24/12/2010 Loving Ganesha, Chapter 3: Ganesha'…

Loving Ganesha Chapter 3: Ganesha's Five Powers

Shri Ganeshasya
Panchashatayah

Ganesha's
Five Powers

OME, NOW LET US TURN OUR HEARTS AND MINDS to

the five powers of Lord Ganesha. Devotees have asked for
elucidation of the five profound ways this Great God functions
in helping us from the inner worlds. For many Hindus in both
the East and the West it is this understanding of the five powerful positive
powers, or shaktis, of Lord Ganesha and their five powerful asuric
counterforces that makes religion a working part of the devotee's life and a
stabilizing force within the extended family -- which embraces kindred,
friends, community elders and close business associates. This knowledge
and practical experience has helped them understand just how intimately
Lord Ganesha works with each of us every day in even our mundane life.

There are five great shaktis of Lord Ganesha, as He Himself explained.

Their positive vibratory rates can be felt through your astral and physical
body and should always be with you. "What is this shakti?" you may be
wondering. It is being in the presence of Divinity. All holy men and women
emanate all of these shaktis, and you can, too, some stronger than others.
Shakti is divine radiation from the Third World through the Second World
into the First. The astral body is in the Second World and lives inside the
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physical body. It is through the astral body that shakti is felt. The shakti
comes from the Third World and permeates the astral body in the Second
World. This is why the physical body sometimes seems to feel "filled up"
with shakti from deep within, permeating out to the inside of our skin.
Deeply awakened souls become so filled with the shakti of the Divine that it
permeates as cosmic rays out through the skin to the perimeter of the aura,
the colorful film of light that surrounds the body. It is felt by other people
and attributed as a personal darshana.

Thus it can be said that Lord Ganesha has five aspects to His presence.
Feeling the presence of the benevolent and beneficent Deity Ganesha
everywhere is the exemplary example of what each soul wishes to attain.
His five powers could well be called "the feet of the Lord," for it is at these
feet that we sit and worship, bringing harmony to our home, among our
relatives and friends and business associates, bringing culture, creativity and
religion into our life. Crowned by a heartfelt love of God that we then give
forth, we are then allowed to perform charities and, in overflowing
abundance, prepare the religious edifices for the next generation.
Experiencing this personally will take daily meditation.

THE FIRST SHAKTI

The first shakti emanates the feeling of love and compassion that the good
person naturally has for his or her immediate family. Love and harmony
within the nuclear or joint family is most important to all Hindus, and the
beautiful feeling when it exists is the first shakti of the Lord. If love
abounds in the home and virtue prevails, the home is perfect and its end
fulfilled.

THE SECO D SHAKTI

The second shakti is the same feeling but extended to relatives, neighbors
and friends, all who are part of the extended family. This is more difficult to
hold, as inharmonious conditions often arise. These are called asuric
forces, which come between people, causing misunderstanding and upsets.
Through prayers and through worship, the first shakti can be extended
beyond the circumference of the immediate family to include
acquaintances, relatives and friends. When this vibration of harmony is felt,
all the power of the Lord is with you, as the first shakti and the second
shakti merge, bringing in abundance the onrush of the third shakti.

THE THIRD SHAKTI

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The third shakti of Lord
Ganesha is this same love
extended to all persons one has
dealings with in the external
world: business associates, a
casual merchant and the public at
large. It is honest and
harmonious relationships in
conducting the business of trade
and dealings in goods, finance
and the distribution of the wealth
of the world. This is a most
important vibration to be felt,
and constantly felt. This shakti
of the Lord is tenuous to hold
onto, for worldly and
materialistic forces, as you well know, militate against this kind of harmony.
But once these lower powers are conquered, worries cease, concerns are
alleviated and heartfelt joy comes. Such is the grace of loving Ganesha. As
the Tirukural (120) declares, "Those businessmen will prosper whose
business protects as their own the interests of others."

