Why Heavy Lord Ganesha on Tiny Mouse…?

Lord Ganesha has an elephant head, gigantic and heavy, and at his feet a petty and tiny mouse. The mouse is the vehicle of Lord Ganesha. The tiny mouse carries the heavy elephant-headed Lord Ganesha. Looking esoteric … isn`t it?

Why lord Ganesha chose a mouse as his mount…? What it indicates…? What is its symbolism…? What the message and knowledge this esoteric story wants to convey…? Let us try to understand its logic, science, and psychology.

According to a legend - the mouse which is the mount of Lord Ganesha was a very powerful demon named Krauncha. He was disrupting everyone and everything with his power.  He had become unbridled. Everyone had ceded before his power and atrocity.

Day by day his destructive power was increasing. He tried to disrupt lord Ganesha also. A big fight took between that demon and Lord Ganesha. Eventually, lord Ganesha defeated and controlled that demon. That demon was very impressed by the feat of Lord Ganesha and requested him to be his mount and serve him.

Once that mouse was trying to control lord Ganesha, now he is controlled, and as a mount, he does whatever lord Ganesha orders and carries where he wants. Always amenable, obedient and dedicated.

Mouse signifies our mind. Like mouse our minds ramble here and there and not remain stable at one place or topic.

You can find a mouse gnawing something always. That is the nature of mouse. The teeth of mouse always keep growing until they die. That creates irritation in their teeth. To remove their irritation and stop the teeth growing more than required, they need to gnaw something.

 If they will not take the corrective action to stop growing their teeth, they will die because of that growth. To save themselves, whatever comes, good, bad or ugly, in their ways, they start gnawing. They do whatever they do according to their nature, but it is destructive for others. Nobody wants to keep any destructive rodent like a mouse in their house.

The nature of mind is not different from the nature of a mouse. The way mouse keeps gnawing something always, our minds always keep thinking something, no matter - it is good, bad or ugly. Even in our sleep, our minds work in the form of dreams.

Our minds always need something to think. If there is nothing to think, it gets irritated and it becomes dangerous for the self. The mouse can slither through tiny holes and narrow pathways, dirt, clean, even in the darkness of night, the way our minds do.

Our thoughts determine our life. Good thoughts create a good life and evil thoughts create a life full of miseries and sufferings. If our minds are controlled and well directed, it can carry us to the paramount of the success, if not, it can destroy our existence. The human mind is the best of his friend if it is controlled, otherwise worst of the enemy.

Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 6, verse 5 and 6) says -

“A man must elevate himself by his own mind, not degrade himself. The mind is the friend of the conditioned soul, and his enemy as well. For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his very mind will be the greatest enemy.”

Initially, we struggle and fight with our mind. An unbridled mind is the greatest enemy sitting inside us. It creates lots of obstruction in our life. Once we persist and conquer our mind, it becomes a faithful, obedient and dedicated vehicle for our success, happiness, and prosperity. It carries us where we want and accomplishes what we assign.

A mind can be controlled by intelligence and Lord Ganesha is the symbol of intelligence and wisdom. That is why, as a symbol, the mouse has been depicted as the mount of heavy lord Ganesha.

Is Human Race in Danger...?

According to Matsya Purana – King Manu was taking bath in a river. There, a small fish approached Manu and begged him for its rescue from the big fish. He took that little fish in his cupped palm and put that in a jar. The fish grew and the jar became insufficient for it. Then, he put that fish in a pond. After some time, that pond became insufficient for that fish. Again, he put that fish in a river. After some time, that river also became insufficient for that fish. At last, he put that fish in an ocean. That little fish became so huge that even that ocean became insufficient for that fish.

Manu understood that there is definitely some divine intervention in it and with folded hand, he requested to the giant fish to reveal his true identity. At last, that fish revealed his identity as Lord Vishnu and suggested Manu to collect all the seeds of the earth and take shelter on the highest peak of the Meru Mountain because a great deluge is going to take place in 7 days.  And this would be Maha pralaya, a great dissolution. Nothing will be spared in this Maha pralaya.  

That was the indication of the re-cyclic process of nature. In certain duration, nature repeats its re-cyclic process. Once there was domination of Dinosaurs. Now, there is no trace of Dinosaurs. Nature destroyed Dinosaurs along with all other creatures. At that time, there was no existence of human. After the re-cyclic process, again, other creatures came into existence on this planet along with humans. Many creatures came into existence and extinct over time in this re-cyclic process.

Time is not very far when this re-cyclic process would be repeated and the human race would lose their trace forever. Nature is giving warning by becoming violent day by day. The storm, flood, and other natural calamity are the reminders of the violent nature of nature.

The human race is in danger. This is not only a mythological warning, but it is scientific too. A well-renowned scientist and physicist Stephan Hawkins said – human needs to find the shelter on other planets in order to save the human race as a whole. This earth is in danger. The human race is in danger.

The Most Underdeveloped Creature is Human

Human is the only creature who slips out from the womb of the mother immaturely and underdeveloped. Nine-month is not sufficient for a human fetus to mature in the womb. The human requires at least 18 months for becoming a fully developed fetus. Human fetus cannot face the nature just after coming out from the womb of the mother. Other creatures get their required immune and maturity inside the womb of their mother to face the nature. When the animals slip out from their mother`s womb, within one or two hours they start walking or crawling according to their nature. But, this is not true for a human fetus. They need at least 9 months extra care and cradle after coming out from the womb of the mother to attain the required immune and maturity to face the nature.

The kids of other animals can survive even no one cares for them after coming out of the womb. But, this is not the case with the human. Human kids will die shortly if they can be left unattended from their birth. Human womb cannot hold the fetus till its maturity, because, they do not have the required strength to hold the fetus for so long. Humans are not matured or fully developed like other creatures. How can an undeveloped creature give a developed birth?

Other creatures are fully developed, they have reached their level. They have learned what they had to learn. There is nothing pending for them to be learned for their survival. Humans are not fully developed, but they are born with an infinite potential to improve and progress and reach any level.

Lion would be a lion and wolf would be a wolf and vulture would be a vulture. They cannot be nothing more than what they are born with. They are perfect and complete in their existence. A lion is born with inbuilt hunting skill. He does not need to go anywhere to learn it. The same is true for other creatures, but not for the humans. Humans can learn anything what they want or not learn anything - that is their choice.

Other creatures are born with perfection. But humans are born with potential, not with perfection. Humans can be changed and molded and programmed for anything else. There is no limitation. This is possible because of our immature and undeveloped birth. We cannot be perfect at any point in time, there is always a better way ahead. The moment when someone thinks that he is perfect, he loses his privilege to be a human, because the perfection is not the quality of human, it is the quality of animals.

Humans are underdeveloped, immature and imperfect. In the quest for development, maturity, and perfection, humans have progressed a lot. Whatever we have achieved or developed today is going to obsolete tomorrow. And again, we quest for something else. Nothing can give peace and tranquility to human rather than their continuous progression.

 Humans can neither be fully developed nor perfect nor can they be fully matured ever in their life. They can only improve and progress over time. Consistent improvement and progress is the inbuilt quality of human. A human can learn and achieve anything. He can start from anywhere and reach anywhere. Since nobody is perfect, anyone can be surpassed by anyone by putting more effort and extra diligence. The immature, imperfect and underdeveloped birth of the human is blessings by which he rules this planet.