Stefania Dimitrova

Shri Ganesha and Jesus Christ - symbols of the Self[1]

In 1989 Dr. Vinod Ramrao Worlickar send a letter to his friends in England, mentioning an unique discovery which didn't have such importance to the physicists. The physicist Dr. Worlickar is a Hindu, who respects all the gods of the Indian religion, as well Jesus Christ, Buddha, Mohammed, Abraham, Mousses. The wide spiritual spectrum, as well as the knowledge about the mystic symbols of the great world religions enables him to interlink the exact physical science with the philosophy of religion.

In 1986 after numerous attempts to make a computer model of the carbon atom and its four bonds Dr. Worlikar discovered that the 2-dimensional projection of the carbon atom is in fact a swastika (mystical symbol in the Hindu religion). "This wasn't satisfactory to me" writes Dr. Worlikar, "because I felt there were some other secrets, hidden in the C-atom. To create exact C-atom, I used the theory of the electron movement around the nucleus, representing one of the bonds in spherical orbit and the whole model was moving, i.e. I used the fourth dimension - the time. Then I clearly saw, looking from right to left, an ideal swastika, from left to right - the OM sign, from the bottom to the top - cross, and from the top to bottom - Alpha and Omega."

What does this all mean? Without a doubt the discovery of the symbols of two world religions in the pattern of the main universal atom is phenomenal. What else there might be in the essence of this discovery?

From the point of view of the analytical psychology the projection of swastika, OM, cross, Alpha and Omega over the C-atom looks like a model of the evolution of human psyche.

To test this hypothesis, let us take a short trip in the world of symbols and mythological images.

The swastika is a basic Hindu symbol, reflecting the primary principle of the Creation, empersonalized by god Shri Ganesha. According to the Hindu mythology Shri Ganesha is made out of mud and doesn't know anybody else besides his Mother. Guarding in front of Her door, he didn't recognised his own father Shiva and after a fight he lost his head. When Shiva found out the terrible mistake he gave him an elephant's head. It isn't strange that Ganesha doesn't get a human head, because he doesn't think, doesn't plan. Just like Pashu, i.e. entirely dependent from Shiva/Shakti, he lives under the perfect blessings of his Mother.

Created before any of the Gods and their worlds, before the people and the whole visible and invisible Universe, he is the primary building material of the Creation - the innocence. What exactly does an innocence mean? For the Indian mystical mind the innocence has multiple faces. This notion has several levels of understanding:

a) infant purity and sincerity (Shri Ganesha is the everlasting child in the Hindu religion);

b) satisfaction in any circumstances (one of the Shri Ganesha's names is Lambodaraya, meaning completely satisfied);

c) seduction is unknown to him (his energy, Kundalini, is tied on his stomach, i.e. excluded from any lust and greed);

d) he knows that he is the child of the Holy Mother (doesn't have any other identification);

e) he lives only to adore and respect his Mother (Adi Shakti - the female image of the Holy Spirit).

Shri Ganesha knows only his Mother and doesn't show any interest to anybody else. When his father Shiva organised a world trip competition, Ganesha's brother, Kartikeya, mounted up his cock and took on a long trip around the Earth. Instead of following his brother, Shri Ganesha said: "Nothing is greater than my Mother" and mounted on his modest transportation - the mouse, made a circle around the Holy Mother and thus received the award.

The innocence from the Indian point of view means dedication to the only One -the Holy Mother, the primordial energy Adi Shakti, the visible half of Shiva. The conscious experience of the innocence is only human priority. For this reason Shri Ganesha becomes a source of the illusive energy Maya, which covers the initial Divinity of the world (res. of man) and creates false identifications and representations.

We could draw an analogy between the illusory energy of Maya and the concepts of the analytical psychology: shadow, animus, anima. The majority of the scientific researches in the field of Hinduism and Buddhism use the term "Maya" as a key point to the "salvation". Large part of these researches, however, briefly and superficially treat Maya as an "energy of the visible world, that has to be destroyed".

The symbol of Shri Ganesha is the Swastika. The in-depth interpretation of the direction of the swastika proves, that the ancient Oriental mind gives positive answer to the existential problem for the unity of the profane and sacred in the human life.

