One of the more popular stories about Ganesha is the one that involves his brother, Karthikeya. The story goes something like this: One day Narada Muni came to Kailasa, the abode of Shiva, Parvati and their two children, Ganesha and Karthikeya. Narada Muni had one mango and given his penchant for initiating conflict he said that he would give the mango to the child that would be quickest in circumnavigating the world.
Both Ganesha and Karthikeya were up for the challenge. Karthikeya, being agile and quick, got on his peacock and off they speeded away to travel around the world. Ganesha, even then a portly child, was content in doing whatever it was he was doing at the time – perhaps continuing to read his book. Just as Shiva, Parvati and Narada spotted Karthikeya on his way back, they saw Ganesha jump up and quickly run around once around both his parents. Just as he finished, he declared himself the winner and accepted the mango from Narada Muni. Karthikeya got back just in time to see this exchange and lost his temper.
‘What’s going on here,’ Karthikeya asked, his face red, his lips quivering.
Ganesha went towards his brother, put his hand on his shoulder and said – I have won, brother because I was quicker in going around the world than you.
‘But it was I who went around the world,’ replied Karthikeya. ‘You didn’t even leave Kailasa.’
‘That’s true, brother, responded Ganesha in a calming voice. ‘However I believe that there is no world except for that habited by my parents. Therefore in going around them, I was able to be quicker than you in circumnavigating my world.’
What happens next is another story – however, it is incumbent upon all of us listening to this story to pause here and reflect on what is being communicated.
One of the things I love about these stories is that they can be meaningful at many levels.
As a child, when this story is told, there are two take-aways:
1) Intellect is more important than Might. Ganesha was smarter than Karthikeya even though physically Karthikeya was fitter than Ganesha. So study hard and develop your intellect.
2) Respect your parents. Ganesha, the guru of wisdom, in this story, is telling us that there is nothing more important or more real to us than the world that our parents have given us.
As an adult, Devdutt Pattnaik will tell us that in this story, Ganesha is responding to his subjective reality (MY world) while Karthikeya is responding to his objective reality (THE world). This gives us the opportunity to look at any situation that we’re in where when working with others we feel cheated or holding the shorter end of the stick and reflect on the lesson from this story. Is the problem varying points of perspective? If so, what can we do about it?
My reflection on this story is a bit different (as each of yours will be too). When Narada Muni announced his competition for the two children, Ganesha chose to identify what method would be most effective. In a race to finish based on speed, he was not going to win. So he chose to wait and watch. He saw Karthikeya take off. He then reflected some more on how he could win and to his merit found a solution that won him the prize.
Karthikeya, on the other hand, believed that this competition played to his strength. Thus convinced he got going immediately. He did not stop to see what Ganesha was doing or pondering about. He already was convinced he would win because the game was set to his strengths. Had he waited and watched for Ganesha’s play, he might have still won because he was the swifter of the two. However this would not have made a good story.
In so much, both children responded to their subjective realities, except that in the case of Ganesha, since he recognized his disadvantage he was able to innovate & identify a solution that worked for him – however in the case of Karthikeya, he lost because he was limited by his perception of his advantage.
Ganesha’s triumph is one of acceptance – He accepted the limitation of his subjective reality and in doing so was able to see more than just one reality. Karthikeya’s loss was one of ignorance – He saw his advantage and nothing else and thus failed in this game.
As a jyotishi, let’s reflect some more on our subjective reality. Human beings increasingly are finding it VERY difficult to recognize the limitations of their reality. By this I mean, more so than ever we are today convinced that the way we SEE things is the way they really are. As a result we mobilize people and resources to act on our subjective realities.
This is not a choice – to be able to see – to be able to perceive – to operate in a subjective reality. It is a limitation. Most of us however do not get this. We are convinced that what we SEE is what IS and as a result the ‘end justifies the means’.
In our personal lives and in our public lives, this approach can come to haunt us. The war in Iraq and Afghanistan is one such example. The day to day practice of corruption is another example. The decision some of us take to kill female babies is another. The list is long and begs us to reflect and re-consider.
From a Jyotish point of view, who governs our subjective realities? It is the mind. In our horoscopes the mind is reflected by Moon. How we perceive our life, the happy moments and the difficult moments can be interpreted through the placement of Moon in a horoscope. Subjective reality is one form of truth. However it is not ALL the truth. As human beings most of us are incapable of seeing ALL the truth for any given situation. We can continuously endeavour (and doing so is the biggest blessing of life itself) to see more of the truth in a given situation but we CANNOT see ALL of the truth. This is the limitation of a subjective reality. Accepting it is how we can free ourselves of this limitation.
Another myth based story can help us further understand this. The Moon had twenty-seven wives, each a nakshtra. Every month, at the request of his father-in-law Daksha, the Moon would visit each wife and spend some time with her.
However as time passed, the Moon became overtly attached to one of his wives. As a result the other wives felt neglected and this angered Daksha. Daksha thus cursed Moon to lose his vitality, that which the latter was most proud of.
Moon was crushed. He prayed to Shiva who took Moon and placed him in his locks, thus giving him access to ‘Soma’ a herb that would help him rejuvenate. Moon having recognized his mistake, apologized to his father in law and wives and set about treating them equally. However he does so a bit reluctantly – moving quickly from one house to the other and completing all twenty-seven visits in about 28 days – one lunar month.
Every month we see the Moon wax and wane reminding us of our limitations and the cost of being blinded to our subjective realities. Shiva here demonstrates the opportunity to accept this limitation and through this find the means to rejuvenate.
Referring back to the first story, then, when our mind is afflicted, let us be inspired by Ganesha to help us accept the limitations of our subjective reality. Let us then look to Karthikeya to help us act swiftly towards our chosen goal. Unlike Narada Muni who set the two brothers to compete, let us instead get the two forces to work together to help us be useful to others in our lives.
