Om Sri Ganeshaya Namah!
Om Namo Bhagavate Sivanandaya!
Om Namo Bhagavate Chidanandaya!
Om Namo Bhagavate Krishnanandaya!

Namaste!

Lord Ganesa -- The Remover of Obstacles
by Sri Swami Krishnananda

(Ganesa Chaturthi message given in September, 1981.)

Human life is beset with obstacles. We face oppositions and encounter difficulties galore, and the whole of our daily activity may, in a sense, be considered as a struggle against all odds which come in different forms as the sorrows of life. The moment we wake up in the morning, we have to face the obstacle called hunger which we try to obviate by cooking and eating food, the obstacle called thirst which we have to get rid of by drinks, and the obstacles called disease, exhaustion, fatigue, sleeplessness and the like, which we endeavour to remedy by the introduction of various types of medicines. The very presence of people around us is an obstacle and the human individual suddenly becomes restless, and both consciously and unconsciously puts on an attitude of self-defence, as if one has found oneself suddenly in a terrific war field.

The difficulties of life are, to a large extent, the very substance of life itself. The whole of life is a bundle of difficulties. It is a mess of oppositions, which calls for a continuous counteracting force which is what is called human enterprise. If the whole earth were filled with milk and honey, and if there was no fatigue, no old age and death, no hunger and thirst, no opposition and nobody to utter a word, then there would be no activity, no necessity to do anything and no incentive in the direction of any movement. The quantity, the expanse and the magnitude of the opposition which comes before us in life is such that no single individual will be able to face it. This whole world is too much for a single man, and considering the incongruous, disproportionate relationship between a single human individual and the vast world outside, there is very little hope of man's achieving anything in this world, successfully, because we cannot bail out the ocean of waters with a spoon, though our effort may be laudable. We are, no doubt, very sincerely industrious in emptying the ocean of its waters with a little spoon or a ladle. Notwithstanding the fact that this effort on our part is praiseworthy, it is not going to lead us to any success, and the expected result will not follow. The ocean cannot be emptied by any amount of bailing out with a spoon.

Such seems to be the type of world into which we are born, and people who are acutely conscious of this situation become humble enough to accept that even an inch of success cannot be expected in this world without the miraculous grace of God. So, even the little success that sometimes seems to come to us is a kind of undeserved promotion, as it were, granted to us by the mercy of the Almighty. Our efforts are only a puny child's whining and weeping with a helpless weakness of body and mind. The traditional annual worship of God in this role, as the remover of all obstacles, as Vighna Vinayaka, is known as Vinayaka Chaturthi or Ganesa Chaturthi. It is the day on which we offer special adoration to the Remover of obstacles.

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14th September is the holy Sri Ganesha Chaturthi day.

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The following article was recently posted at Sri Swami Krishnanandaji's site:

• Questions from a Western Teacher
• Unity Among Difference
• Guru, Ganga, Salvation
• What Is Important
• God's Promise in the Bhagavadgita
• Conviction That It Will Come
• Integral Thinking

 

Yours in the service of Gurudev,

Pannirselvam

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BOOK SYNOPSIS

Spiritual Import of Religious Festivals
By Sri Swami Krishnananda

As time passes, contexts change and the relevance of a book written many years ago gains new significance. So it is with The Spiritual Import of Religious Festivals.

In this 21st century as people have fully merged into consumerism, the intention and drive behind celebrating festivals has completely been erased making them yet another occasion for celebration in the secular sense, an occasion to indulge in more clothes, more food, more adornments, filling the moment which was intended for spiritual ascent with noise and material both antithetical to the original intention.

This book is intended for anyone who wants to go deeper into why festivals came to be, their historical origin and critically their spiritual significance. Those who are already on the path spiritual will find terrific acceleration to their endeavors, enhanced meaning to their understanding thus far and a new spirit to their pace. Others will find a clarification for why they need to alter their approach to ‘celebrating’ these moments in history that repeat year after year. It is very striking, even if obvious, that these events repeat year after year as if God Himself is giving us yet another chance to renew our relationship with life.

This book is a compilation of the lectures on religious festivals, delivered by Swami Krishnananda on different occasions. Swamiji has only briefly hinted at the ‘story’ behind the festival while his effort has been entirely to stress the significance of the rituals of a festival with the spiritual ascension of man. As the Publisher’s Note to the second edition rightly observed, “There is a meaning behind every act, or ritual in the religious field, even as there is a hidden purpose behind the implementation of any project or the doing of any work. Rarely are religions seen to awaken themselves to the spirit that they are expected to convey, the living flame which they enshrine and without which they remain forms without content.”

Since these were lectures in their original form, the transcription seeks to retain the spoken word form more to transport the enriching, divine flavour of Swamiji’s words and feelings to the reader. This is experienced distinctively in the lectures in the Appendix, which carry with them extra fire and intensity, especially since the subject matter itself was such.

For more information, please see: Spiritual Import of Religious Festivals

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PATIENCE NECESSARY: As soon as the Master emerged from his cottage on his way to attend Satsang, he saw a cow chasing another furiously. On witnessing the scene he remarked, “In how many millions of lives man must have been born as an animal with so much hatred and anger! Yet he wants to attain Samadhi quickly. There are two main obstacles to spiritual progress—recollection of past enjoyments and impatience.”

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“On this auspicious day of the worship of Lord Ganesha, the remover of obstacles and the bestower of success, let us begin by eradicating wrong qualities and cultivating sublime, noble, spiritual qualities and divine virtues. In his “Universal Prayer” Gurudev says: “Fill our hearts with divine virtues.” If we pray to the Lord to do this, then we must assist God by ourselves also trying to fill our heart with divine virtues. Then He will help us and make it a success. What quality to eradicate? What divine virtue to cultivate? The great Holy Mother Saradamani Devi, the divine consort of Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsadev of Dakshinesvar, giving advice said: “My dear child, take away doshadrishti (looking at the faults of others), take away this negative habit of picking upon the faults of others. Life is too short; there is not enough time to remove our own faults. We have so many faults that if we will start introspecting, trying to analyse and recognise our own negative qualities, we will have a full-time work to do. Even a whole lifetime will not be sufficient to get rid of all the faults that each one of us has. So, if instead of doing your own house cleaning, you start picking on the faults of others, you will remain what you are.”” – Sri Swami Chidananda

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