The studies of rituals in different nations the ethnography, the ethnology and the cultural anthropology agree in the interpretation of the ritual movement and symbols, turned to the left. Several examples of the ritual practice from Indonesia to North Lapland show that people had chosen the anticlockwise direction as "true" and sacred. It means destruction of the material, profane world for the only goal - to reach the sacred "mythical time", in which the patterns of the Genesis exist. The sacred "mythical time" doesn't have period and space. This is the state of the Almighty Creator. Such destructive movement backwards, towards the Beginning, however, always means ignoring everything material, human and the whole visible Universe. The world is considered as non-holy. In this sense the swastika turned to the is considered as something destructive. The movement of the ritual and its symbolic representation clockwise means creation of the visible world, which by the cultural and ethnographic conclusions is non-holy.

The swastika turned towards the right, has been respected in India since the times of the ancient Vedas (3000 years BC) meaning well-being and prosperity in mystical-religious and even common interpretation.

The profane world, because of its non-holiness has no value and has to be destroyed in order to be achieved the sacred one. The controversy between the prosperity and the destruction of the visible Universe, has been solved by the ancient Indian concept of the monad Shiva/Shakti.

This is how Dr Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi explains the Creation of the Universe according to Hindu mythology:

Prior to the Beginning there is only the ParaBrahma state, undetermined and unidentified. It is followed by the split of the existence of Paramashiva and Adi Shakti, to witness-Father and creator-Mother. The separation takes the form of a love game - Lassya. The God-Father releases his energy Shakti and this separation is the Driving force of the creation. She (Shakti) is getting closer trying to fuse again with He(Shiva) to become its initial state. He is rejecting her again. This is a primary movement, Adi Gati, the ellipse - Paradakshina and the zygote in the middle - Pinda. This is the traditional figure of Lingam-Yoni in the Hindu religion. Shakti emits a dynamic ring surrounding herself in order to be witness of her own creation.

Paramashiva is the primordial witness of the game of Adi Shakti. She separates in two : one is the creative part and the other is witnessing power of the Mother. So we say that Paramashiva and Adi Shakti are witnesses, the second having dynamic part from which creates the world. The game of attraction and repulsion between both of them (Adi Bindu) renders tension that deforms the ellipse more and more. Then it opens in two semicircles and the Shakti's ring forms the third semicircle. This is how Shiva-Shakti's first son, Ganesha 's brother Kartikeya was born.

Kartikeya is personification of the pure knowledge of the Primordial Truth- symbolised in the OM sign. During the time when ParmShiva and Adi Shakti are repulsing each other, the fist sound OM is formed. The sound A is expresses the desire mode, the sound U- creativity, M - the knowledge of the creation. This way Shakti is separated into three powers, three gunas, or three mothers: A - the power of desire, Mahakali, who stands to the left of the Primary Creation; U - the power of action, Mahasarasvati, standing to the right of the Primary Creation , and M, Mahalakshmi, the power of knowledge that is situated in the central canal of the Primary Creation and respectively in all the other world creations. This is the reason why Hindu religion expects the human incarnation of Trigunatmika (the three gunnas), Buddhists anticipate Matreya (Ma-treya or the three mothers), which in fact announces the end of the human spiritual evolution, due to the appearance of the innocence in human form , as well in human psyche.

The sign OM is the primary sound of the creation, the holy breath of God, one of the names of Shri Ganesha, the primary word, Logos or the primary verb. Here we have to recall John's Gospel: "In the beginning there was Word, the Word was in God and God was the Word" and the holy Amen. This is the sound which Adi Shakti used to create the first element - the innocence (Shri Ganesha) and entirely filled with it the Universe.

Ganesha is the beginning of our world. He was created first and he gives the shapes, the qualities, the elements, the modes of time, the gods, the people.

In its depth the concept of innocence, represented by Shri Ganesha, means that the profane world is identical to the Divine. In this sense, to reach the Divine excludes the destruction of the profane world. The sacred is immanent of the Visible Universe. Or, as they say in all ancient Indian scripts: "Atma (the Holy Spirit) can be reached when we turn our sight inside us", while Jesus says to his disciples "God's Kingdom is in us" (Lucas 17:20-22).

Despite all this the swastika is Drawn in direction of destruction. Destruction of what?

One of the Shri Ganesha's names is "Vignanasha", meaning "He destroys the obstacles of evolution". In Ganesha Attharva Sheersha is said: "You are the only Destructor of the obstacles. You are true Brahman. You are the everlasting Atma (Self)". Atma is the Holy Spirit(God Almighty) from the subjective whereas Brahma - is the Holy Spirit(God-Almighty) from the objective. They are identical and have equal essence). In other words the Holy Spirit eliminates the obstacles of his appearance.

