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World Elephant Day was August 12.
Elephants are important in nature and as spiritual symbols. Elephants are magnificent mammals that live in social groups and care for their young. They are smart and have feelings. Being a keystone species, elephants create and maintain an ecosystem for themselves and for many other plants and animals. Ganesha is a Hindu god with the head of an elephant; he is the remover of obstacles. Elephant is also is the spiritual symbol for the first chakra, the energetic vortex at the base of the spine in the subtle body, which creates our sense of safety, stability, and connection with the earth.
As most people know, elephants are being brutally slaughtered for their tusks. Their population has been reduced by 62% in the past 10 years, and they could be extinct in the wild by 2030. Caring consumers can help protect elephants by not buying any products made from ivory. Elephant habitat is destroyed by unsustainable coffee and palm oil plantations and by harvesting wood in unsustainable manners. Buying shade-grown, fair-trade coffee and Forest Stewardship Council certified wood products protects elephant habitat. Senseless slaughter and habitat destruction are not inevitable; caring consumers can save elephants and ecosystems.
Ganesha is the son of Shiva and Parvati. Shiva is a Hindu god who represents eternal, quiescent formlessness. Parvati, his wife, represents Divine will and our human will to conscious evolution. Once when Shiva had been away for time, Parvati asked their son to guard the way while she bathed. Not recognizing the boy, Shiva in fit of jealous rage chopped off his head. An elephant in the forest offered its head, which was placed on the boy who became the god Ganesha. What would have happened if there hadn’t been any elephants? Ganesha is the god of education, knowledge, wisdom, and wealth. Ganesha’s head symbolizes the Atman, the soul, the ultimate reality of human existence. What is the destruction of elephants doing to our souls?
The first chakra, the Muladhara Chakra, forms the foundation for a human life on earth. This chakra is the energetic link to our evolutionary past and to our karmic future. The elephant here symbolizes wisdom. Can we activate our higher consciousness and manifest our wisdom in ways that will save the elephants while furthering the evolution of human consciousness?
