MEANING OF EKADANTA AND VAKRATUNDA THE NAMES OF LORD GANESH

      The Lord Ganesh is worshiped by all segments of Indian society. We worship and pray him at the beginning of everything , my it be waking up in the morning or some religious ceremony or going for some important job .The prayer is well known , VAKRATUND MAHAKAY SURYAKOTI SAMAPRABHA, NIRVIGNAM KURME DEV SARV KARYE SHU SARVADA .The meaning is the Lord Ganesh who is ENORMOUS  and whose light is is equal to millions of SUNS , help us to go through or work without any obstacles.

     The name that is used for Lord Ganesh is VAKRATUND . Many of us understand the meaning as - WHOSE TRUNK / FACE IS BENT OR NOT STRAIGHT . This does not raise any questions in our mind as we know that the trunk of lord Ganesh is bent on either right side or left side. But to call a God that we are asking to help in getting rid of obstacles, as TWISTED FACE would not be great praise. So the real meaning of the word VAKRATUNDA is different. TUND means destroys and VAKRA is bad behavior persons . So the meaning is the God who destroys people with bad or twisted tenancies.

    The lord Ganesh is also called by name EKADANT one with one tooth and there is a story as to how he lost the tooth and then the MOON laughed at him etc . But why would you call the God stating facial deformity? If you call your boss as one who has lost teeth  do you think he will help you? So the meaning of the EKADANT is different. DANTA means RULER  and EK DANTA means ONE AND ONLY  RULER-.HE IS THE ONLY RULER and this rule is not where the king or the ruler will PUNISH but he is the only RLER OF KNOWLEDGE. . 

     

SOURCE OF HAPPINESS

   We all 'want' happiness and we work for it our entire life . But have we ever thought as to the source of happiness ? Do we know what makes us happy? The answer even when you ask a kid will be very quick. The child may be happy eating candy or seeing mother or having ice cream etc .Grown up young man or women may answer  the question by saying - drinking alcohol or smoking or seeing friend - girl or boy etc. .The answer will be little different as we advance in age . The success in business or promotion or new car or new  and bigger house etc. will be the answer. And the elderly may find happiness in having better health or no pain or cure from hear disease or cancer etc. So what is the source of Happiness - is it outside our body ? Is iy in food or friendship or car or house etc.

    If we think deeper we know that the happiness is not OUTSIDE but INSIDE our own mind. let us take an example of eating Pizza - presuming  that you like it . The 1st slice of pizza gives you happiness , but if we continue to eat more slices - do you thing the 10 th slice of pizza will give you the same pleasure as the 1st slice . The answer is no and so the pleasure is not in PIZZA but it's in mind. A meat eater may find pleasure in eating juicy steak. but what vegetarian person that steak will not give any happiness . So the happiness is not in eating steak. Otherwise all of us should find pleasure in eating it. Another example is that of music. Not everyone is happy to listen to rap music or Opera . So The music is NPT THE SOURCE of happiness . The happiness comes from within  and one tends to make the mistake of trying to find out happiness outside our mind . Sex and rape does not cause the same result of happiness . The same spouse that gave happiness does not do it when you are divorced. So when we think of all these things we still make mistake of thinking that we will be happy by getting this or that . I will be happy if I get million dollars or bigger house or promotion etc. But the happiness when we get to things that we WANT, is very transient . The new car or bigger house makes you happy ,but does not last long .So we need to understand that HAPPINESS IS WITHIN US AND NOT OUTSIDE. Once we know this WE WILL BE HAPPY ALL THE TIME AND NOT LOOK FOR MORE THINGS THAT PRESUMABALY GIVE US HAPPINESS  OUTSIDE.