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Milk for Lord Ganesha
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Subject: Milk for Lord Ganesha
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From: Krishna Susarla <susarla.krishna@studentserver1.swmed.edu>
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Date: 3 Oct 1995 06:18:57 GMT
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Approved: srh <srh@rbhatnagar>
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Article: 323 of soc.religion.hindu
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Newsgroups: soc.religion.hindu
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Organization: U.T. Southwestern Medical Center
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References: <v01530503ac8d40cdce7d@[129.112.16.64]>
At first when I heard about this phenomenon (from Bhakta Dasa's article
on
alt.religion.vaisnava), I did not give it much thought. At the time, I
was
cramming for two cell biology tests, and I had gotten rather out of
touch
with the outside world. But after the exams were over and I went to the
Hare Krishna temple, the magnitude of this situation became more
apparent
to me.
After the Saturday morning Bhagavatam class (given by His Holiness
Dhanudhar Swami) one of the brahmacaris told me about the Ganesha
phenomenon. Apparently it was happening all over the world, and many of
the
devotees at the HK temple had gone to Dallas/Fort Worth Hindu temple to
offer prasadam and milk to Lord Ganesha. I was told that Lord Ganesha
did
not accept the milk from everyone, but that he did accept milk whenever
an
Iskcon devotee offered it. At this time, I was thinking about
Brahma-samhitaa 5.50:
yat paada pallava yugam vinidhaaya kumbha
dvandve pranaama samaye sa ganaadhiraajaH
vighnaan vihantum alam asya jagat trayasya
govindam aadi puruSam tam aham bhajaami
"I adore the primeval Lord Govinda, whose lotus feet are held by Ganesha
upon the pair of tumuli protruding from his elephant head for obtaining
the
power of removing all obstacles on the path of progress of the three
worlds."
Translation by His Divine Grace Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Gosvami.
Copyright, Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. Used with permission.
Vaisnavas, especially Gaudiya Vaisnavas, understand Ganesha to be a pure
devotee of Lord Krishna. After all, not everyone has the privilege of
placing the Lord's lotus feet on his head. So it was not surprising that
many of the Iskcon devotees wanted to go to the Hindu temple to offer
their
respects. I myself got excited at the prospect of being able to offer
something to a pure devotee, and to see him accept it. So I visited the
Hindu temple on Saturday with two other devotees.
The pujaris at DFW Hindu temple were pretty nice to us. Seeing us
dressed
in dhoti and tilak, they recognized us as Hare Krishnas and immediately
took us to the front of the line. The milk was being offered in a spoon
to
the abhishekam deity of Lord Ganesha, who was taking it by his trunk.
There
was a lot of milk spilled all around the deity, apparently because not
all
of it was being accepted. But when we offered milk, Lord Ganesha did
take
it, much to our pleasure. He took about 30 seconds to gulp down one
spoonful, just long enough for us to relish the act of performing
service
for a pure devotee. I joked with the other devotees that Ganesha was
accepting milk to remind us that we are supposed to be on a milk fast
because of Caturmasya :)
It is interesting to see how people in general are reacting to this
phenomenon. Most of the Iskcon devotees were not too surprised that
Ganesha
would accept milk through his deity form. After all, unlike the modern
day
mayavadis, we never accepted the bogus theory that the deity in the
temple
is simply an inanimate mud statue. But the devotees were excited to get
the
chance to see their offerings accepted. When all is said and done, I
think
it is only the devotees who will be able to appreciate what has happened
here.
Already around the world the "rationalists" and "scientists" are putting
on
their pompous masks (about the only way they have for dealing with that
which they cannot explain) and coming up with all sorts of strange
theories. The mayavadis, who have been brainwashing everyone into
believing
that the deity is simply an idol, are no doubt scrambling to interpret
the
phenomenon to their liking. I also hear that there is some political
agitation in India over this, and even some riots.
All this makes me quite uneasy. As far as the Vaisnavas are concerned,
we
never denied Ganesha's existence, and so our faith has not really been
altered. But there are many people whose faith has come simply as a
result
of this, and I have to wonder if such faith is healthy, tempered by
scriptural guidelines, or if it will be blind, as in the case of those
who
follow India's many self-professed "Gods" who manifest magic tricks to
lure
the naive.
Lord Ganesha's decision to accept milk offerings is such that a skeptic
has
room for doubt and a devotee has room for belief. I'm sure that the
empirical scientists will come up with some explanation that will cool
the
whole thing down. On the other hand, there are many who will continue to
make milk offerings in the hope that they can get their material desires
fulfilled.
As for the Vaisnavas, we will go on offering to Lord Ganesha for no
other
reason than the fact that it pleases us to please Krishna's pure
devotee.
Perhaps this is the real reason why Lord Ganesha allows us to see him
drinking milk.
Lord Ganesha ki Jaya!
Haribol,
-- Krishna Susarla
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