Sri Ganesha present Parvatiputra Ganpati Gajanan in all hue and colour magnificently and magestically, as it deals with all the aspects of the most revered God of the Hindus, who start every Puja or Ritual with the invocation to Lord Ganesha.

Sri Ganesha gives not only 108 mantras for meditation on and through this Vighnahurta God but also discusses in detail his 32 forms and the symbolical significance and meaning of everything attached to an associated with the Mangalkarta siddhidata, Vinayak Sri Ganesha.

Shri T.K.Jag~athan is a post graduate engineer retired as a corporate executive. He then undertook a course on Vedanta in Sivananda ashram at Rishikesh with yoga also a part of it.

Since then he has been teaching Pranayama, fusion of yoga and Pranayama in Bangalore where he is based.

During his regular summer visits to Canada, he has been conducting classes at the Chinmaya mission Ottawa, Canada and in some other parts of North America also. His courses include full Pranayama, fusion courses like Arthritic cycle, Are computers pain in the neck, Tone up the joints head to toe, Yoga for diabetics, Total relaxation techniques, etc.

"With superb remedies at the backyard, why reach the West for medicines?" he asks.

Apart from the above, he has to his credit the following:
1) His first book, musical translation of Saint Purandara Dasa's devotional songs from Kannada to Tamil vol 1, is already published and the vol 2 is ready.
2) He has also been translating Saint Thyagaraja's devotional songs from Telugu to Tamil.
3) He has translated books from English to Tamil for Aurobindo Kapala Shastri Institute of Veda.
4) His book on Yoga for late comers is under preparation.

Often when I reoollect the time I have spent in my life waiting for flights, trains, and appointments I get a feeling of remote guilt and repentance.

Guilt precipitated by those hours spent in reading fiction written by the western authors, picked up at the railroad, or airport bookstalls in India and abroad.

Repentance is greater; as such literature rarely added any value to my life, except helping me to pass and kill time.

Neither are they of any use to me now during my last lap of retired life in Quest of the realities nor are they of any assistance to find answers to several Questions arising in my mind repeatedly like:

• What is 'That' which keeps things going?
• Who am I?
• How can a mere combination of five elements create a human being like me? And the other millions.

Many years of valuable learning time in this short life, had already been lost. Now with very little time on hand, my gaze turned to our mythology. our scriptures which are the source of all knowledge. Even my restless mind felt the bliss while reading some of these wonderful scriptures.

But the Question remained as to where and how to start?

If everything starts with invocation to Lord Ganesha then how could I be an exception?

So I started with our sweet little elephant-faced God. One look at him was enough to fill my heart with everlasting love and joy.

The concept creation philosophy and the meaning of Ganesha are scattered all over our literature. Naturally one may wonder as to what was the need for another book on Ganesha.

I found that the books by professional and scholarly writers were abstract and written in a complex language. The ones written by the religious leaders covered mostly the ritualistic aspects rather than the principles and philosophy of Ganesha loaded with complicated Mantra~ difficult to understand even with the knowledge of Sanskrit.

Most of them narrate the descriptions of the forms of Ganesha the several articles Ganesha carries. etc., and rarely offer any logic or reason for portraying him so or the philosophy behind them.

Doubts coming from my son and other youngsters like him who have no ready access to answers for their many Questions gave birth to this book.

I offer my gratitude to them because without their inquisitiveness my understanding of Ganesha would not have unfolded here in the form of this book which I wish to share with you.

Some learned ones may find this as an amateurish attempt. I seek their pardon. I revere such Acharyas who continuously strive for spreading the knowledge of Hindu Vedic Philosophy with selfless service. I seek their blessings.

I hereby offer my apologies in advance to persons who may find several shortcomings in my maiden attempt. With their blessings my next project may be better and more interesting. I thus seek the blessings of Lord Ganesha.

I submit this book to all of you with my humble prayers at the feet of my spiritual master and Guru Sri Swami Anubhavanandaji Maharaj.