Ganapathi related - Lord Ganapathi the symbol of simplicity

The Hindu philosophy teaches to love and appreciate everything in the nature. Even in the idols of the gods and worship this aspect of love and appreciation towards nature is reflected. We can find several animals and birds as the vehicles of various gods and goddesses. Coming to the lord Ganapathi who is the first deity to be worshiped and appeased to remove all obstacles in the path and at the start of any function.

Lord Ganapathi, Ganesha, Vinayaka, Vigghneswara, there are several names and cannot be mentioned here as the names itself will occupy pages and pages of the article. The Lord is the symbol of simplicity. The form of the lord itself is a symbol of simplicity. It is a combination of a human and an animal. This is to reflect the relation in nature to the human beings and the animals. The lord accepted the body of a man with the head of an elephant for his form. The man is proud of his head – brain which is in the head which is not taken by the lord. The elephant has the body the strongest amongst the animals and that also is not taken by the lord. Instead he had opted for the frail body of the human and frail head of the elephant leaving out the strong parts of both. Now let us see his vehicle or carrier. It is the mice. An animal of the most ordinary level and normally despised by all. What is the most preferred offering in place of flowers to Lord Ganapathi? It is the ordinary Dhurva (Berumuda, doob, karuka, garge etc in different languages) grass, a kind of commonest among the common grass. He will be pleased by the offer of the Dhurva grass. Now coming to the neivedya (food offering) the preferred items are the sugar cane, coconut and jaggery (bella, vellam - unrefined sugar in molded form) which are also the most common items. Thus the lord is pointing out that even the common and ordinary things of the nature are valuable. He is considered as the most helpful god for all and removes the obstacles if pleased and at the same time he can create obstacles which cannot be solved by anything or anybody if he is displeased. Even the ultimate of the gods the thrimurhtyees offer worship to Lord Ganesh before starting any task.