Interpretation of the story - 1

Parvati is the Celebrative aspect of our consciousness. Parvat means mountain: The Earth herself rising up in celebration...

Now Parvati was dirty, meaning, the celebration had gone out of life, feeling of sadness, etc had arisen, and she decides to take a bath (be alone)...When you are not feeling good (your celebratory aspect is dirty), you say, give me my space, leave me alone...

The dirt that comes off her and she gives life to is the Ego... She tells the Ego see that no one disturbs me while i am not feeling well... dont let anyone come in!
Thats exactly what most people do when they are not feeling good: people usually isolate themsleves, feel separate from everyone and dont like others around them...
This is the significance of Parvati animating her ego and asking it not to let anyone disturb her because she is feeling dirty.

Lord Shiva is the protector of Parvati. So when He sees her that way with her ego standing guard, keeping the Bliss of the Self out, He does what any protector would do... Kills it!

Chopping off the head signifies killing the ego... Now, when you have had your ego trampled upon, you are going to feel even more hurt and bewildered, which is where Parvati flares up... to appease her and teach her, Lord Shiva replaces the child's ego) head with an elephant head.

The Elephant in Hindu mythology is held in great reverence. In old times, if a lover wanted to praise his girlfriend, he would tell her she is like an elephant... That was supposed to be the ultimate praise! Please don't try this today... you just might get flattened :)

The big head symbolizes Knowledge. The eyes of the elephant are kind, full of compassion and innocence: the most beautiful in the animal Kingdom. So Shiva replaces the head of ego (ignorance) with Knowledge and innocence! That's not all, if you have ever seen an elephant walk, stately and strong, you can see that nothing can stand in its way! So Shivji removed the ego and replaced it with Strength, Grace, Knowledge and innocence. What a superb combination! And the perfect gift for an angry, sulking wife! :)

Lord Shiva then names the child, Ganesh. The Lord of Knowledge and Wisdom.
Next more will be revealed about the mouse and some other really fascinating aspects of Ganeshji...

The story of Ganeshji....!!!

The birth of Lord Ganesha is one of the weirdest tales i have ever come across...

Shiva's wife Parvati decides to take a bath... While bathing, a lot of dirt comes off her body (may have been meditating many years... these things accumalate :)), and being creative (pun intended) puts that dirt into the form of a really handsome child... and being a Goddess blew life into the child and asked him to wait outside (she could be modest too) and not let anyone come in till she finished her bath (and accessorizing)...

So the little kid goes out and waits and soon enough along comes Shiva, and asks the boy to step aside and let him go in. Boy refuses. Shiva gets angry. Shiva shouts and threatens. Boy doesn't budge. Shiva chops off boy's head! (Children in those days faced pretty harsh disciplining)

Parvati is very upset when she comes to know Shiva has killed her son ... son?! Shiva must have thought... when did that happen?!!... in any case to make her feel better, Shiva chops off the head of a passing elephant and attaches that to the body of the fallen child and gives Him life... Parvati is aghast at how her son looks and says everyone will mock him... no one will respect him... Lord Shiva smiles benignly and says that He will give a boon to the little Ganesha that before any Pooja or ritual of any kind is started, He, Ganesha will have to be worshiped first!

Parvati is quite mollified by this, but demands a vehicle for Ganesha... Shiva presents Ganesha with a mouse as his vehicle... Parvati was very happy with that and the family lived happily for many eons to come (ever after really as far as us humans are concerned)

And that's how Lord Ganesha was born... like is said it is a very weird story with plenty of really big loop holes and questions! To start with Parvati must have been really REALLY dirty for so much dirt to come off her... Then Shiva is the Lord of the Universe, if a small kid told Him to come back later, He could have gone somewhere, looked after a galaxy or two, meditated or something :)... but no, He chops off the kid's head!

Then He puts an elephants head on the child and gives a mouse as a vehicle... no sense of proportion whatsoever!, should have been the other way round! Give a mouse's head and the elephant as a vehicle...

We could go on and on... but as usual there is a secret to the story...

Fairwell to Ganeshji :)

Kal ganapati bappa visarjit hogae.

In his ‘fairwell party’ of the year we danced and danced and danced completely loaded with fun and as ‘there is no tomorrow’ attitude;(no I wasn't in mumbai, it is celebrated with equal spirit here in Coorg too). I retired from the seemingly endless celebrations by around 3 am!!! (yes the festivities end only by the break of day light over the visarjan night). It is an amazing experience and my second. It has always been fascinating for me to be a part of huge gathering threaded with same emotion. It’s a different feeling to see that every single soul around you is feeling just the same as you, is going through the same emotion as us!!! The mood that bound us all yesterday was ‘elation’!!! Anyways moving on from the ‘mob phenomenon’, while dancing yesterday I remembered the interpretation of the ganeshji’s story which I read on dinesh and bawa’s blog long time back. It is so striking that I want to share with you all. Thus even when the coming few posts on ganapatiji are not mine I am posting them on my blog so that I can do my bit in putting across this wonderful story to as many souls as possible. I am quoting these posts from their earlier blog address(http://bawandinesh.blogspot.com/). I enjoy reading their posts myself wherein they give a different perspective to almost everything and anything around us. Thank you both for giving me this unique insight into this age old story :)I hope all guests to my page will find these posts as discovering as i did.....

