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99 Thoughts on Ganesha

Genre: Non-fiction, Religion and Philosophy, short stories
Pace: Fast
Level: Beginner
Review By: Garima Agarwal

Review:

“For the readers who are always on the go ”

99 Thoughts on Ganesh' by Devdutt Pattanaik is book that brings together 99 meditations to better understand the stories, symbols and rituals of the adorable Elephant Headed Hindu god, Ganesha, also known as, vinakaya, Gajanana and Pillayar.

This is one of those books that you can easily recommend to anyone, of any age, because it's

a.) easy to read

b.) even if someone isn't a Hindu, really makes you think about religion as a whole and how it has evolved.

My agenda for the year was to read more of Indian authors and expose myself to more Indian literature and create a profound understanding of my country and culture and Devdutt Pattanaik books seemed like the perfect fit for me.

This book specifically was really intriguing, because like Shiva or Vishnu, Ganesha is a really popular and indispensable part of Hindu culture but isn't as talked about as frequently as other Gods. Also the fact being, any kid born in a Hindu family or more broadly in India, despite religion, is aware about Ganesha and his story of coming into being, it being one of the first anecdotes that they are told. So naturally, I wanted to revive that nostalgia in a more intellectual way, if that makes sense.

So as a big 'Bal Ganesha' franchise enthusiast and a nostalgia driven reader, I had to pick this book up during Ganesh chaturthi. The book is filled with fun, quirky, mind-blowing, and really interesting insights, ranging from, Creation of Ganesha, his family, representations, history, symbolism and spread.

This is a really quick read, something that someone can finish in a day or quicker because it's filled with cute illustrations, that at moments fill one with alot of admiration. It's also a great book to understand the evolution of 'Gods' in our history.

We tend to forget that there is so much history behind the simple things we do and perform, and say. All the words we say have history, all the rituals we perform have history or atleast a story, and being aware about it is crucial to understand why one should consciously choose to say and do what one is doing.

Ancient Hindus believed, wisdom must never be given, it has to be taken, and they have been kind enough to encode so much knowledge and meaning is so many different forms for us to understand. This made reading this book an amazing experience.

Over-all an amazing read. Makes you wanna think and rethink more about belief in a different way.

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