Ganesh-Festival and Lokmanya Tilak
Why the head of Ganeshji is the head of the elephant, and what ideals does it stand for ? Whom troubles this question, the Art of Living’s Shri Shri Ravishanker has this answer for him , the way elephant moves forward is the reflexive of majestic grace- that the steps being out in the chosen direction with firm resolve. And never to escape the obstacles. Its proximity offers one the sense of super-strength, the virtue of patience and imbibing the merits to be standing fearless before the difficulties. From its expression of face , on the other side, reflects the tenderness of adolescent age ; and from eyes , the innocence.The ears of the elephant happens to be too big ; the eyes, too small. What the ears do is to keep fanning out eyes every now and then , seen to be clearing the vision. Such as sun though appears to arise and sets down , whereas it remains static as a matter of fact. True knowledge, thus, is attained only when what you see corresponds to what you hear as the wisdom and Vise versa .
Besides, now look at the rat . It hardly remains still at one place, but keep bouncing here-there. By nature the mind likewise subject to no less instability than the rat. That not mind be allowed to take yourself for ride , but it be kept under your firm hold- to tell this Bhagwan Ganesh is seated over the rat. Likewise, Modak ( the stuff of which laddu is made of as prasad ) in Sanskrit means being joyful. To be the one that remove obstacle, Ganeshji offer the Modak like taste of joy to the devotees .
However, as for Ganesh-Festival that came into the present form to be celebrated in open space has its own story :
See, Lokmanya Tilak that we know had the reputation of being liberal in thinking, unwavering in upholding religious tolerance and, more notably, he had been one of the key functionaries of that Congress party which was composed of people of all kinds of faiths. Despite all that he was of firm belief that any kind of ill-designed effort of religious conversion is the one to weaken secularism. Hindu-Muslim riots of 1893-94 of Mumbai and Pune is recorded in the annals of the history. Numerically in majority but badly divided into castes-creeds-sects, Hindus had to bear colossal loss of lives and property. In future people might not subject to such consequences yet again, Tilak initiated the tradition of celebrating Ganesh and Shivaji festivals throughout the Maharashtra. Gradually people began to assemble in them forgetting all their differences. Owing to which the sense of organisation began to strengthen among them, deterring the rioters away from yet another mischief. Thus together with the fervid expression of thought he also worked upon their execution on the ground level. And Tilak would always be remembered for this. (‘Sanskruti ke char Adhyaya’-Ramdhari Singh Dinkar )
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