THE FOURTH SHAKTI

The fourth shakti is an outpouring from having held fast to the first three. It
is a combination of the first two shaktis, stabilized by the third. The fourth
shakti of Lord Ganesha brings through the creative-intuitive mind -- the
love of culture and all that it brings, religious formalities and the respect and
appreciation of discipline. Here we find the vibration of religion, which
brings as a boon creativity in music, art, drama and the dance. It is through
these refining rays that religious life is adhered to and congested forces are
braided together in a harmonious pattern for a glorious future. It is through
the fourth shakti that religious practices are performed consistently and the
refinements of the past are carried into the future. It also extends to
devotion toward one's ancestors and all forms of positive community
participation.

THE FIFTH SHAKTI

The fifth shakti of Lord Ganesha is the combination of the first and the
third in vibration, and it extends into the wonderful feelings obtained by the
outpouring of love of this God. Loving Lord Ganesha with all your heart
and soul is the combined merging of these five shaktis. This gives the added
boon of being able to be charitable; for those who love God perform
charity, build shrines and temples and participate in the overflowing
generosity from their resources, earning abundant punya, fine merit,
accrued for this life and passed on to the next. We can see that harmony
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within the immediate family and harmony extended to all business
associates creates the spiritual dynamic within the individual and the group
to burst forth into loving this benign God and receiving His material,
emotional, intellectual and spiritual abundance.

The Hindu soul who is immersed in the love of the Lord of Obstacles
knows he is not the giver, but only the channel for the giving. He is
intuitively aware of the maya of his existence, yet acutely aware of the
necessity of sharing his natural, blissful state of having become one with
this Lord through the first five shaktis. Such a devotee is the pillar of the
temple, the protector of the sadhaka, the respecter of the priesthood and
the obedient slave to the holy scriptures, and is seen by all as the
compassionate one. Being free in mind, emotion and body, the family that
lives basking in the five shaktis of Ganesha performs daily puja and yearly
pilgrimage while upholding the five obligations, the pancha nitya karmas, of
the Hindu with joyous ease.

The Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Shaktis

You may be wondering what lies beyond these first five vibratory rates.
Three more shaktis are yet to be unfolded, which we shall do here but
briefly.

The sixth shakti, entrusted to Lord Murugan, is that of raja yoga, the
awakening of the kundalini, which should never be attempted until the first
five vibratory rates of the Lord have been maintained and are a natural part
of one's life. The sixth shakti is only felt in yogic meditation, when the
crown of the head becomes the temple -- the high-pitched "eee" tone
ringing within it like a temple bell, and the kundalini awakened, the camphor
light aglow. The yogi thus locked in his own yoke finds himself seated on
the fifth shakti, supported by the lotus petals of the other four. In his state
of yoga, he then merges into jnana; and answers to his deepest
philosophical questions come crystal clear as the seventh shakti penetrates
the akashic ether of his mind.

The seventh shakti is the great ray of the giving forth of spiritual teachings
from the brink of the Absolute, at which point Lord Siva and His son Lord
Murugan merge. This great shakti is held by the rishis and the saints of our
religion. Lord Murugan Himself is the preceptor of all of our religion. The
seventh and eighth shaktis are the Siva-Shakti, the great dance of creation,
the eighth being that outpouring power

felt when mind collects itself when it comes out of the Self, the Absolute,
and then forms into manifest knowledge: the seventh shakti.

We shall not concern ourselves now with the sixth, seventh or eighth
shaktis, for we are to meditate on and bring through the rays of the first five
shaktis through the worship of Lord Ganesha. These five shaktis form the
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basis for all of the religions in the world, though usually not in their entirety.
What we call Ganesha worship today is actually the age-old religious pattern
performed through eons of time and is found in some form in each of the
eleven religions of the world and in the multitudes of faiths. The height of
religious experience in many religions is to uphold these five shaktis for
society to survive and flourish. And this is basically the extent of most of
the world's religions; for once religion is secured in one's life, raja yoga --
finding the temple within, going into that temple, merging within the
sanctum sanctorum with the Supreme Lord Himself, the father of the great
God Ganesha -- is the next and most natural unfoldment.

