How many of you are fans of Ganesha? I am asking about Lord Ganesha. I am a big fan of him because he was the one who gave me moksha in life! He was the inspiration for me to follow my dreams. Ok! Now I know many of you may be thinking why am I talking all these. I will now tell you my story with Ganesha!
I was born as a Brahmin! So you can imagine the rituals that a Brahmin family sincerely follows. They are pretty consistent in following whatever their ancestors have left for them. They do not even think twice on why is it required or why should we do it? Well, questioning itself is not followed in such families. So I was lucky to take birth as a Brahmin and thanks to my mom and dad who made me follow whatever they used to follow since their childhood. It was more than a practice and hard work that goes in to the system that is being followed. I was made watch and learn from them doing all the religious stuff; celebrating each and every festival in their own way with the help of all puranas; following blind beliefs and managing life with such beliefs without assessing whether it is right or wrong; and many such non-scientific practices. Few of them were good and few of them were meaningless. But who cares? If they ask me to do something, I had to do it without questioning back to them else I would be punished for disrespecting elders. So I learnt saying ‘Yes’ for everything!
Because I was born as a Brahmin, my parents made me follow everything they used to follow when it comes to God. Sometime during my Pre-University 1st year, I was made to take up Upanayana (Threading Ceremony). I knew there were many gods (countless) and because our god was the richest of all and he is on top of everyone, we had to go to Tirupathi for his blessings during my threading ceremony. I was supposed to get dressed in a funny way with all the Namas and Juttu (red and white paint on my forehead and my hair looking like a fountain). There were many relatives who attended the event and blessed me religiously. I was only happy for whatever gift money that I had received. From there my tough time started; I had to follow all formalities mandatorily on daily basis which looked like more than having the food on time. I had to chant prayers everyday holding the thread in my hand. I had no options but to follow whatever I had to follow. Else my dad would’ve beaten me up and down. I learnt how to be more disciplined in life.
There comes the entry of Ganesha in my life! Because I was poor at prayers and Vedas, my parents decided to send me to the Ganesha temple near to my house in Bangarpet to learn Vedas and Mantras every day. The schedule was fixed and I was not supposed to bunk any session. I was posted on a part time duty to Ganesha temple and the guru (teacher) there was pretty close to my dad. So there was no option for me to play games. I thought that is the end of my own life and my life would be taken care by lord Ganesha going forth. So I started learning managing time effectively with multiple tasks.
So from there, my life was kind of living with Ganesha most of the time. I was very prompt in attending my sessions at the temple. Slowly I was made to do all the things a normal priest would do in a temple. Go to the temple in the morning, make Ganesha take bath in the dirty water, Clean him top to bottom and do the Pooja, attend to customers, learn some more from my guru, be with Ganesha for sometime till my guru comes back to temple, collect prasadam, then go back home and get ready to go to college. Again come back from college in the evening, go to my mathematics tuitions, rush to the temple, change my attire, be with Ganesha, attend to customers, wait till my guru comes, learn some more and go back home in the night. My tuition mates used to come to visit me at the temple and I used to feel shy to present myself in that attire. But I used to conveniently distribute flowers (preferably roses) to all the girls who used to visit the temple. I used to enjoy doing that and my guru used to tease me royally for doing that which eventually would lead to more learning on that day. But I learnt handling multiple clients anyway.
The same schedule and my life with Ganesha continued for a few months and I had become senior at the temple. I was managing all the customers alone and I was used to make Ganesha take shower quickly and get him ready in no time. I used to be very creative when it comes to Alankara (dressing Ganesha) and used to get good appreciation from my Guru. By the way, my guru was called as ‘Bhabi’ (I do not know why). I was made to attend to customer calls alone and I was sent out to their houses to process their requests during the festival season. That’s when I learnt customer service in life. With little service that I used to give, customers used get delighted and used to give me money as a fee. I used to get some part of it after handing it over to my guru so I was happy about it. I was not disclosing it with my parents about the money I used to get. But my friends used to get Masala dosa treat from me quite often. So I learnt how to keep customers satisfied so that I can earn enough money to take care of my college life. So eventually I learnt some business sense as well.
This went on for more than a year and my parents were happy about it. I was getting used to my life with Ganesha learning new things every day. More than anything, Ganesha taught me common sense to lead my own life. One fine day, I was reading a book sitting next to Ganesha and waiting for my guru to come. I was thinking about how my life has become so superficial that I am doing things which cannot be believed. Why am I here? Am I here to get some money by attending customer calls or am I here to clean up Ganesha every day? Am I here to distribute flowers? Am I here to keep myself busy with collecting coins in Hundi (a small iron box where coins are collected in the name of god)?
I looked at Ganesha; realized, even though he has taught me so much in life, he is just a rock inside a closed room. Spirit cannot be found in the rock. I used to find the spirit in every customer’s eyes and their belief in something that used to drive them to the temple. It is not the belief in the stone. It is the belief in self and belief in some spirit. My guru and my team members are working here to earn some coins to lead their lives. There is life beyond this and we have to believe our own spirit. We can create wonders if we just break out of the blind beliefs. So, that day, I decided to quit and resigned from the job. Even though my parents opposed on many occasions, I stopped believing in blind customs and followed my own self. Now I do not go to any temple, I have no religion, I do not do any Pooja (sometimes I am forced to do at home which I still refuse to do). But I believe in the belief that my parents have in Ganesha or any God. I believe in the belief that my friends and closed ones have in God. I do not disrespect them.
So I started believing in myself! And Ganesha remained as my good friend. He was the one who helped me to come out of the shell and lead my life with a clear purpose.
Hope you all have enjoyed ‘My Story with Ganesha’ and took it in a positive spirit. Happy Ganesha Chaturthi to one and all!
Srik
