Gana (गण) + pati (पति)= Ganapati. Pati is the nurturer. The various meanings of the word gana are given below.
1.1. According to Maharshi Panini
Gana is a group of the eight vasus. The word vasu refers to direction or the guardian deity of the directions (dikpal or dikdev). Ganapati is the nurturer, master (swami) of the directions. (According to one school of thought, Ganapati is the master of the ten directions. The upward and downward directions along with the eight directions constitute the ten directions.) Other deities cannot reach the site of ritualistic worship (puja) from any direction without His permission. Hence any auspicious task or the ritualistic worship of any other deity is commenced with the ritualistic worship of Lord Ganapati. Once Ganapati clears the directions, the deity one is worshipping can manifest itself there. This itself is referred to as Mahadvarpujan or Mahaganapatipujan. [In the Ganpatya sect, the word Ganapati is used instead of Brahman (God) and Mahaganapati instead of Parabrahman (Supreme God).]
1.2 According to the Sanskrutkosh
Gana means a pure spiritual particle (pavitrak). A pavitrak is the subtlemost particle of divine consciousness (chaitanya). Ganapati is the master of such pure particles.
1.3 According to the Nighantukosh
Gana is the collection of tiryak (raja) and visphutit (tama) frequencies which are harmful to the animate creation. The one controlling them is Ganapati. As given in the table below, there are 360 different frequencies which travel continuously in the eight directions. A collection of these frequencies is referred to as gana. Sage Hiranyagarbha was the exponent of these frequencies. (Detailed information about the 360 and 108 frequencies is given in 'Science of Spirituality : Vol. 7 - Supreme God, God, Incarnations and Deities'.)
Reference: 'Ganapati', Published by Sanatan Sanstha
For more information on this article read Sanatan's publication 'Ganapati'.
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respected frnds
it is just a food for thought. sanatan dharm believe in nirgun brahma as supreme god. for those who believe in god, and multi gods/goddess are working gods. like brahma the creator, vishnu the sustainer, shiva as destroyer, in that lord ganesh is god of wisdom. the thing that u need when in difficulty. so before worshiping the god u believe in. u 1st say OM(supreme god), and u bow to ur wisdom that he has given to u to understand nirgun bhrahma. this point is proved by the fact that after saying OM GANESHAYA NAMA, The u worship ur diety by chanting om vishnu devaya nama, or om krishnaya nama, so on so forth, but when it comes to lord shiva we chant OM NAMASYA SHIVAYA. It is not because it sounds more musical? no sir. it is because if u are dead u can not bow, and lord shiva represents death.
the creators of sanatan dharm did every thing that was logical. at the same tme they were childlike in spinning the stories on all subjects.
would like the reaction of readers
mukesh kumar, India (Bharat)
18 Aug 2009, 21:14
this article is very useful for us,this article help us to improve our knowledge regarding our god.thanking you
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