Ganesha, the God of Beginnings, Success, and Wisdom Among the Hindus - Research Paper

Worship of Ganesha

Ganesha is among those most worshipped divinities in the Hindu pantheon. This god is also known as Binayak, Ganapati, Pillaiyar, and Vinayaka. His image is found all over Nepal, India, Thailand, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka as well as Indonesia and regardless of the affiliations, he is worshipped by Hindu denominations. Ganesha is widely known as the patron of sciences and arts, the remover of obstacles as well as the deva of wisdom and intellect (Dutta, 2016). Ganesh is always honored during the start of ceremonies and rites as the god of beginnings, success as well as wisdom. During writing sessions, Ganesha is prayed as the patron of letters. He is believed to have emerged as a deity or god in the early 2nd Century but much clearly during the Gupta period in the 4th and 5th Centuries. Ganesh is a pan-Hindu god with whom the Hindu mythology recognizes as the restored son of Shiva and Parvati of the Shaivism tradition. He is seen as the supreme deity in the Hinduism Ganapatya tradition.

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Among the Hindus, Ganesha is a supreme being with whom they rely on in most of their cultural practices. Hindus believe that Ganesha inspires success and wisdom and that he always removes those obstacles that tend to hinder progress. He is thought to the lord of both spiritual and material order obstacles hence popularly worshipped for removing barriers although traditionally, he was believed to place the barriers along the paths of those individuals who needed to be checked. Ganesha is also known as the lord of learning and letters or buddhi a concept that is associated with his personality as a lover of intelligence and cleverness mainly during the Puranic period as many stories stress.

Ganesha is always worshipped during many seculars as well as religious occasions and more specifically during the beginning of ventures such as starting a business or buying a vehicle. Hindus who are devoted to the worship of Ganesha believe that when he is satisfied, Ganesha grants prosperity, success as well as protection against adversity. All Hindus praise Ganesha at the beginning of their prayers, religious ceremonies as well as essential undertakings and is worshipped with red flowers or sandalwood paste due to his identification with the red color. Most Christians, Jews, Muslims, and pagans would view the worship of Ganesha as worship of idols but for the Hindus, worship of Ganesha is a tradition, and a belief that is associated with success and prosperity and they can prove it by the strong actions Ganesha delivers to them.

Cultural relativism is an idea that tries to resolve such an issue where other religions view the Hindus religion not to be appropriate in comparison to their cultures. Cultural relativism states that one's practices, beliefs as well as values should always be understood based on that individual's perception and not judged against the traditions, ideas, and values of another culture. Cultural relativism tries to prove that no culture is superior to the other hence people should avoid judging different cultures against their religions. This is because, from the example above, the Hindus too considers their culture more superior than that of the Christians, Muslims, pagans as well as Jews and by these all cultures are excellent in their way, and there is no culture superior than the other.

References

Dutta, S. (2016). A Monograph on the Elephant-Headed God Ganesha: The Mythological Concept and Distinct Iconography. http://repository.kln.ac.lk/jspui/bitstream/123456789/14197/1/70-76.pdf