ganesha

The goddess Parvati, who was married to the god Shiva, wanted to take a bath, and she didn't want to be disturbed. So she made a young man to guard the door while she bathed. According to the story, "she made him out of her own dirt."

Ganesha was kind of stocky and muscular looking, so no one would mess with him. "I'm going to be taking a bath for the next couple thousand years," Parvati told him. "I want to be alone, so guard the door and don't let anybody in."

Some time later Shiva returned from his hunting trip. It had not been very productive and he was in a sour mood. He went to his wife's chamber and found the door guarded by Ganesha, who told him he couldn't go in.

"My lady told me not to let anybody in," said the young man.

"She's my wife," Shiva told him, "it's OK. Surely, you're not going to try to prevent me seeing my own wife."

"But she said, don't let anybody in,"Ganesha insisted.

"Do you know who I am, kid?" Shiva thundered at him. "I'm God!"

Ganesha just smiled. "You're God? Got I.D.?"

By this time Shiva was in a foaming rage, and he drew his sword and beheaded Ganesha with one stroke. Then he went in to greet his wife, and never mentioned what had happened. But when she saw the dismembered body outside her chamber door, and heard the violent story from her husband, she was moved by the young man's scrupulous observance of her instructions, and his dedication. Now she was angry at Shiva, who had killed Ganesha for nothing more than doing exactly what she had told him to do.

"You go out right now and get another head," she yelled at her husband, "and restore this kid."

Grumbling, Shiva went out and as it happened, the first animal he encountered was an elephant. He decapitated the beast and carried the head home, and set it on Ganesha's body, and so the god took the form we're familiar with today.

In India, the elephant is a symbol of immutability -- of that which never changes, and Ganesha's faith is immutable. Because his faith is so strong, he's the remover of obstacles.

He's also a protector of the innocent. In 2007 the Drug Enforcement Administration raided 11 major medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles. The only major dispensary in town that didn't get busted had Ganesha in its window. Today it's hard to find a dispensary that doesn't have a picture or statue of Ganesha somewhere on the premises.*

*David Samuels, "Dr. Kush" in the New Yorker, July 28, 2008, p. 2.