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Dancing Ganesha This dancing , elephant-headed creature is Ganesh , Hinduism’s Lord of Beginnings and Remover of Obstacles. Before beginning a school year, taking a trip, or starting a new business, Hindus pray to Ganesh for assistance, and he is prayed to at the start of all Hindu worship. Many Ganesh statues represent Him dancing. The Linga-Purâna reports indeed that Ganesh, just after He was created to fight the devils, immediately started to dance in front of the assembly of gods. The Ganesh dancing movement is more or less dynamic; one can discriminate the following figures: The right leg is raised, the left leg, laid on the ground, is bent, but the dance seems to be interrupted; this is probably the most usual form. It's similar to the Shiva's ûrdhvajanu dance, found in the northern Ganesh : the right foot is resting on the ground, leg bent, while the left leg is raised and folded, foot stretched to the ground. The reverse posture is also known. Sometimes, in the same posture, Ganesh is standing on His mount. An unusual explanation of the mouse's rôle, states that it represents the power of the life breath. Placing His left leg on His mount, Ganesh exerts His mastery on Ida Nadi. The movement is dynamic at the utmost and even violent (Nepal). In some cases Ganesh , crowned with a halo of flames, one leg stretched in the Ardhapradilasan posture, looks similar to the angry deities of the Mahâyâna. In some tantric Ganesh images, the god put His left foot on the mouse and the right foot on the lion, a symbol of Pingala Nadi and also the vehicle of His mother, under the form of Durgâ. One may understand this representation as the balanced state of the Nadi, a process in the Pranayama yogic practice. The act of dancing is spiritually significant in Hinduism. It is related to the perpetual cycle of creation and destruction, called samsara, that defines the universe and from which humans seek to escape. Dancing Ganesha
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