Ganesha's trunk position

Namaste everyone,


I am new to this forum and also to Hinduism. For the past 6 months I’ve found myself immensely drawn to Santana Dharma and now feel a strong need to start som sort of actual ritualistic practice, in my own absolute beginner’s way. I have started to put together a home shrine for Ganesha and am looking to buy a picture to hang on the wall for worship.


I have actually already ordered one but yesterday I read the book ”Loving Ganesha” from Himalayan Academy which has a section regarding the position of Ganesha’s trunk.
Other sources I’ve read sates that it is very difficult to worship a Ganesha image with the trunk to the diety’s right, so called Valampuri Pose, and that you should never keep this in your home for worship.


According to the description in the book I am afraid the picture that I ordered is Valampuri. I cannot post the link because it disappeared when I ordered the picture.
But below is a list of links with images of the trunk in the exact same position. Actually this was the absolutely most common kind that I found on eBay (even though the book sates that Valampuri is very rare) The first link is to the online book Loving Ganesha and the section is at the very bottom of the page. My image would be the closest match to the example to the very last one in the Valampuri section (down right corner)


Does anyone have any input on this topic? I though the way the whole trunk initially is ”heading” would be what defines the direction but according to this book it seems more like it doesn’t matter if the whole trunk totally swings to the left, as long as the very tip is ”curled” to the right it is Valampuri?


I just had to ask this question because A LOT of images when googling Ganesha has the whole trunk (sometimes just slightly) in left direction and then the tip curled to the right, and the Valampuri pose was supposed to be very rare. And I just wanted to hear someone else’s view on this and maybe someone can point me to other sources on the subject that could provide some clarity? It’s hard to find anything on google as elaborate as this book, more than that the trunk should ”be to the left”, it doesn’t get much more detailed than that. It could be nice to have different sources to confirm what the book says, so any help would be highly appreciated!






Link to the book:


https://www.himalayanacademy.com/media/books/loving-ganesha/web/ch05.html#lev2






Examples of images that I found:


https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BILD-pict...04fa%7Ciid%3A1




https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BILD-GANE...04fa%7Ciid%3A1




https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BILD-Gane...04fa%7Ciid%3A1




https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BILD-GANE...04fa%7Ciid%3A1


https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BILD-Gane...04fa%7Ciid%3A1

Namaste Jake

Welcome to HDF

All the images you sent are fine for home puja, the trunks are all bulging to the left. I have not read so much from Himalayan academy but from few things i have browsed they seem to be a decent source of information.

I just wanted to say a few things for your contemplation on the word ritual, because devotional puja to Ganesh Ji are far more than an external or mechanical ritual.

Ganesh Ji is absolute but has many features of divine consciousness, one of the main features of Ganesh Ji is that he is personification of Dhyana or meditation, He is also the Gatekeeper and remover of obstacles that obscure our natural consciousness from having direct vision and experience into the divine transcendent nature of consciousness. I have not read the link but i am sure the site goes into details on lunar energy, which is a power of shakti which works on the mind, what is meant by householder is the management of the mind of the senses within ones own sharia , this makes up the house the sharira is divided into 3, Gross body Sthula Sharira, subtle or astral body sukshma sharira and causal body Karana Sharira. Ganesh Ji through Dhyana will manage these systems of the 3 houses.

Each feature of Ganesh Ji, Rupa or divine form born from Shakti the divine feminine source of all and blessed by Shiva the all auspicious consciousness will have very deep significance in puja or devotional connection, which in exact terms is known as citta bhavana or development of ones own shakti or divine nature.

So it is not a ritual as such, it is this citta bhavana and dhyana, citta is known as a follower, like the mouse it runs around here and there looking for things to eat, in the conditioned state the citta follows the desires for the material things and sense objects, which always lead to dissatisfaction, by the power mam ( to understand what is mam please learn srimad bhagavad gita from a qualified jnani and bhakta) citta starts to wake up and look for its original source of bliss and identity, this is what the mouse represents or jijnasya, it inquires into its own nature, through devotion puja citta bhavana or divine development through dhyana it will remove the materialism from the citta, Ganesh Ji is not an order carrier for materialism which exploits the resources of nature, which are divine aspects of shakti, so why would Ganesh Ji sell his mother Mam shakti so cheaply. Ganesh Ji is the Gatekeeper to divinity and guards very closely shakti , but through meditation devotion dhyana and citta bhavana he opens the gates to Shakti, so it is far more than mere ritual or mechanical process or a technology to acquire wealth, why would one be concerned for such trivial things material things when the source of everything is at hand.

External puja is good, its a start, but mind can be distracted by so many things , so manasa seva or internal puja or visualisations is more powerful, and can be done at any time, and they can be done side by side, it will also help to strengthen the external puja.

One should feel very blessed to discovery Ganesh ji in any form and the depths of surrender to him are without limit and knows no end.

Hare Krsna

Namaste markandeya,

Thank you so much for the reply and for all the information!
I really appreciate it :)

// Jake