Ganapati

It is an established custom in Indian society, to start any activity with the worship of Lord Ganapati, the elephant faced god, considered to be the elder son of Siva. He is also known by various other names such as Ganesa, Vinayaka etc. When we turn our gaze seeking references to Ganapati in the Vedas, only one verse is said to be attributed to Him.

Ganaanaam thvaa ganapatim havaamahe

Kavim kaveenaam upamasra vasthamam

Jyeshta raajam brhmanaam brhmanaspati

Aanas srunvan oodhibhis seedhasaadhanam

(Rig Veda 2-23)

WE call thee, Lord and Leader of the heavenly hosts, the wise among the wise, the most famous of all, The King supreme of prayers, O Brahmanaspati: hear us with help; sit down in place of sacrifice.

(Translated by Griffith)

These lines occur in a hymn dedicated to Brhmanaspati. In this or the other five hymns under the same heading, there is no reference to the name Vinayaka or to his appearance. In the entire Rig Veda, this is the only place where the name Ganapati occurs whereas the word Brhmanaspati keeps recurring.

There is a prayer which goes by the name of Ganesha sooktham. It has 15 verses and it begins with "Aa thoo na Indra Kshumantham........"

Only the first nine verses are from Rig Veda 8-81, the next two are reproduction of 2-23 previously mentioned and the other four are from 10-112.

These Rig Veda hymns are devoted to Indra and the meaning of the first nine (Griffith's translation) is given below.

1. INVITE ye Indra with a song to drink your draught of Soma juice,

All-conquering Satakratu, most munificent of all who live.

2 Lauded by many, much-invoked, leader of song, renowned of old:

His name is Indra, tell it forth.

3 Indra the Dancer be to us the giver of abundant strength:

May he, the mighty, bring it near.

4 Indra whose jaws are strong hath drunk of worshipping Sudaksa's draught,

The Soma juice with barley mixt.

5 Call Indra loudly with your songs of praise to drink the Soma juice.

For this is what augments his strength.

6 When he hath drunk its gladdening drops, the God with vigour of a God

Hath far surpassed all things that are.

7 Thou speedest down to succour us this ever-conquering God of yours,

Him who is drawn to all our songs

8 The Warrior not to he restrained, the Soma-drinker ne'er o'erthrown,

The Chieftain of resistless might.

9 O Indra, send us riches, thou Omniscient, worthy of our praise:

Help us in the decisive fray.

This shows that after the practice of worship of Ganapati came into vogue, people thought of crediting him with Vedic sanction and brought in this prayer to be used during His worship. Thus Vedic verses are pliable enough to be included in the worship of any deity, even for those deities which may be created in the future.

What makes for such adjustability of Vedas? They do not specify any single deity as responsible for creation etc. of the universe. They admire many deities, sometimes more than one deity is praised in a verse dedicated to one. They attribute same powers to all the deities. When they praise Indra, they say, 'You are incomparable, the mightiest and giver of all pleasures of life.' They say the same thing, when praising Agni or Asvin. The key to the puzzling manner of the speech of the Vedas lies in Veda itself. One verse in Rig Veda speaks, Truth is one. Different sages speak of it differently. So whenever they praise Indra or Agni or any other god, they mean the same Truth.

Regarding the verse, Gananm thwa Ganapatim havamahe, Mahakavi Bharathi says, "In Vedas, Agni was worshipped in two forms, one as Kumara (Murugan) and the other as Devaguru. Agni is said to be the son of Rudra. In some other places, Agni is said to be Rudra himself. Hindus worship Him first before everything. He was called Devaguru, Brahmanaspati and also Ganapati.