Ganapati or Ganesa, also known as Vighneswara or Vinayaka is the most popular of the Hindu deities worshipped by all sections of the Hindu society. No undertaking can get started without first worshipping him. This is because he is known as the Lord of Obstacles (Vighneswara or Vighnaraja). Ganapati stands for one of the basic concepts of Hindu mythological symbolism; the identity of the macrocosm and the microcosm or in religious terms the notion that man is the image of God. This notion of divinity of man and the immanence of God should be present before the mind when ever one begins anything, hence one should first bow to Ganesha. Ganapati is represented as an elephant headed man to express the unity of the small being, the microcosm i.e., man and the Great being, the macrocosm, pictured as an elephant. The man part of Ganapati, representing the manifest principle is inferior to the unmanifest, shown as the elephant. The elephant part therefore is the head.

The Mouse

The vehicle of Ganapati is the mouse (Mushika). The mouse is the master of inside of everything. The all pervading Atman is the mouse that lives in the hole called intellect within the heart of every being. It is the real enjoyer of pleasures of all creatures. Like mouse, this self of all is a thief because unnoticed it steals all that people possess. It hides itself behind the inscrutable shapes of illusion, and no one knows that this inner ruler take for himself the pleasures people believe they enjoy.