Ganesha is worshiped with his mother, Gauri. She is the earth and he is the vegetation born of her that sustains life on earth. Both festivals of Ganesha involve making of clay statues of Ganesha. These are worshipped with blades of grass for ten days and then immersed in water. Ganesha’s image thus comes and goes in a cyclical way, a reminder of nature’s cycles, of the seasons of sowing and harvest, of life and death.