As u put it – Jai Gurudev!!!!
Cheers!!!! :)

Bhopal through lens - 2

In order: Bhopal @ nite!, Road along the lake!, Boating on a summer evening!, Rainbow across the mahal!, two pics of the Sanchi Stupas, Shaan-e-Bhopal.

My native place through lens - City of lakes 'Bhopal' - 1

 
The Bhopal's railway station.
 
A bird's view of the city!

The main lake of Bhopal @ nite.
 
The Indira Gandhi Manav Sangrahalaya on left & Birla Mandir on our right!

The Benazir Palace

The Tajul-Masajid

An evening @ the lake

(Some of the photos are courtesy google & flickr)

M's after election results!!

“Congress sweeps left, right and centre” is the outcome of India’s festival of democracy in 2009. Congress triumphs on 201 seats a highest ever by a party in last 25 years!! Came 16th May and gave us the last poll results for the decade. This election was significant in more than many ways. Major national issues were in the backdrop- the nuclear deal, national security after recent terrorist attacks, economic recession (though Indian elections are hardly fought on such issues on a broad basis the results are going to have a profound impact on them), local issues like the Singur, Muthalik & then of course BIG aspirations of the small parties with
their prime ministerial candidates as Sharad Pawar, Mayawati, Paswaan & Mulayam to name a few!!!!! Also, it was LK Advani’s last chance to become the Prime minister of India. Now after such a strong mandate in favor of the Indian national congress all these aspirations have been grounded for the foreseeable future. Advani has lost his last chance and this election may well be last in his political career.

The results reads us out many vital inferences in the first thought like the left’s poor performance, shrunk base of the regional parties, Lalu’s poor show, Congress’s improved performance in Uttar Pradesh (after atleast two decades) and better than expected performance on a national basis plus interestingly in Modi’s strong hold Gujrat.

Post results there will these M’s crucial now in the government making.

M for Manmohan Singh- He is expected to be India’s next PM of India. Second only to Pandit Nehru to attain office consecutively after a full five year term. Congress in his name finds someone with clean image and an uncontroversial leader. One of the reasons of Congress doing so well in this elections is that it was seen as a more sincere party than its rivals. This was due to Manmohan Singh’s honest image and Sonia Gandhi’s understated style which she maintained during this regime. However, Sonia Gandhi will continue to have her influence over the government being UPA’s chairperson.

M for Mudra (Money)- As we saw last time when the left abandoned the Manmohan Singh government “mudra” or money will play its role again. Now when congress needs only 15 odd more to cross over the magical figure of 272 the spending may be less. Few independents and small parties will automatically join in UPA shrinking the gap towards simple majority. Congress with its good show is in promising mode too and then as we see in coalition politics, mudra can always be bartered and bargained against another M, the M for Mantralaya (ministry)!!

M for Mantralaya (Ministry) - Congress will not have to get away with any major ministry outside UPA for bridging the gap towards majority. However it may always play it as a lucrative card to gain support for reaching and even adding cushion to its majority.

M for Mayawati and Mulayam- Mulayam came to rescue Congress when the “lefts” left. This may well be the time to
return favors. However Congress will also remember the time they left later!! Mayawati too has an attractive figure and will play a key role in the post poll dyanamics. Another fact to be looked into is that Congress must be feeling buoyant after these results and they may be thinking of contesting the coming UP elections on their own. Knowing this it becomes less probable for them to get into an alliance with either Mulayam or Mayawati. Now how Mulayam and Mayawati bargains with their numbers in this "M for Majority" is something to be seen.

God bless our nation and our new government.
Luv n Luk,

Pranjal.

Easiest way to solve an issue....???? Have a BIGGER issue!!! :)

What is the easiest way of solving a problem??? Have a bigger problem. The title here is a small adaptation from how I first heard it through a friend of mine as in the first line of this post. We see it around us everyday especially in this election season. Politicians seem to be saying, okay!!!! I may be a thief but look at my opponent he is a bigger thief!!!! An old joke comes to my mind on this. It’s about an election campaign rally. The ‘neta’ says – “ look at these last 5 years of rule by the other party. They have looted you, ate your money, and credited their accounts and bank balances. It’s a time for a change. Now; Give “us” the “opportunity”!!!! (Pun intended) :)

Well coming back to our title; it was personified today at a press conference in Mumbai over the row between film makers and multiplex owners. Actors SRK(Shahrukh Khan) and Aamir Khan who don’t even like seeing each other, (well, that’s the impression I have through media) were today seen sharing a common platform, and as if that was less they were posing in arms for the media person’s lenses dazzling with their smiles!!!

'The bone of contention between the producers — distributors and multiplex owners is the revenue sharing model, with producers demanding a 50 per cent of the earnings while the multiplex owners want to stick to the current model of 40 to 48 per cent depending on the film's performance.'(source: Times of India).

So is it that the major issue of revenue sharing has diminished the differences between the two Khans??? It at least seems so and that is a welcome sign.
There is another saying ‘We unite when faced with a common threat’!!! So what exactly is the precursor of this reconciliation between the ‘Baadshah’ and the ‘Ghulam’ [mind you, NO pun intended ;)]. Let the catalyst be in any form, but if the product is smiling SRK and Aamir in arms the bollywood fans would never mind it. God bless both of them.

Luv n Luk,
Pranjal.



Image 1 courtsey this link.
Image 2 is courtsey TOI through this link.
Image 3 is courtsey google search.