Bappa Fever - Ganesha’s Chakra

Everyone knows Ganpati is the God of beginnings … but why? There’s a secret you didn’t know about our Bappa … here’s the tea.

In simple words, the Gods we worship in Hinduism are can be seen as creative visualisations of the qualities we want to develop to grow spiritually.

Now just like we can cook a potato in different ways, we also have various ways like tantra, yoga, mantra & bhakti to cook our spiritual growth.

If you look at it from the perspective of “tantra,” a method of worship, the goal becomes to activate a sleeping energy called as kundalini by unlocking 7 gears called as chakras.

And at the base of our spine, between your sex organ & anus, sits the first chakra called as muladhara chakra.

As the name suggests, this is the basic & gross chakra associated with Earth or bhumi i.e. the mula. When its malfunctioning, it leads to a lack of mental stability, depression, isolation & lack of self-belief.

Unlocking it provides you a stable foundation to feel healthy, wise, pleasant & motivated, and be strong enough to worship all the other deities to get all their powers.

The meditative sound or beej mantra used to activate this is Lam. But interestingly, you can also chant “Om Gam Ganpateya Namah” because sitting here is the deity called Lambodhara i.e. Ganpati, along with Brahma, Indra, a form of Shakti Devi & also Shiva.

By visualising Lord Ganesha & chanting his mantra, we can unlock his governed muladhara chakra, and that is probably what helps us move beyond our survival instincts, giving us the courage to start new projects, work or puja with confidence & wisdom.

You’ll find many puranic stories of how Ganesha got these powers of wisdom & confidence from his mom & Dad, Shiva & Parvati. But this is the symbolic explanation of why we pray to him at the beginning - because he is the form of God created & placed in our minds who is responsible for helping us physically & mentally remove obstacles in our body & mind to help us move ahead.

You can verify this in the Ganapati Atharvashirsha (Ganapati Upanishad).