I saw a very beautiful idol of Lord Ganesha hiding somewhere in the living room of my uncle’s place. I thought to capture it and show it to you guys. I loved the photo too.

After capturing the photo, I wanted to know more about the favorite and most-worshipped Hindu God. Best place would be some old person, but, I wanted to know unbiased version. So, I jumped to Wikipedia, where a good number of topics are neutral.

While reading about Lord Ganesha, I saw a painting by Raja Ravi Varma, whose paintings are considered to be among best examples for the fusion of Indian traditions with the techniques of European academic art. In the painting, The Ashtasiddhi are shown as attendants of Lord Ganesha. As a person of higher curiosity, I read about Ashta Siddhi.

Siddhi literally means “accomplishment”, “attainment” or “success”. It is also used as term for spiritual power in Hinduism and Tantric Buddhism. There are nine main Siddhis, Eight primary Siddhis (two different versions - Mahabharata and Srimad Bhagavatam versions) and ten secondary Siddhis and five Siddhis of Yoga and Meditation.

After reading the classification, the only thing in my mind was .. I always thought that “Siddhi” and “Buddhi” are wives of Lord Ganesha. I was not disappointed by my “knowledge” about Lord Ganesha, as I’m not a very religious person. But, I always thought that I know “little” more than an average guy in his twenties.

To be frank, my “religious beliefs” are little complicated which I couldn’t understand up to now. But, being a person who believes that there is only one God, I read about other religions to know their beliefs, their theories, their way to seeking the Supreme Power. Now, I understood that I’ve to read about the world’s oldest extant religion, Hinduism.