In life you need to have these three things: music, logic, and meditation. These symbols are timeless. The meanings of the words change, but the symbols are eternal and universal. That’s how ancient people spoke more in symbols.
The same way you see Ganesha, you’ll see Ganesha has a big tummy and on the tummy there is a serpent. The serpent indicates awareness. A big tummy means acceptance, and the serpent indicates with mindfulness, with awareness, you can accept things unconsciously too. But when you accept with awareness, it makes a whole lot of a difference.
In the two hands of Ganesha, there is a rope in one hand and then an ankush, i.e., a spear, which wakes you up and which binds you. Knowledge is binding; it binds you to the truth, to the life, to all that is benevolent. In one hand, Ganesha does not keep books; he keeps sweets, modak, laddoo in the hand, and he is blessing with laddoo. Enjoy. Knowledge should bring bliss inside of you. True knowledge is what makes you light and it’s not something so heavy. You hear sometimes knowledge and you feel so heavy and bogged down. No, knowledge should be freeing and it should be exuberating, exhilarating your whole consciousness. With knowledge, you should feel blissed out. That’s what the modak indicates. Modak means there are no obstacles in life. Everything in life is taken and accepted as a part of life, and you keep moving forward, not stuck in the past, not worrying about the future, but celebrating every moment, taking life in its totality. That is wisdom; that is knowledge. The power of knowledge alone can make you do this. Only knowledge can keep the bliss and joy in you alive. If someone is miserable and has a drooping face, that means they are not utilizing their knowledge power. If you have knowledge, there is no way you can get depressed. No way, impossible.
Today, the world is depressed because they lack this wisdom, they lack this knowledge. Hey man, wake up and see. Man and woman both, wake up and see. Everything is changing. This awareness, everything is changing. This knowledge, everything is changing. And you cannot hold on to anything, and nothing is worth holding onto. Everything is going. Then you realize there is something. That something which we don’t want to name, that something is always there with you. Unblemished, untainted spirit, ever shining, eternal, is what you are. For this, you don’t have to acquire information. You simply have to learn to see these two sides: one is confirmed awareness, and another is the innocent blossoming of consciousness.