If you are willing, and if you are wanting, the Lord Ganesha lifts you out of the fog of the materialistic conscious mind, establishing a connection and a relationship with you. This is a personal relationship with the Deity. There is nobody in between - just you and the God, Lord Ganesha.
It's like being adopted in a way. If you were an orphan or abandoned on the streets of Sao Paolo or Madras, or on the streets of where ever there are little kids running around, you would be "free". You could go through life listening to no one and exercising unrestricted free will, free instinctive will.
If you had a developed intellect, then you could exercise an intellectual will. You could do anything that you wanted to do, absolutely anything. Of course you would find that as you attempted to fulfill your desires, you were limited, sometimes prevented, by the natural forces within and without. But you could attempt anything.
If you were fortunate enough, foster parents might come along to help you. They would adopt you and take you into their home. Your new mother would begin to lovingly guide and direct your life. She would tell you, "You can play as you like in this room, but not in the others." She is a wise mother and knows that you are accustomed to having your own way, so she lets you play freely within the confines of your own room.
But if she catches you playing in another room, she might say firmly, "You may play in your room, not here in this room." You have lost your "free will" in being adopted by a mother and father, you are a part of their family now, and your well-being, your education, your training all now come under their will, to which you must adjust yourself and obey. They will watch over you and discipline you morning and night. They will protect you from getting into trouble with your "free will".
It is the same when you evolve a relationship, a personal relationship with the Deity Lord Ganesha. He will not allow you to use your free will to get into difficulties. Guiding your carefully and protecting you along your way in your natural "karma" through life is His concern.
Little by little, slowly, imperceptibly a relationship evolves, a very personal, loving relationship, between the devotee and the elephant-faced God. Psychic protection is granted, physical protection, mental and emotional protection are all granted as boons by Him.
He will not allow His devotees to use their free, instinctive willfulness to make more "kukarma" by getting into difficulties. Rather, he will guide them carefully, protecting them every moment along the way so that their natural birth karmas may be worked through and "sukarma" created by right living. This is His main concern. Lord Ganesha loves and cares for His devotees. Once the devotee is connected to Him through the awakening of the "muladhara chakra", loneliness is never experienced.
Ganesha is a truly wonderful, loving God. He has an extraordinary knack for unweaving complicated situations and making them simple. He can unweave his devotees from their karma, simplifying and purifying their lives. But this only happens after they have established a personal relationship with Him. Soon thereafter, changes begin to happen in their lives; and when they go through difficult times, they no longer become angry or live in fear or worry.
When difficult times come, they know it is because they are being unwound from accumulated and congested, difficult karmas or being turned in a new direction altogether. They know that at such a time they have to consciously surrender their free, instinctive willfulness and not fight the divine happenings, but allow the God's divine will to guide their life. Such is the spiritual path of total surrender, know as "prapatti."
"from "Loving Ganesa"
by Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
"YAMA is the first limb of Raja yoga (a.k.a. Ashtanga or classical yoga). It is a Sanskrit word that means "death." It is a set of social disciplines to be maintained by a yoga practitioner which includes non-violence", "absence of falsehood", "non-stealing", "sexual continence", and "absence of avarice". Other branches of yoga actually have more than just five abstentions, but I don't want to be greedy, really, so let me show the "absence of avarice" right now by being satisfied with what I have.
You may be asking why the Hindus would use such a word as "death" to name the first set of practices in yoga. Well, according to Indian mythology, Yama is the god of death (the lord of the celestial abodes that one visits after one's life has ended). Other cultures have their own version of Yama, like Anubis (Egyptian mythology), Hades (Greek mythology), and Pluto (Roman mythology). However, in the consideration of yoga, what is being represented is not the death of the physical body, but instead, the death of one's identification with individual existence, which is referred to in psychology as the 'ego'.
WHY DO WE NEED TO PRACTICE YAMA?
All spiritual and religious traditions have guiding principles for engaging with others in society. These principles encourage ethical ways of living, but I do believe it goes far beyond that. If you contemplate on the concept about bringing death to the ego, you may also arrive with the following ideas:
* You live in a world inhabited by other beings who, just like you, need to evolve spiritually in their own unique way. Earth is our training ground and we need to give each other the chance to learn by making sure that this place we call reality is conducive for this goal. Wouldn't it be fun to live in a world without violence, dishonesty, theft, sexual misconduct, and greed - all crazy impulses that the helpless ego cannot control?
* The Ego is the organizing center of the mind. Most of the time, however, it doesn't do a good job in controlling your thoughts, especially when it is disturbed because of one's ignorance of moral values. This is why there is a need for you to establish a connection with your true self by doing yoga so that you can abandon your conceptions of being in control.
* The Ego creates a sense of attachment between consciousness and the physical body. In the advanced practices of yoga, practitioners are required to work with the subtle and causal bodies, so there's really a need to let go of one's ego. This stage is said to be wherein one may experience going out of one's body and even out of the the realm of mind. It's totally different from being insane, of course.
THE YAMAS (5 ABSTENTIONS)
1. AHIMSA (NON-VIOLENCE)
The first Yama called himsa means "violence." Ahimsa is the practice of non-violence (physical, mental, and emotional) towards other living beings and yourself. To the Hindus, violence or himsa can be of three types: krta (harming others directly), karita (harming others indirectly) and anumodita (supporting an act of violence).
2. SATYA (ABSENCE OF FALSEHOOD)
The second Yama called satya means "truthfulness or the absence of falsehood." Satya is the practice of speaking the truth at all times. People who faithfully practice the four other abstentions have no problem in telling the truth in everything they say. The ones who, for example, beat people up, fornicate, steal from others, and so on will undoubtedly have a hard time dealing with their conscience.
3. ASTEYA (NON-STEALING)
The third Yama called steya means "theft." Asteya is the practice of not stealing. Obviously, there is an increasing pressure on your mind when you take something which is not yours and keep it to yourself. Violate this code and you also violate three others: ahimsa, satya, and aparigraha.
4. BRAHMACHARYA (SEXUAL CONTINENCE)
The fourth Yama called brahmacharya is derived from the words brahman meaning "unity consciousness" and achara meaning "pathway." Bramacharya may have two meanings. In one sense, it means avoiding over-indulgence of the senses. Another meaning refers to abstinence particularly in terms of sexual activity.
5. APARIGRAHA (ABSENCE OF AVARICE)
The fifth Yama called aparigraha means "not being acquisitive." It is the avoidance of unnecessary attainment of things that are not essential to maintaining life. The logic behind this is pretty simple, really. Acquiring fame and fortune, for example, guarantees attachment to them. As your fame and fortune increases, so does your fear of losing them. On a different note, it is said that if you faithfully observe aparigraha, you may attain knowledge of past, present and future and also knowledge of your previous births.
