Ganesha Atharva Sheersha

Om namaste Ganapataye.

A detailed translation of the

Dedicated to Her Supreme Holiness

S

hri Mataji Nirmala Devi

The Source of this knowledge and all knowledge.May the three worlds resound with Your praise.

The Ganesha Atharva Sheersha

This ancient prayer in praise of the elephant-headed Hindu Deity

ShriGanesha

, or

Ganapati

as he is also popularly known, is widely used inworship all over India and is considered to be the oldest and most importanttext concerning

Shri Ganesha

.In Hindu mythology

Shri Ganesha

was created as a boy by

Shrī Pārvatī,

the Mother Goddess, to guard Her bathroom, and His refusal to allow Her Husband

Lord Shiva,

the personification of the Supreme Spirit, to enter,resulted in a fierce battle where

Shri Ganesha’s

head was severed bytrickery. In order to avoid the destruction of the universe by

Shri Pārvati

inanger at Her Son’s murder, He was restored to life; His head being replacedwith that of a one-tusked elephant and He was given the honourable positionas the Chief of the

Ganas

, various troops of celestial servants of

LordShiva

, and promised that He would always be worshipped first. Thus He is praised at the commencement of all worship, marriages, journeys or anyother ceremony or enterprise; also because He is

Vighneshvara,

the ‘Ruler of Obstacles’, and when propitiated removes impediments to success, but if ignored creates obstacles. There is a story that once

Lord Shiva

set off todestroy

Tripura

, the three-fold city of the

Rakshasas

(demons), and Hischariot-wheel broke on the way. Surprised that such a thing should happen toHim, He discerned through His supernatural powers that He had omitted toworship

Shri Ganesha

before setting off, which He duly did and achievedsuccess.The name

Ganesha

is a compound of

Gana

‘troop’ and

Ĩsha

‘SupremeLord’ and thus means ‘Leader, Supreme Master or Lord of the troops’. In the prayer itself He is mostly addressed as

Ganapati

which has the samemeaning. In Sanskrit, meanings can also be derived from each syllable, so

Ga

-

na

-

pati

can be taken as

ga

-‘elephant’ (

gaja

),

na

-‘man’ (

nara

) and

pati

‘Lord’ from

pa

- ‘to protect’ thus meaning ‘the Lord Protector who iselephant and man’.

It is said that Christ was sometimes worshipped as anelephant during the Middle Ages.

Shri

Ganesha

is ‘the Lord of Wisdom’ and is completely dedicated to thewishes of His Mother, who is Herself the Supreme Goddess, the

Ādi

Shakti

or Creative Principle of the Universe. He is ‘the Son’ of the Divine Family,His immaculate creation being reflected in the birth of Christ and, like LordJesus, He can be considered as comprising this whole universe from thetiniest grain of matter to the Supreme Spirit.

His qualities of innocence, purity, wisdom and auspiciousness arefundamental to all the Divine Incarnations and

Sat-gurus

. He is the‘

Mūlādhāra’

–‘the Original Support’, the foundation of the whole Divinesubtle system and it is only when He is awakened within us that the

Kundalinī

Shakti

can rise up to

Sahasrāra

(the Thousand petalled Lotus atthe top of the head) and unite with the

Ātmā

-‘Spirit’ to give us our Self-realisation.The title

Aťharva Sheersha,

although commonly used

(

see

Devi

Atharva Sheersha

p.56.)

apparently has no clear translation.

Sheersha

means ‘head’and

Atharva

the name of the sage who composed the last of the four

Vedas;

so ‘from the head of Sage Atharva’ has been suggested. However thisinvocation does not appear in the extant portion of the

Atharva

Veda

. In fact

Shri

Ganesha

is not mentioned in any of the

Vedas

. The connection may bethat the

Atharva

Veda

contains mainly invocations of the Divine for various purposes and this is in the same style.

Aťharva

can simply mean a prayer and

Shīrsha,

like ‘head’ in English, can mean the ‘foremost’, or ‘highest’, soone interpretation is ‘the Highest Praise’; another is that

aťharva

means‘unwavering’ and so our

shīrsha

-‘head’ and hence ‘mind’ is fixed intentlyon our purpose of attaining Self-realisation.The

Ganesha

A.S.

is a minor

Upanishad

in it’s own right, sometimes calledthe

MahāGanapati

Upanishad

, and contains a variety of wisdomconcerning

Shri

Ganesha

, each of the ten verses being composed in adifferent style and metre, addressing a different aspect of His knowledge. Itwas probably composed in the Puranic period (0-1700AD) later than the

Rāmayāna

and

Mahābhārata

(see

Historical Note.

Appendix 2. p54.)

. The

Vedas

are about two thousand years older.The ideas expressed in the

Ganesha A.S

. correspond with the

Samkhya