Worship Lord Ganesha first

Traditionally, every religious and auspicious function begins with the worship of Lord Ganesha. Every entrance of a temple also has a Ganesha idol at its entrance. Spiritually there are many reasons to why we worship Ganesha first.

The Upanishads say that Omkar is the reason for the creation of the whole universe. Ganesha is a form of Brahma, who symbolizes Omkar. Hence, Ganesh is called the “Lord of beginnings”.

In Shivapurana, there is a small tale that suggests why we worship Ganesha first. The tale goes as,

Once Ganesha and his brother Karthikeya were arguing about who amongst them was the most knowledgeable. Listening to this, Parvathi, Ganesha’s mother wanted to test them. She told them that the one who goes around the world and comes back first is the most knowledgeable. Karthikeya immediately started his journey and went around the world on his peacock. When he came back, he saw that Ganesha was still standing near his parents. When Karthikeya asked him, Ganesha went around his parents, symbolizing that his parents were the whole world for him. Seeing this, Lord Shiva declared that Ganesha was the most knowledgeable.

Thus Shiva conferred a boon to Ganesha, that he must be worshiped before the start of any ceremony.

Light a traditional lamp

In almost every Hindu home across the globe, an oil lamp is lit at the altar of the Lord. All auspicious functions commence with the lighting of the lamp, which is often maintained right through the occasion. A traditional oil lamp comprises of a pot, oil and a wick. Each one of them has its own spiritual significance.

•          Light from the lamp symbolizes knowledge. Knowledge removes ignorance just as light removes darkness. Also, knowledge is a lasting inner wealth by which all outer achievement can be accomplished. Hence we light the lamp to bow down to knowledge as the greatest of all forms of wealth.

•          The oil or ghee in the lamp symbolizes our negative tendencies and the wick symbolizes ego. When lit, the negative tendencies slowly gets exhausted and the ego perishes.
  
  
  
  

Thus by lighting the lamp, the light of knowledge removes the darkness of ignorance, by which anything can be achieved in life.