Gaja karnakar

 

Next name is gaja karnakar. It means the one with "elephant ears". It is not enough to say that he has elephant face, i.e. gaja mukar. This name is given as though to emphasize that his ears are also indeed elephant ears.

 

What is the speciality in the elephant's ears?

 

For other god forms, there will be a quadrant like big ear ring in their ears, extending up to their shoulders. We may have to search for the ears between these quadrants and the crown of the lord in these statues. By looking at the big ear ring we have to normally assume the location of the ears. Only the lord vigneswarar is the exception to this. His elephant ears spread on both sides of his elephant face, big enough to match the size of his face.

 

Is it not the lord's ears that should listen to our prayers and wishes? If the ears are not visible clearly are we not a bit dissatisfied? Only the lord vigneswarar with his elephant ears widely open facing us, unlike other god forms whose ears are facing the sides of their heads, listens to all our prayers nicely, and gives us the encouragement we need.

 

For all other animals the ears will be like a cup, with a pit inside. Only for the elephant the ears are flat like a fan. For other animals the cup shape is to ensure that the sound they hear is captured properly and sent inside. For the elephant, who has highly sharp listening capacity, there is no worry to capture the sound without losses. Lord Ganesha listens to all our wishes nicely.

 

Elephant beautifully swings its ears like a fan. Among the animals it is only the elephant that can swing its ears like a fan. Other animals can swing like this to sway away some insects, once or twice, but cannot constantly keep swinging like the elephant. For the cow, even to swing its ears a little bit, it has to take some strain. Only the elephant keeps casually and naturally swinging its ears all the time. It is called gaja aspalam, i.e. elephant talam (beat). Talam also means pine, and fan made out pine leaves. We use fingers to put beat for songs. The elephant swings its ears as if it is putting beats for music.

 

It requires special talent for human beings to swing ears like an elephant. This impossible thing to do is what we call, "you cannot do even with an elephant ear". Some get confused the swing the ear (gaja karnam) to doing summer Sault (gaja karanam) like elephant. This is not correct. The swinging the ear is the "gaja karnam".

 

There is a saying, "gaja karnam, go karnam" which is the full form for that phrase. In this phrase "go karnam" is not cow's ear. Here "karna" is a verb indicating "to prick or pinch". When a cow's body is pinched with a finger or pricked with a stick, immediately its whole body shivers and the vibrations spreads all over its body. If a man can do like this it is called 'go karnam". Like the gaja karnam this stun is also not easy to learn and master.

 

What is difficult for us, the lord Ganesha does very playfully, as implied by the name 'gaja karnakar'.

 

In addition to the beauty in the elephant swinging its ears, there is also a purpose. When the elephant secrets musth, the musth flows on its face. Flies and ants come for this musth. To sway away these, the elephant has been given large ears, by the god.

 

Adi sankara has beautifully described this flow of musth along the cheeks of lord vigneswarar, "kapola dhana varanam" in Ganesha pancharatnam. Kapola means cheeks, tanam means musth.

This musth of lord vigneswarar is a happy secretion and with a shower of grace. It tastes very sweet like nectar. To taste that nectar bees come in large numbers. Adi sankara has described this also nicely.

"Kala-thana kandam milat bringa shandam"

 

The lord Ganesha is swinging his ears to sway away the bees. Not with anger, but this is also a game for the child god. The bees also come to play. His darshan itself is very delightful, so they do not need to drink the nectar of musth. They want to play with him, and want to be swayed by his ears, so they come and swarm his face and cheeks. Do not we make children excited by "singing" in their ears. Same way the bees come to make a lot of their typical noise near the ears of the lord Ganesha. He also understands this game and fans his ears to sway them away. They go away in that gentle breeze and then come back, and swarm him. Lord Ganesha also feels cool breezing his ears wet with the musth secretion.

 

There is a poet by name "ragha chaitanyar' who has composed mahaganapathi stotram. In this a lot of mantra and sastra information are given, and it is also full of poetic description in its rendition. It describes with a lot of nice words how lord Ganesha swings his ears and plays with the bees.

"dhanamoda – vinodha – lupta – mathupa – protsaranavibhavat

Karnantolana – kelano – vijayate – devo – kanakramani

 

Dhana amodam means the nice smell of musth. The lord Ganesha's musth smells very nice. After smelling this unique and ecstatic musth, the bees become greedy. They want to drink all of it. "lupta madhupa" means greedy bees. We can also take it mean "the bees who are intoxicated in the nice smell". The lord wants to sway away these bees. "protsaranam" means to sway away. A game gets created by this thought (i.e kelanam"). What is that game – karantolana kelanam – i.e to swing the ears forward and backward.

 

The normal swing is called antolam. Tolam also means the same. Tola utsavam is called dola utsavam and we put the lord in a swing and sing to him to make him happy. Doli is also related to this.

 

When the lord Ganesha swings his ears he looks more beautiful. Vijayate means looks beautiful. We can say that he is victorious against the bees that come to swarm his cheeks.

 

He calls the lord Ganesha as 'gana gramani' granami means leader of a particular group. Gramam normally means a small village. The head of the village is called gramani. Those who belong to the family of the heads now call themselves gramani. The lord Ganesha who is the head of the army of Siva (the ganas) – is called ganapati – Ganesha – ganathipan – gananayakan – and here he is beautifully described as gana granami.

 

While he is the head of the troop, instead of asking some one else to fan him, he fans himself with his own ears. Because he has ears like a fan (samara karnar).

 

"mooshika vahana modaka hasta, samara karana .."

 

Because he is gaja karnaka he can fan himself with his own ears – he shows that he is the action (karanam), reason (kaaranam) , doer (karta) , and the instrument (karuvi).