Ganapati: Song of the Self

by John A. Grimes

Ganapati is the Hindu Lord of Beginnings, the Keeper of the Threshold, the Remover of Obstacles, Master of the Mind, Son of Siva, Elephant-headed, plump, and loveable. This book offers a wide range of information about Ganapati gathered from such diverse sources as hymns, poems, myths, shrines, practices, and theologies. It considers Ganapati's his transcendence of sectarian and territorial limits, his delayed but dramatic development into the religious pantheon, his paradoxical mythology, and his physical manifestation, an elephant's head on a human body. Song of the Self fosters an understanding from within a tradition. It presents a positive interpretation of the material and encourages an inner quest for spiritual truth.

Genres: Hinduism, Spirituality

231 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Vidura Barrios · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a gem, a rare view into the more mystical meaning of Lord Ganesh.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Ganapati"--the title comes from an older name for the elephant-headed god now generally known as Ganesha--seeks to bridge the perhaps unbridgeable distance between academe and religion. John A. Grimes makes the argument that, despite the number of differing accounts of his birth, Ganapati is in fact the Self. And he marshals a formidable command of the various types of Hindu scriptures--it is, after all, a religion that starts with horse sacrifices and across the millennia has become one whose adherents attack those suspected of eating beef--so on that score, this is a very useful volume. Despite the breadth of that sourcing, though, Grimes is specifically not interested in an academic approach, above all, in analysis. He relies, as he writes in a startling passage near the beginning, that if something looks/flies/quacks like a duck, it must be one. This reference to one of the most overexposed American cliches is less powerful than a quotation from the Rig Veda: "Truth is One, the sages call it by many names." Every widespread religion--every one that grows far beyond its beginnings with a tribe or a charismatic leader (who builds upon the beliefs of the tribe), eventually winds up with a group of intellectuals (say Aquinas or the writers of the Upanishads) who have to harmonize that original, partial vision--myth, for example--with all that has been learned and thought through in the meantime. Hence the urge to universalize contradictory stories, on this case, the ones about an elephant-headed god, by no means the best-known in the pantheon, who is worshipped with special devotion in two areas of India (the state surrounding Mumbai and the one across from Sri Lanka). Grimes includes a lot of fascinating material about how a Hindu god is worshipped, for example, the care with which a representation must be chosen, and the meaning of what the image of Ganapati holds in his hands or the direction in which he curls his trunk. The stories themselves are full of the gods' passions. In particular, the gods are often so fond of devotion that they reward the most faithful of worshippers with a boon--often a power that then is used with such malevolence that the other gods petition Ganapati for relief. These stories are full of that kind of wry wisdom and skepticism about various kinds of passion and this book makes a real contribution to an understanding of a great and widespread religion. It just does not convince me of the oneness of the universe and the identification of someone usually relegated to the second rank of its gods with the self.

[Netanel Miles-Yepez · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good presentation of many lesser known puranic, mantric, and tantric traditions surrounding Ganesh. John Grimes an excellent scholar who is also an adept.