{"id":3,"date":"2009-10-12T22:56:42","date_gmt":"2009-10-12T22:56:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/omsweetom\/2009\/10\/welcome-om.html"},"modified":"2009-10-12T22:56:42","modified_gmt":"2009-10-12T22:56:42","slug":"welcome-om","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2009\/10\/welcome-om.html","title":{"rendered":"Welcome Om…"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"ganesh.jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
\n
Jai Sri Ganesh <\/i><\/font><\/div>\n

Sri Ganesh (also spelled Ganesa) is considered the lord of new beginnings. From the homemaker beginning her day, to the business owner commencing his account ledger, to the Bollywood director beginning the first scene of a movie shoot–they all turn to Ganesh. Hindus of all denominations and lineages invoke his name, and his status as the guardian of the threshold of a new opportunity seems to be universally accepted in the Hindu world. It is rare to find anyone who worships Ganesh as Supreme – most Hindus relegate him to the role of a devata<\/i> (demigod), a divinely empowered being not unlike an archangel – but it is equally rare to find a Hindu who will neglect to first offer him due respects.<\/p>\n

For me, born and raised in New York City (c. the early 1980s), Ganeshji (the -ji is a Sanskrit suffix of respect, and brings me back to a childhood where I wouldn’t dare to utter the name of a devata<\/i>, or of a family elder for that matter, without adding the honorific) always posed a problem.
<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n


\n
Depicted frequently in garish Hindu calendar art and colorful murtis<\/i>
\n(sacred sculptures), Ganesh was such a graphic reminder of how
\ndifferent my religion seemed to be from the faiths of my “American”
\nfriends and classmates. I remember dinner at my best friend Peter’s
\nhouse; we’d sit at a formal dining table, cloth napkins folded in our
\nlaps and bland food on our plates, while a formal picture of
\nJesus-with-outstretched-arms smiled down at us benignly. The painting’s
\nsomber colors and realistic brush strokes made it look like Jesus
\nhimself must have sat for the portrait; in comparison, the bright
\nposters showing off Lord Ganesh’s elephant head and round belly seemed
\nalmost scandalous. <\/p>\n

The more I tried to avoid Ganeshji, the more he kept popping up. Of
\ncourse, he was there in our home’s foyer (in accordance with Hindu
\ntradition, my family had a picture of Ganesh displayed prominently at
\nthe entrance). He was also there, as a small plastic murti<\/i>, on
\nthe dashboard of our Camry (in accordance with unofficial Hindu
\ntradition, our family car was a Toyota Camry). But it didn’t end there.
\nHe also showed up in the pages of my World History textbook. He landed
\nup as a bronze sculpture on the desk of my eccentric elementary school
\nprincipal (years later I learned the technical term for what he was: indophile<\/i>). And once The Simpsons hit the airwaves, Ganeshji was there at Apu’s Kwik-e-Mart, unapologetically front and center.<\/p>\n

Ganeshji, it seemed, would not let me get away from him. And, in a way
\nthat I understand now but couldn’t see back then, he would not let me
\nget away from myself either.<\/p>\n

Om Sweet Om is, in many ways, the story of how I traveled from, with, and perhaps to Lord Ganesh. I realize that it is not the<\/i> Hindu-American story, but it is a<\/i> Hindu-American story. It is the story of my own ongoing journey home.
\n 
\nNamaste, and welcome to the blog.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jai Sri Ganesh Sri Ganesh (also spelled Ganesa) is considered the lord of new beginnings. From the homemaker beginning her day, to the business owner commencing his account ledger, to the Bollywood director beginning the first scene of a movie shoot–they all turn to Ganesh. Hindus of all denominations and lineages invoke his name, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":207,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gods-and-goddesses","category-hinduism-101"],"yoast_head":"\nWelcome Om... - Om Sweet Om<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2009\/10\/welcome-om.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Welcome Om... - Om Sweet Om\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jai Sri Ganesh Sri Ganesh (also spelled Ganesa) is considered the lord of new beginnings. 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He is a Hindu Chaplain and the Coordinator for Hindu Life at Princeton University, and serves as the North American Director of Communications for the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), a worldwide organization representing the Vaishnava Hindu tradition. In previous incarnations, Vineet has been a New York City prosecutor, a cable TV show host, and a hospital chaplain. In his free time, he enjoys relaxing with his wife and his new baby, attending classes at The Bhakti Center, and teaching himself photography. As a second-generation, Indian-American, Vaishnava-Hindu, Vineet ponders new ways of further hyphenating his identity.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/author\/vchander"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/207"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}