In this sense the swastika, turned to the right, clockwise, could be interpreted as development of the innocence, evolution of the Divinity; whereas the swastika, turned to the left, anticlockwise, as a removal of the barriers for the evolution of the Divinity.

Here we recall the conclusion of the great investigation of the human history by the world-wide known philosopher Arnold Toynby. According to him "The aim of the human effort, the goal of mankind's civilisation is equal to the evolution of the sacred ".

In the "Devetashka" cave (near Lovetch, Bulgaria) are discovered the oldest Drawings of swastikas, dated from 6000 years BC The fact that the signs are Drawn in dyad, to the left and to the right at the same time, indicates that the direction to the left is as sacred as the direction to the right. The Neolithic man on the cross-roads of Chaos and Cosmos led by his spiritual intuition draws the swastika in dyad. Three thousand years before the ancient Indian Vedas, was respected the symbol of the sacred in man.

In the dawn of European civilisation, man had a positive vision of the world in which he lived. Where in its way the humankind has lost its way and started opposing the Divine to the visible Universe, secularising the "seen" and thus desiring the destruction of the visible is a subject of another study.

We find here the meaning of this symbol as: self-developing of the holiness, which destroys all obstacles on its way of accomplishing the Divine plan.

Any other interpretation, based on the idea for the destruction of the illusive energy "Maya" in order to find the true meaning of the world, is in fact a formal acceptance of the Indian ontological point of view, leading to direct or indirect pessimism.

Let us turn back to the C-atom, the main building element of the Universe.

According to Dr. Worlikar the 2-dimensional projection of the C-atom, seen from the right to the left, looks like swastika, whereas seen from the left to the right - there is the OM sign.

On the top of the atomic model a cross could be seen, the symbol of Jesus Christ. The hypothesis of the identity Ganesha-Jesus we can test through the mythological data, the Bible, the epistemological symbolic, the terimorphic symbolic, the arithmetic and geometric symbolic and by all the symbols of the Self. We'll stop on just a few characteristics, because a comparison pretending to be comprehensive and profound, needs a special attention. Our problem here is to present the hypothesis of the unique C-atom model, reflecting basic symbols of the World Religions. Here are some data which prove the identity of the symbols Ganesha-Jesus Christ.

1. Jesus is the only Son of the Holy Mother. Ganesha and Kartikeya are two different aspects of the Holy Child(in Hinduism), because both have name - "OM" (the sound of the first creation). The conclusion is, that Jesus, Shri Ganesha/Kartikeya are different aspects of the Holy Son.

2. The Holy Mother creates Shri Ganesha from mud and there was immaculate conception of Jesus .

3. "I'll forgive anything against me, but nothing against the Holy Spirit"- says Jesus. The Holy Spirit is his Divine identity, his Holy Mother (Holy Spirit in Aramaic language is in female gender). Just like Shri Ganesha, who stands against all the gods to protect his Holy Mother, Jesus doesn't allow any sin towards the Holy Mother.

4. Ganesha and Jesus live in constant meditation on the Holy Spirit (the Divine in the Creation).

5. " I am the Alpha and the Omega"- says Jesus. The Alpha is the beginning of everything, whereas the Omega is the end of the Creation. Ganesha as well is the Beginning, the End and the Living of all the Universe. "All worlds were generated by You and supported by You, they exist in You and You are the world" (Ganesha Attharva Sheersha).

6. Jesus and Ganesha are symbols of the personality, surpassed the human ego and superego. To remind, Ganesha has elephant's head, deprived from ego and conditionings (superego), he is Pashu entirely dependent by the blessings of his Mother. Through his suffering on the Cross Jesus Christ symbolises the process of Selfrealization or gradual differentiation from the collective and individual unconscious. "Through the sufferings on the Cross the controversies inside of him (Jesus) are becoming separated aware"- writes Jung In this sense the crucifixion of Jesus, between the ego and the superego of the people and moreover his resurrection beyond the ego and the superego shows the way of mankind's salvation.

If we have to summarise the brief overview of the symbols, coded in the C-atom: swastika, OM, cross, Alpha and Omega , they lead to reality equal in essence, the reality of the Divine evolution. Their meaning we can release after considering Shri Ganesha and Jesus Christ as steps of human evolution.

Before solving this problem, let us make brief overview on the understanding of the analytical psychology and Shiva Advayta's philosophy for the "salvation", which in its essence is the peak of spiritual evolution in man.

