit were the Oscar Niemeyer buildings and the Wei Wei exhibition. I felt that the two of them, each in his own distinct way, shared a love of big spaces and elaborate designs - both have their fantasy worlds which are placed in a world of giants where the human beings are like the liliputians.

I was afraid of carrying my DSLR camera on this trip since Rio has a bad reputation. So all the pictures were taken with my mobile phone and they are not bad. Since the DSLR camera weighs so much, I think that in future, I am going to take more pictures with my mobile.

Let me close this post with another beautiful moment in Rio. It was evening and the sun was going down. With some friends we went for a beer near the tiny Urca port behind the Sugarloaf hill. The view of Corcovado with the giant statue of Jesus at the top and the sun going down behind it was absolutely amazing, as you can see from the image above.

*****

#riodejaneiro #niteroi #campogrande #oscarniemeyer #aiweiwei #brazildiary