Shree Ganesh Visarjan: Where Earth meets water to give life!

What is our health nucleus or what we can call the main centre in the body to control health?

The body is made out of the five elements. The earth element is the base and it has the property of gravity and stability. In the earth element, vibrations are very low and almost imperceptible. It is like a stone, which has vibration, but one cannot feel it. Unless it is touched by life energy, its vibrating movement will not begin. In the ancient sciences, Shri  Ganesh is described as the deity of the earth element and controls it. The next element is water. Water is liquidity. The moment water is mixed with earth, it makes the earth mobile, so that the earth can float in it. Thus, with water added to it, the earth element can start taking different shapes. It can have movement. One can now make a statue or some other object. Water, on the other hand, when mixed with earth, becomes more strong and comes together. It receives the quality of the earth element – gravity or heaviness – and only when stability and liquidity meet can one see life emerge out of them. 

Water is affected by gravitational pull. It flows to the bottom of a slope, or spreads out even when on the flat earth, or into the surrounding from a drop on a blade of grass. It has life. Therefore it spreads. In the ancient sciences, we say that water is life. 

This context is very important for the Ganesh festival. Shri Ganesh, and the rituals around his worship, are a celebration of the beginning. He is the God we begin with. He is the earth element without whom nothing will come into existence. Therefore, he is always to be remembered first of all. At the end of this celebration, Shri Ganesh is dissolved into the water element, for all the potential to be expressed.

In the body, the water element is nucleated and controlled from just below the navel, in the abdomen. All the systems in that area store or deal with water. In Yogic science, it is called the Swadhishthaan Chakra. Swa-Adhishthaan, where Swa, life, self or the omnipresent, is expressed.

Around two-thirds of the body is water. We need to have a balanced water element for good health. Think of it as the quality of liquidity and flow in everything. The fluid ability to connect two cells in the body and hold the tissues together. All sensitivity in the body is a result of this water element. The movement of life-force, the flow of blood, hormonal secretions, the urinary system, the process of procreation in the body are all dependent on the water element. Even the elasticity at the ends of bones comes from liquidity in the tissues of the majja (marrow) and maunsa (fat) dhatus (tissues). 

The water element also affects our minds. The need to mix with others, to understand people, develop friendship, come together in communities or to adjust or keep a positive approach in times of difficulty - all this depends on the Swadishthan chakra. Even something as simple and human as the taste of food, choice in lifestyles, an affinity to learning new subjects or hobbies. A simple example is that taste in the mouth depends on the wetness inside.

When life is departing the mouth goes totally dry. 

In modern medical science, these chakras are loosely understood as the plexus in the body. However, a plexus is a physical level identification. It is only the location. Chakras have an existence beyond the physical level and include channels of energy, psychological channels and connect all levels of existence. That is the deeper concept in Yoga described in very brief terms. 

With an imbalanced water element, a person may not like to eat or drink or feel nauseous. In fever, when the body heats up and liquidity is reduced, one feels like lying down and has no interest in things or in working. Such imbalance is the root of so many diseases as well as psychological disturbances. If one doesn’t rest and recover properly in these cases, it leads to increase of vata dosha – the joints become dry, elasticity reduces and overall, the senses cannot function to their best. Symptoms could be swelling, water retention, diseases of the urinary tract or uterine dysfunctions. 

All this results in feeling like staying away from people. Loneliness, grief, frustration, jealousy, being too critical and finding fault with everything, wanting to give up or break relationships and partnerships etc all this can be linked to the water element. A deep imbalance here means that the person will not find satisfaction in anything. 

All this discussion about the Swadhishthaan Chakra is imperative in the context of Shri Ganesh so that we can begin to understand why He is given into the water. All our prayers, our desires and our work, through Him, can meet the liquidity needed to become expressed and spread out in our lives. We will further look at the benefits of bringing Shri Ganesh into the water and how this is related to methods to work on our chromosomes through the rituals advised on Anant Chaturdashi.

The author is founder of Atmasantulana Village, a world-renowned holistic healing centre. ayurveda@dnaindia.net