{"id":7478,"date":"2026-09-14T16:11:04","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T10:41:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arshaworld.org\/avs\/?p=7478"},"modified":"2026-09-14T16:11:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T10:41:11","slug":"ganapathi-myth-or-reality-know-the-elephant-faced-ganapathi-eng","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arshaworld.org\/avs\/ganapathi-myth-or-reality-know-the-elephant-faced-ganapathi-eng\/","title":{"rendered":"Ganapathi: Myth or Reality? &#8211; Understanding Gajamukha Ganapathi"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>How did Ganapathi get the head of an elephant?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Is Ganapathi merely a myth from the Puranic stories!?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Or is there a deeper spiritual truth behind Gajamukha Ganapathi?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Ganapathi: Myth or Reality? | Understanding Gajamukha Ganapathi | Ganesh Chaturthi\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HK32VMsgluM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><em>This video presents a conversation in which a mother and father explain to their children the truth behind the form of Ganapathi.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The video also highlights the importance of using viveka &#8211; the wisdom to discern between what is right and wrong &#8211; when examining the complicated and erroneous Puranic stories and traditional narratives associated with Ganapathi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is what the Rishis say about the true forms of Ganapathi!<br><strong>Ganapathi in the Vedas<\/strong> &#8211; another name for the one and only Parameshwara.<br><strong>Moola Ganapathi<\/strong> &#8211; the great Ganapathi of the Karana Loka (causal realm), who is Jyoti-swarupa and Sachchidananda-swarupa.<br><strong>Gajamukha Ganapathi<\/strong> &#8211; the form of Ganapathi who manifested before devotees on Earth to destroy Gajasura and Analasura and protect the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Just as Narasimha Murti manifested to protect Prahlada and the world from Hiranyakashipu, Gajamukha Ganapathi too manifested on Earth to protect the world from evil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This Vinayaka Chaturthi, rather than blindly repeating stories that do not accord with the nature of Ishwara, let us learn, understand and share the deeper wisdom of Sanatana Dharma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We should promote wisdom, not absurdity.<br>We should seek to understand our Dharma, not merely imitate its practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Heartfelt wishes to everyone on Ganesh Chaturthi!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Om Gam Ganapataye Namah<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How did Ganapathi get the head of an elephant?  Is Ganapathi merely a myth from the Puranic stories!?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":684,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[23,27],"tags":[700,699,701],"class_list":["post-7478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-blog-english","tag-gajamukhaganapathi","tag-ganapathi","tag-ganesha"],"wpmagazine_modules_lite_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arshaworld.org\/avs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Vinayaka-Chathurthi-Message.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"cvmm-medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arshaworld.org\/avs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Vinayaka-Chathurthi-Message.jpg?resize=300%2C300&ssl=1",300,300,true],"cvmm-medium-plus":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arshaworld.org\/avs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Vinayaka-Chathurthi-Message.jpg?resize=305%2C207&ssl=1",305,207,true],"cvmm-portrait":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arshaworld.org\/avs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Vinayaka-Chathurthi-Message.jpg?resize=400%2C600&ssl=1",400,600,true],"cvmm-medium-square":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arshaworld.org\/avs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Vinayaka-Chathurthi-Message.jpg?resize=600%2C600&ssl=1",600,600,true],"cvmm-large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arshaworld.org\/avs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Vinayaka-Chathurthi-Message.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1",1024,768,true],"cvmm-small":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arshaworld.org\/avs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Vinayaka-Chathurthi-Message.jpg?resize=130%2C95&ssl=1",130,95,true],"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arshaworld.org\/avs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Vinayaka-Chathurthi-Message.jpg?fit=1344%2C768&ssl=1",1344,768,false]},"categories_names":{"23":{"name":"blog","link":"https:\/\/arshaworld.org\/avs\/category\/blog\/"},"27":{"name":"blog-english","link":"https:\/\/arshaworld.org\/avs\/category\/blog-english\/"}},"tags_names":{"700":{"name":"GajamukhaGanapathi","link":"https:\/\/arshaworld.org\/avs\/tag\/gajamukhaganapathi\/"},"699":{"name":"Ganapathi","link":"https:\/\/arshaworld.org\/avs\/tag\/ganapathi\/"},"701":{"name":"Ganesha","link":"https:\/\/arshaworld.org\/avs\/tag\/ganesha\/"}},"comments_number":"0","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arshaworld.org\/avs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Vinayaka-Chathurthi-Message.jpg?fit=1344%2C768&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arshaworld.org\/avs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arshaworld.org\/avs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arshaworld.org\/avs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arshaworld.org\/avs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arshaworld.org\/avs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7478"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/arshaworld.org\/avs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7479,"href":"https:\/\/arshaworld.org\/avs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7478\/revisions\/7479"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arshaworld.org\/avs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arshaworld.org\/avs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arshaworld.org\/avs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arshaworld.org\/avs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}