In his famous book "Aion" Jung writes: "The traditional image of Jesus gathers the patterns of an archetype, this of the Self meaning an example, alive psychological fact When the archetype of the Self dominates (including extreme contradiction in itself), the inevitable psychological outcome is the conflict, the visible side of which is the Christian symbol of crucifixion, i.e. the painful state of non ressurected, where only the words "this is the end" (consumatum est - John 19:30) puts an end of it.

To clarify, for us the "salvation" is a psychological state of the mind which distinguishes the negative unconscious (in Jung's terminology) from the Self. We would say, the differentiation from the ego and the superego marks the end of the sense of "helplessness" "non-ressurection".

The "salvation" in its traditional sense, as an exit from the harshness of this world, is just another conditional illusion, we will attach the interpretation of the founder of philosophy - ShivAdvayta Janeshvara "The ignorance and the salvation are two similar concepts - writes Janeshvara in his book Amritaanubhava. - The ignorance is expressed in the words "I am human (non-holy) being", and the salvation in "I am Brahma (God)". Both though are just rings of the rebirth chain or endless circle of the illusive energy. In his body man lives as a human being, which suffers, in his soul released from the body he lives like God, away from the pain. Only the Pure Consciousness (sat-Chit-ananda) is beyond the suffering and the salvation. It is lived in this world in a way that "life is a natural bliss". For the pure mind there is no "beyond", it is the consciousness in itself. In this sense the salvation is a way: from Selfrealization (the personality, realized the weight of the ego and the superego), through the metamorphosis of the personality to the whole personality.

In his theory Jung reaches up to the problem of Selfrealization. He doesn't continue further. He showed the Driving force of the psychological evolution - the Self hidden in the unconscious, which despite our will has faced up to the problem: "to see ourselves as an whole personality", i.e. with its all vices and dark side.

The structure of the C-atom shows us the next step of man's psychological evolution: the "salvation" from the dark side.

I. Stage - Shri Ganesha-innate innocence

Ganesha is the innocence, living in constant worship of the Spirit. In other words, Ganesha is the unrealised, potential innocence in everything. Thanks to this, that man has consciousness, through which he organises his way of living across the Chaos of possibilities to become aware and to release the innocence in his everyday life. Man has the possibility to approve its Divine essence.

Shri Ganesha is source of the illusive energy "Maya" ,hiding Atma from the mind in the same way as the illusion mistakes the rope for a snake. Or from the very Beginning the illusive energy comes together with the pure mind and only the worshipers to the innocence see Atma in everything.

II. Stage - selfdevelopment of the Creation from the Alpha to the Omega

 Sat-Chit-Ananda is the state of the Divine couple Shiva and Shakti (the whole of the Holy Spirit and its energy as the sun and its light). When the qualities "Sat" - truth, "Chit" - attention, "Ananda" - joy are in one, then there is complete silence, nothing is created and nothing is shown, the joy is fused with the attention and the truth. Ananda is the joy inside, merging in the creation. When the joy is moving towards the illusive energy "Maya", it goes to the unreal world "asat". At this time the creation is selfdevelopping, but joy- truth are overshadowed. For this reason Christ says: "I am the light", because he is the symbol of the light = the truth = the joy. In its way to perfection the light acts for the evolution from the inferior to the superior living forms up to the man, who's joys (ananda) are the most elevated, consciousness (chit) is controlled, the truth for the Divine laws (sat) is understandable.

When he turns his attention (chit) towards the potential Divinity of everything (sat), the man experiences the state of Creator. The bliss, the joy (ananda) moves in man and the light of the Divine(Jesus) enters man as expression of the Self. The man expresses the essence of his primary pattern (Ganesha) as "Self liberated from the weight (the cross) of the negative unconscious" (Jung), receiving life as a "natural bliss" (Janeshvara)

III. Stage - Jesus Christ - conscious innocence

As the human mind is split between the individual and collective unconscious it is urgent to release the personality from the conditions, impeding the spontaneous conscious flow. Through love, Jesus is the way for salvation (from the weight of negative unconscious) to all the people. The weight of conditioning, instincts, fears, aggression, arrogance (attributes of the negative unconscious)projected on the Other, on the surroundings, political and economic life, could be overcame through the Love, symbolised by Jesus Christ. Pure Love is an implicit subordination, respect, attention on the Divinity of the Other.

The bow of Zen-Buddhists to each other means: "I bow to Buddha in you". So the Pure Love (Christ in us), is a bow to the Divinity in the Other, in every human being.

