Yoga Ganapati: The Lord in Meditation

Introduction

Yoga Ganapati (योग गणपति) is the 30th of the 32 forms of Lord Ganesha. He is Ganesha as the yogi: absorbed in mantra japa, his knees strapped in a meditative pose, his hands holding a yoga staff, a sugar cane stalk, a noose and prayer beads. His colour is like the morning sun, and blue garments adorn his form.

The 32 forms are listed in the Mudgala Purana, and their meditation verses and paintings are preserved in the Sritattvanidhi, a nineteenth-century treatise from the court of Mysore. Where many of the forms show Ganesha giving wealth, victory or boons, Yoga Ganapati shows him turned inward, in the stillness of meditation.

The Form of Yoga Ganapati

Seated in yoga

Yoga Ganapati sits in a yogic posture with a yogapatta, a band of cloth tied around his knees. Ascetics use such a band to hold the body steady through long hours of meditation. His meditation verse calls him yogārūḍha, “mounted in yoga”: established in it, as a rider is seated on a horse.

Red as the rising sun, dressed in blue

His colour is that of the rising sun, bālārka, the young red sun of early morning. Dawn is the traditional hour for meditation, and the rising sun is the light of awakening. His garments are indranīla, sapphire blue, the colour of the sky and of depth and stillness.

Four Hands and What They Hold

• A noose (pasha), to draw the wandering mind back and hold it to its object.
• A sugar cane stalk (ikshu), the sweetness of spiritual life. As sugar is drawn from the cane by pressing, the sweetness of realization comes through effort.
• A rosary (akshamala), for japa, the repetition of a mantra, which is the heart of this form.
• A yoga staff (yogadanda), a short rest on which an ascetic leans an arm while sitting in meditation.

The Meditation Verse

The Sritattvanidhi gives this dhyana shloka for Yoga Ganapati:

योगारूढो योगपट्टाभिरामो बालार्काभश्चेन्द्रनीलांशुकाढ्यः ।
पाशेक्ष्वक्षान् योगदण्डं दधानो पायान्नित्यं योगविघ्नेश्वरो नः ॥

yogārūḍho yogapaṭṭābhirāmo bālārkābhaś cendranīlāṃśukāḍhyaḥ / pāśekṣvakṣān yogadaṇḍaṃ dadhāno pāyān nityaṃ yogavighneśvaro naḥ

In English: “May Yoga Vighneshvara protect us always: established in yoga, handsome with the yoga band, radiant as the rising sun, clad in sapphire blue, holding a noose, sugar cane, a rosary and the yoga staff.”

Ganesha and Yoga

Ganesha has a special place in yoga. In the teaching of the chakras, the centres of energy along the spine, he presides over the first, the muladhara, at its base, the foundation on which all the others rest. As he is worshipped before every undertaking, so he is invoked at the start of the inner journey. Yoga Ganapati gives that teaching a form: the remover of obstacles, seated in the stillness that the seeker hopes to reach.

The Significance of Yoga Ganapati

Devotees turn to Yoga Ganapati for progress in meditation and for the self-discipline it needs: a steady posture, regular japa, and a mind that does not wander. His verse calls him yogavighneśvara, the Lord of the obstacles of yoga, and asks him to protect us always. The restlessness, doubt and distraction that block meditation are obstacles like any other, and Ganesha is the one who removes them.

The 32 forms, Yoga Ganapati among them, are carved in stone at the Srikanteshvara temple in Nanjangud and the Chamarajeshvara temple in Chamarajanagar, both in Karnataka, and in the Pazhavangadi Ganapathy temple in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

Conclusion

Yoga Ganapati, red as the dawn and dressed in sapphire blue, sits bound in meditation with his beads in hand. He is the Lord who has gone within, and who helps his devotees do the same: holding the mind with his noose, sweetening the effort with his sugar cane, and clearing every obstacle on the inner path.

Read 32 Forms of Lord Ganesha >>