Festival Ganesh

Mysorekar lifted the coconut above her head and dashed it against the gray granite floor of the temple, shattering it into pieces.

A riotous orchestra of ringing bells, thumping drums and the oboe-like shehnai reverberated in the cool predawn air. A piercing call emanated from a silver-tipped conch shell. And a semicircle of onlookers, draped in magenta, saffron, violet and burgundy, clapped as if in chorus.

At the Hindu Temple Society of North America, in Flushing, Queens, this week is time to worship Ganesh, the elephant-headed, many-armed deity who is believed to remove obstacles. Here, as at temples in over a dozen countries, Hindus are celebrating Ganesha Chaturthi, which marks the god’s birth (and rebirth).

“The coconut shell is like the human ego,” said Mohan Ramaswamy, who teaches at the temple on Bowne Street. “You have to crack it open before you can let in the lord.”

“The goal of all of these rituals is to gain the power of the vibrations,” said Dr. Mysorekar, a gynecologist and the temple’s president. “A temple is not just brick and mortar. It’s filled with energy.”

Like Easter for Christians or the High Holy Days for Jews, Ganesha Chaturthi can be as much about the community as it is about worship.

“Ganesh is my favorite god,” he said before explaining how he learned the mythology behind the deity’s elephant head, and how Ganesh saved the river goddess by tricking a dwarf.

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