The Hindu who takes such steps into the realms of Lord Murugan, God of
all yoga, son of Siva, can rely upon the firm foundation of the first five
shaktis, which are maintained within him through his personal association
with Lord Ganesha. Thus, if he falters in his practice of yoga, he does not
fall into an abyss. One who does not have the five shaktis firmly established
in life should not perform the more rigorous yogas, lest he awaken and
invoke the asuric, antagonistic forces of the lower worlds which have the
power to counteract and nullify all of one's previous positive efforts.

Sealing off the Lower Realms

The higher one climbs toward the summit of Truth, the deeper the abyss
that lies below, should he stumble and fall from the path. What happens
when seekers on the path lapse and detour into lower worlds of
contemptuous behavior toward themselves as well as others? Low self-
esteem, loneliness, fear, unfounded guilt and remorse all are symptoms of
the abyss of consciousness so feared by devas and humans alike, and
described in scripture and protected against by spiritual preceptors. It is
plain to see that the doors of the chakras below the muladhara must be
firmly closed, sealed off, before serious yoga practice is sought for or
performed.

The Five-Fold Abyss

What is the abyss? It is the way of adharma and the fate of those who
neglect religious practices or fall from any vows they may have taken along
the way. There are five abysses, and they are the exact opposites in
vibration to the first five shaktis so carefully guarded by Lord Ganesha.

THE FIRST ABYSS

The first abyss is inharmonious conditions within the home, fighting and
squabbling among those who are near and dear to each other. This makes
strong samskaras, or scars, in the subconscious mind and begins to create a
subconscious that opposes any kind of furtherance of religious life. The
first, therefore, is the deepest abyss and the most difficult to rise out of.

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THE SECO D ABYSS

The second abyss is inharmonious conditions and misunderstandings --

allowed to exist without apology, recompense or forgiveness -- between
acquaintances, friends and relatives not living in the immediate home. It is
easier to scale the walls of this abyss; it takes a little humility to do so, some
understanding and kindness. Lord Ganesha is expert in retrieving souls who
invoke His guidance, for He is a Mahadeva who could well be called the
master of the conscious and subconscious states of mind. Therefore,
Hindus go to Him in all worldly matters. This asuric force, propelled by
entities of the lower astral, is one which stimulates deteriorating gossip
about family and social relationships outside the home. It could cause a wife
to speak ill of her husband to a neighbor. It would provoke the spreading of
lies about an individual to ostracize him or her from the community or
social set.

THE THIRD ABYSS

The third abyss is that of worry and trouble. The courts of law handle this
one, the collection agencies -- and displeased customers. Lack of courtesy
in business affairs, the borrowing and the lending of money all together
throw their power into making a luscious, comfortable, luxurious abyss of
inharmonious conditions within the business world. This asuric force
stimulates dishonest business dealings, taking advantage of goodwill and
trust an establishment has extended. Not honoring commitments when
expected is the devilish force that antagonizes. This force also separates
people through misunderstanding, causing them to dislike one another.
Many people live in this abyss throughout their entire life. It is a welcoming
capacious pit that the gravity of desire constantly leads one into. There are
many asuric people within it to torture as they entertain. However, an
escape is available even from this abyss through the careful handling of
one's business affairs and consistent religious practice, seeking the help of
Lord Ganesha all the way. Within each of these first three pits are asuric
people on the lower astral plane who aid in distressing the dreams at night;
and the vibration within these three abysses is terrible.

THE FOURTH ABYSS

The fourth abyss is a most treacherous one; and even though some may
have avoided falling in the first three, they may still find themselves in this
one, turning their back on culture, scholarship, serious literature and
philosophy, despising, music, art, drama and the dance, ridiculing religious
people and their practices, content with the libertine, dull, drab life of
material things. Sloth and conceit are found here, along with the smug
attitudes of those that have the first three shaktis well under control. Here
their intellect is God to them; here money is God to them. The reliance on
intellect and wealth within this abyss makes it difficult to perceive that

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someone is there. But being graced with an educated intellect and/or wealth,
and perhaps a shallow religious nature, void of deep, heartfelt
understanding, the lack of creativity, refined sensibilities and love of God is
the key to knowing that, indeed, the fourth abyss lays claim to the soul.
This abyss of worldliness could well become the constant fulfillment of
desires, one after another, only for the sake of desires and their fulfillment.

