Is Gaṇeśa-worship recommended in our Kṛṣṇa Consciousness Movement?
In the SB canto 11, chapter 27, Kṛṣṇa describes to Uddhava the process of worshiping His Deity.
There is one section of that chapter where He mentions that we have to worship His personal associates in the spiritual world as well. The verses go as follows.
SB 11.27.28-29:
nandaṁ sunandaṁ garuḍaṁ
pracaṇḍaṁ caṇḍaṁ eva ca
mahābalaṁ balaṁ caiva
kumudaṁ kamudekṣaṇam
“One should worship the Lord’s associates Nanda and Sunanda, Garuḍa, Pracaṇḍa and Caṇḍa, Mahābala and Bala, and Kumuda and Kumudekṣaṇa.”
durgāṁ vināyakaṁ vyāsaṁ
viṣvakṣenaṁ gurūn surān
sve sve sthāne tv abhimukhān
pūjayet prokṣaṇādibhiḥ
“With offerings such as prokṣaṇa one should worship Durgā, Vināyaka (Gaṇeśa), Vyāsa, Viṣvaksena, the spiritual masters and the various demigods. All these personalities should be in their proper places facing the Deity of the Lord.”
The purport to SB 11.27.29, wherein Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī is cited, throws some light on this matter.
“According to Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, the Gaṇeśa and Durgā mentioned in this verse are not the same personalities present within the material world; rather, they are eternal associates of the Lord in Vaikuṇṭha. In this world Gaṇeśa, the son of Lord Śiva, is famous for awarding financial success, and the goddess Durgā, the wife of Lord Śiva, is famous as the external, illusory potency of the Supreme Lord. The personalities mentioned here, however, are eternally liberated associates of the Lord who reside in the spiritual sky, beyond the material manifestation. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī quotes from various Vedic literatures to prove that the name Durgā may also indicate the internal potency of the Lord, who is nondifferent from Him. The external, or covering, potency of the Lord expands from this original Durgā. The Durgā of the material world, called Mahā-māyā, assumes the function of bewildering the living entities. Thus a devotee should not fear becoming polluted by worshiping the Durgā mentioned here, who has the same name as illusion, but rather the devotee must show respect to these eternal servitors of the Supreme Lord in Vaikuṇṭha.”
The Gaṇeśa we know in the material world is an expansion of the original Gaṇeśa in the spiritual world, a confidential associate and expansion of Lord Viṣvaksena (a form of Viṣṇu).
In fact, the mantra that even the demigod-worshipers chant to invoke the blessings of Lord Gaṇeśa in order to remove all obstacles before every ritual goes as follows:
śuklāṁ baradharaṁ viṣṇuṁ śaśi-varṇaṁ catur-bhujaṁ
prasanna-vadanaṁ dhyāyet sarva vighnopaśāntaye
“I meditate upon Lord Viṣṇu — the one who wears a white garment, who is all-pervasive, who has the bright complexion like the moon, who has four hands, who has a cheerful face — for the removal of all obstacles.”
So even the mantra is actually glorifying Lord Viṣṇu. There is no mention of Gaṇeśa in that śloka. It reiterates the same point.
So, unlike the materialistic demigod-worshipers, we never worship the material expansion of Gaṇeśa.
In the purport to CC Madhya 24.330, Śrīla Prabhupāda writes:
“When the mode of goodness is mixed with the mode of passion, one worships the sun-god, Vivasvān. When the mode of goodness is mixed with the mode of ignorance, one worships Gaṇapati, or Gaṇeśa. When the mode of passion is mixed with the mode of ignorance, one worships Durgā, or Kālī, the external potency. When one is simply in the mode of ignorance, one becomes a devotee of Lord Śiva because Lord Śiva is the predominating deity of the mode of ignorance within this material world.”
So the worship of the material form of Gaṇeśa is in the mixed modes of passion and ignorance, whereas the Vaiṣṇava platform of Viṣṇu-worship is beyond the three modes.
Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī’s recommendation in the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu (Nectar of Devotion) to worship Gaṇeśa is this Gaṇeśa, not the material expansion of Gaṇeśa as son of Lord Śiva and Pārvatī.
But Śrīla Prabhupāda completely disallowed the worship of Gaṇeśa in our movement because this confidential knowledge can easily be lost and devotees can easily be contaminated by demigod worship. Slowly, Lord Śiva’s worship would be introduced because he is the best Vaiṣṇava in the universe (vaiṣṇavānāṁ yathā śambhuḥ, SB 12.13.16), Durgādevī’s worship would be introduced because she is Vaiṣṇavī-devī, and likewise, all other demigods would be introduced.
Therefore, according to the time, place, and circumstance (deśa-kāla-pātra), instead of Gaṇeśa-worship, Śrīla Prabhupāda introduced the worship of Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva for our protection from all obstacles in the path of our service to Lord Kṛṣṇa.
There was one incident of Śrīla Prabhupāda that highlights this point of strict avoidance of Gaṇeśa-worship. You can read this pastime here: srilaprabhupadalila.org/read/2149
The letter of Prabhupāda referred to in the above pastime along with other letters and conversations regarding this point of Gaṇeśa-worship are mentioned in this article: krishna.org/ganesh-worship.
Please read the content in the above links before proceeding.
Therefore, as Vaiṣṇavas, we have to strictly follow the instructions of Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavad-gītā, especially BG 18.66, wherein He says — mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja — “surrender to Me alone.”
We, therefore, should not worship Gaṇeśa because that is the instruction of Śrīla Prabhupāda, our guru. Ācāryopāsanam — One must follow the instructions of the ācārya, and not speculate.
