Shiva's wife was Devi, or Parvati. She gave birth to me herself, from some dew on her body. She delivered me full-grown, and told me to guard her door because she wanted to take a bath. Shiva returned home while she was bathing, but neither of us knew the other. I refused to let him through the door. Shiva finally became impatiant, cut off my head, and threw it over the Himalayas.
When Devi discovered this, she was very angry. Shiva promised to replace my head immediately, and an elephant was the first creature to walk by... Yes, this is the true story. You can find it in William Buck's The Mahabharata (1973, University of California Press) or Jean-Claude Carriere's book of the same title (Harper & Row, 1987). Bruce Myers portrayed me (and Krishna) in Peter Brooks' motion picture version. (And I know that the wallpaper image should really be an Asian elephant, but I couldn't find a good frontal photo of one.)
Note: The use of Ganesha here as a business symbol is not intended to have any religious implications or significance, nor is it intended to be anything but respectful to Hindus who attach religious significance to Ganesha. I would, in fact, be interested in adding links to sites that treat Ganesha's religious aspects and history as a service to Hindus and to people who wish to study India in general. My own book The Way of Strategy incorporates Indian philosophy. Some good places to start are the Ramayana and Mahabharata (William Buck translations) and the Public Broadcasting version of the Mahabharata (Peter Brooks).
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Corel Photo Gallery, for display only. Do not copy.
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Source: IMSI Master Clips. Do not copy.)
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