This asuric force and its representatives on the inner and outer planes,
spiritual anacharists and, worse, mercenary terrorists with no desire for a
better society, bring the breakdown of religiousness, art, culture and the
heritage of the past. In the inner worlds these are well-trained entities,
intelligent beings skilled in the black arts, conspiring with human
counterparts on the physical plane to bring down the nature of humanity to
a base level. They have dedicated themselves to destruction for
destruction's sake. If you enter into this abyss and the others, you come
under their control and become their pupils. This power breeds promiscuity
between the sexes and drains the life of man, bringing him firmly into his
animal nature, resulting in loss of conscience. When he loses conscience, he
no longer suffers remorse or repents for his misdeeds; and hence an asuric
culture is born for the many who participate in it. Ancestry is forgotten and
the ways of the past are put down, as no one has time to cultivate the
refinement and the arts of yesterday, bringing them into today to preserve
them for tomorrow.

THE FIFTH ABYSS

The fifth abyss is the dismal

condition one experiences
when devoid of the childlike
spontaneity of spiritual giving,
worship and religous service.
When this abyss grips and
shrouds the soul, it disables
him from spontaneous
participation in all kinds of
religious festivals and events as
the opportunities present
themselves around the years.
The negative vibration felt by
the person who feels nothing
when he goes to the temple,
sees the Deity as a piece of stone or metal, who observes and faults those
around him, is as powerful a feeling as that felt by the devotee standing next
to him who is moved to tears because of his love of God -- this is the
mystery of the fifth shakti and its corresponding enshrouding abyss.

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Consciously Tuning into the Five Shaktis

To bring religion into one's life requires the worship of Lord Ganesha and
the daily tuning into these five great shaktis. This worship brings harmony
to our home, to our relatives and friends and to business associates. It
brings culture, creativity and religion into our life. All this is crowned by
such a heartfelt love of God that we can then give forth. We are allowed to
perform charities and, in overflowing abundance, prepare the religious
edifices for the next generation. This is what our daily pujas and meditation,
our pilgrimages and other religious practices serve to manifest in our lives.

The Five Shaktis of Lord Ganesha

A Reverent Doxology by a Saiva
Acharya

Loving Ganesha! Dear to Siva's men,

Within whose form the world of form
resides,
Who earned the mango by a
ponderous ken
And made the moon to wax and wane
in tides.

Aum Ganesha! Loved by saints and

sages,
Whose skillful arms five potent
shaktis wield
To guide men now as in forgotten
ages --
The seeker's shield, the farmer's fertile field.

Aum! Ganesha's first shakti is home life,

Protection, harmony, fertility --
Respect becomes the man, as love the wife,
Obedience their cherished offspring's glee.

Aum! Ganesha's second shakti's -- family --

By blood, by marriage and proximity.
Word and thought controlled, like minds agree,
While faithful friends preserve community.

Aum! Ganesha's third shakti's the market,

Where commerce earns the earth stability,
Where forthright, selfless merchants, free from debt,
Conceive, produce, exchange prosperity.

Aum! Ganesha's fourth shakti brings culture --

Refined expression, graceful artistry
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In music, dance, in poetry and sculpture
Or common conduct performed consciously.

Aum! Ganesha's fifth shakti is dharma

Fair merit found in virtue's charity --
Where love of God does conquer ancient karma
And Siva's slaves earn grace's rarity.

Jaya Ganesha! Come, our hearts protect

From discord in the home, from strife with friend,
From business misfortune, from art's neglect,
From soul's dark night -- these griefs asuric end.

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