Lord Ganesh was born out of the earth of Mata Shakti. His role, as decided by the mother, was to guard the entry of unwanted visitors to her chambers, so as not to disturb her. But he lacked discernment of who has the state to access the mother and who doesn’t, and prevented Lord Shiv from entering. His head was then cut off, and replaced by an elephant head, the elephant who had acquired gyan and humility through years of penance of Lord Shiv. He was called Ganpati, the lord of ganas/keepers and Pratham Pujya, the first to be worshipped, by anyone aspiring to enter the domain of Shiv and Shakti.

In the human body, Mata Shakti represents the force of Kundalini, which resides at the mool chakra (base of spine) in a semi-dormant form, and Ganpati is the energy that guards it. Shiv who resides at the agya chakra (centre of eyebrows) has to come down and lift the force of Mother, through the various chakras by awakening the energies corresponding to them, beginning with Lord Ganpati. Thus, in yogic tradition, the first sadhna given to a sadhak is Ganpati Sadhna.

Guru gives a mantra to access the energy of Ganpati and stipulates a time period in which a specific count has to be completed. Ganpati is the lord of riddhi (material prosperity) and siddhi (spiritual boons). When a practitioner performs the chants in the prescribed manner, while practicing certain purification techniques along with service and charity, he/she starts to practically experience the energy in form of manifestation of physical desires. A yagya is then performed for completing the japa. The success of yagya is determined by manifestation of the deity in the yagya agni (you may visit dhyanfoundation.com for images of manifestations at yagyas performed by dhyan ashram sadhaks). After the yagya, finally the tarpana is performed to complete the sadhna.

Ganpati sadhna is powerful and illuminating, it is the easiest of all tantrik sadhnas. It grants sidhhis to overcome hurdles and remove obstacles, in physical life to begin with, and through various lokas and dimensions as one progresses on the path of sadhna. One of the most simplest sadhna for people who are aspiring siddhi and material wealth. The only catch is that the mantra has to be given by a Guru, who is himself perfected it’s siddhi.