There are many stories involving Ganesh. We for our purpose of understanding him as a disciple concentrate on his birth, his confrontation with Shiva while he is guarding Parvati’s door, the subsequent beheading of Ganesh, and him being restored to life.
The stories tell us that Parvati created Ganesh out of the turmeric paste prepared for her bath. We will first attempt to understand the symbolism of the words turmeric and paste. Turmeric as we know grows underground. Here it is symbolic of, a to-be disciple, living in the quagmire of worldly existence. The earth is symbolic of the veils of ignorance that prevent, the to-be disciple, from understanding the true meaning of human existence. The prospective disciple’s realization of the futility of living in his current environment are the shoots of the turmeric plant that grow towards the light, meaning the search for a Guru. The word paste is representative of the moulding of the disciple that the Guru brings about in accordance with the divine attributes and his will. Turmeric is basically rigid in structure – i.e., the disciple has come to the Guru with certain characteristic flaws, preconceived ideas, notions, knowledge, prejudices. Pounding the turmeric to paste means that the Guru strips the disciple off, of all these accoutrements that he came with. The Guru shows him the mirror which forces the disciple to see himself as he is – the good, the bad, the ugly. Creation from the paste means that the disciple is so changed that he is ready to follow the Guru in word and action. Turmeric lends colour to everything or one can say stains everything that it comes in contact with – a transformed disciple is similar in nature – he influences his environment.
The next phase of the story – the confrontation between Ganesh and Shiva. Parvati is representative of the feminine energy of the divine. Here she is also a Guru. Her path/teachings are that of the path of Shaktism. She has created Ganesh, the disciple. Ganesh can therefore be called a Shakta disciple. An advaitin. Now, Ganesh guarding Parvati’s door can be understood as a die-hard believer, a disciple with unshakable faith – maybe bordering on fanaticism. Ganesh barring Shiva’s entry – represents a disciple, who is fanatical in his belief and narrow-minded in his thinking. The fact that Ganesh takes up arms against Shiva is symbolic of how a faithful disciple without realizing can easily fall prey to fanaticism, despite his best intentions because of narrow-minded thinking. Shiva represents the male energy of the divine – a second path to the divine. Another way of looking at this confrontation would be, that the disciple rejects every other path to the divine, other than the one he has been schooled in or believes in.
We need to keep in mind that Shiva is Parvati’s Guru, Parvati is Guru to Ganesh. Therefore, Shiva is Param Guru to Ganesh. Now Ganesh preventing Shiva from entering represents the mistakes that may or can be made by a disciple. Beheading is symbolic of a hardship that the disciple would have to face due to his misdemeanour (every action has an equal and opposite reaction). It will be equally true to say, that as the Param Guru, Shiva remoulded Ganesh (a paste is malleable and can be remoulded endlessly) from a die-hard, rigid disciple to one who is accepting of the fact that there are many paths to the divine and fanaticism is not the answer. A disciple whose faith is as deep-rooted after the remoulding as it was earlier.
Replacing the head on Ganesh and thus restoring life means that the disciple is a reformed disciple. He is cognizant of his mistakes, is repentant and keeps an open mind, accepting of all. It also speaks of the benevolent nature of the Guru who is forever looking at ways to ensure the disciple continues to grow spiritually. Restoring of life could also be interpreted as being enlightened by the grace of the Guru. An enlightened disciple, like the turmeric that lends colour, does influence his environment.