In the ticketing system of Spice Jet, Indigo, Jet Airways, and yes Air India too, a passenger is “born” when a ticket is booked. A passenger “dies” when the passenger commits suicide (sorry, I meant when the passenger cancels the booking) , or when it is transported to another realm (city!) on the hallowed flight of the airline. Every passenger must have a name, age, seat assignment. This is the blueprint of a passenger defined in the ticketing system.
When you book a ticket, a specific passenger, with a specific name is born in the system. There is jubilation all around. You are encouraged to share the good news in the heaven of social media, so that divine fragrant flowers in the form of likes may be showered on the blessed airline and hapless passenger.
This is the method of software development called Object Oriented Programming. The essential attributes and behavior of objects of one kind are defined in a “class”, in a blueprint. As per that blueprint, objects are created in the system as required.
Ganesha is the blueprint of all us beings. Ganesha is the class definition.
The kiddo of the supreme feminine force and the supreme masculine force – that is us. We are the gana (beings), Ganesha is the blueprint of all ganas, of all beings. Lord of the ganas means class definition of the ganas.
Voracious appetite implies endless desires. The mouse as the vehicle implies we mostly do whatever we do, riding on our ego. A bloated tummy implies unprocessed and partially processed experiences, that we keep accumulating.
Hopeless as we may seem to be, we are the remover of all obstacles. Its defined in the blueprint. Ganesha is the remover of all obstacles implies you are the remover of all your obstacles.
How does a hapless ganesha, that we mostly are, become a Ninja Ganesha?
Simple. Honor Yourself First.
Ganesha, as the remover of all obstacles, is worshiped first in any undertaking. This implies that in any undertaking, right as its first step, honor yourself.
Entering into a marriage alliance? Honor yourself first. And do so right through the relationship.
About to become a mom-in-law? Honor yourself first.
Received that marriage invitation with Ganesha sitting prim in the middle? Honor yourself first. Don’t go if you don’t want to! 😉
Aah! “If you don’t want to… ” Do we even know what we want?
When we honor ourselves first, this is one of the first miracles to happen, precursor to a string of miracles. When we honor our self first, we become more self-aware. We learn to become aware of, and honor our thoughts and emotions. Thus we get some clarity, after some practice, on what we want. Miracle 1.
Then we state what we want, firmly, and without malice. Miracle 2.
Firmly, because we honor our self. Miracle 2a.
Without malice, because we honor our self. Our increased self-awareness teaches us that malice makes us feel shitty, and we don’t want that. Miracle 2b.
When we honor our self first, we hold our self and others to higher standards. When muck raises its head inside our brain, we learn to say a simple and firm “no” to it – but since we honor our self, we do not beat our self over the muck that raised its head. Instead, we appreciate our self for the increased awareness and for nipping the muck as soon as we could. When the other person behaves in a yucky manner, and we can do nothing about it except walk away, we simply walk away. We do not subject our self to keep experiencing the muck, because we honor our self. We say no to the muck but continue loving the person, for we know that loving the person makes us feel good. Holding malice in our heart makes us feel bad. Thus we learn to hate the sin, not the sinner.
When we honor our self first, we learn to live our joy. We do our duty, and we live our joy. In fact we learn that to live our joy is our first duty. Thus children receive joyous parents, who, along with parenting, live their joy too – parents who do not manufacture children as crutches of old age. Children learn to stick to their choices without resentment towards parents, for they understand that their parents are products of a different time, a different social mindset. Eventually, the parent and child become friends (on Facebook and otherwise).
When we honor our self first, we learn to state our needs explicitly and kindly to our partners, rather than just expecting to be understood. Our increased self-awareness increases our awareness of the underlying emotions of our partner too.
When we honor our self first, we learn to honor our body and our mind. We know when to seek a doctor’s help before it is too late. When our mind is buzzing with thoughts and emotions, we have no qualms in seeking professional counseling help, for we know it will help to talk to a stranger who has no relationship investment with us.
When we honor our self first, however shitty life may be, we know we are beautiful and we deserve a beautiful life. We know such a life must be there, ready for us – because we are beautiful. We seek that life by seeking external and internal well being. We do not wallow in victimhood. We learn to let go of pseudo-virtues and the plethora of ‘should’s that have been thrust upon us, for we now honor our own internal guide that speaks to us through our thoughts and emotions. We start keeping our friend and guide as permanent partner of our enterprise – it’s just easier that way. When caught in a bind, we know that we have mommy Durga, or daddy Shiva to turn to – or whichever form of the cool dude we may look up to.
“When we honor ourselves first, obstacles undo themselves automagically!” says Bejan Daruwalla Ganesha!
Image credit: Whoa.in