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Pancha Ganapati Day 1

Today begins the five days of Pancha Ganapati, the festival that brings joy and light to all. From "Loving Ganesha" we bring you Gurudeva's insights into the varied and vibrant potencies of our most popular Deity. We focus on the first of His shaktis.

"COME, 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 asuriccounterforces 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 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 Five Shaktis of Lord Ganesha



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
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.

A Powerful Homa and the First Day of Pancha Ganapati

Today we had our first Homa in 3 weeks after observing Sadhu Paksha. This begins a very full six day phase, celebrating pancha ganapati and readying for Maha Ardra over the retreat.

Archives are now available through 2001. Light colored days have no posts. 1998-2001 coming later.

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