The forgiveness, which is the message of the Christ - is forgiveness to the shadow, to the dark side of the humans. The dark side, the Maya of human character is of no interest for those who have reached their Divinity. There is a Far- East proverb "Only saints can forgive." When the attention is turned only to the Spirit of the Other, to his Divine essence, then the shadow and the negative unconscious which is projected in the thoughts and behavior has no meaning. This is how for the Pure Love the negative unconscious, the Maya is illusory and doesn't exist. This is the witness state where the light of the Divinity embraces all the world. Janeshvara writes for this state:

"Has the Sun ever seen darkness? So for him the talks about darkness have no meaning"

The Sufi philosopher and mystic poet Ibn-al -Farid has expressed this state of human mind beautifully in his poem:

"I am not God, I am just a son of Adam.

But I could reach my goal.

My Spirit is the all-pervading Spirit.

And the beauty of my soul is spread every where...

Oh, don't call me a wise man

It will be just an idle talk. "

The way to salvation through liberation from the shadow of the unconscious (Jung), the cross (Christianity), Maya (Hinduism, Buddhism) is shown by the Pure Love (Jesus).

The Pure Love towards everything alive means attention to the potential holiness of everything and from here respect to the innocence (Ganesha). According to Shiva Advaita: " From the point of view of the sacred state of Atma the Observer is in one with the seen. As in the false interpretation of the rope for a snake there is only rope, thus the appearance of different objects in Atma there is only Atma".

In other words the Love of Jesus is an Observation of the Divine in others and as the Observer is One with the Seen - the Pure Love is experiencing our own Divinity. Christ is a symbol of the Self, which in the mythology of ancient India is named: Atma, Ganesha, Son of the Primordial Energy- Adi Shakti. So we could say that the evolution of the human psychics is coded in the structure of the main element of the Universe-C-atom. From Ganesha- the innate, unconscious innocence; - though the selfdevelopment of the creation (Alpha and Omega), via the illusive energy of the living (Maya), which inflicts identifications with , roles, qualities and conditions - until Jesus - the Pure Love that overcomes the negative weight of the evolution, to appear as a state of a enlightened innocence.

 Attachment

GANESHA ATHARVA SHEERSHA

Amen. Salutations to Ganapati. You are verily Primordial principle. Only You are the doer. Only You are the supporter of the earth. Only You are the remover of obstacles. You are verily the Brahman. You are verily the eternal Self.

From the front, from back-side, from north, from south, from above and from below: protect me from all sides.

You are in the literature, You are in the Consciousness, You are the Bliss, You are the Brahman.

You are the absolute Truth-Consciousness-Bliss(Sat-Chit-Ananda).

You are the knowledge.

You are the recognition. All the world has originated from You and it is sustained by You; it ends in You and You manifests as the world.

You are the earth, water, air and sky. You are the four parts of speech(para, pashyati, madhhyama, vaikhari).

You are beyond the three Gunas(satwa, raja, tama). You are beyond the three times(present, past, future). You are always present in us at Mooladhara. You are within the three powers(Mahalakshmi, Mahasaraswati, Mahakali). Yogis always meditate upon You. You are Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra(Shiva), Indra, Agni, Vayu, the Sun, the Moon and the three Lokas(terrestrial, celestial and atmospheric).

Uttering Gana, followed first by Varna(syllable), then by the nasal sound. Your form is supporting the half moon and stars. G(Gakar) is the first form, A(Akar) is the middle form and the nasal sound is the last form. The Bindu is on the top. The sound, thus made, may be meditated on for the knowledge of all Vedas. It is Ganesha Vidya. We want to have the knowledge of the God with one tusk. we meditate upon the God with the curled up trunk. May He stimulate our intellect.

He has one tusk, four arms and is holding a noose and goad. With one hand He is blessing. He has a mouse as vehicle. he is red in complexion, has a big belly and ears like winnowing fans. He wears red clothes and smears red coloured fragrant paste on His body.

He is worshipped with red flowers. He is the God who has compassion for His devotees and is said to be the cause of the world.

He manifests before the creation, from supreme Prakriti and Purusha.

He, the greatest of all yogis, is eternally worshipped by the Yogis.

Obeisance to the lord of assemblance (Vrata-pati). Obeisance to the Lord of ganas(Gana-pati).

Obeisance to the master of Cupid. Obeisance the big bellied God; the remover of obstacles; the Son of Shiva.