Ganesha is very dear to Indians. In India there is no town, which does not have a 
Ganesha temple. India's great leader, Balagangadhara Tilak, declared that the Ganesha festival should be celebrated in each and every home. Thus it became a national festival.

Ganesha is the Lord of Obstacles and also the Lord of Knowledge. Is it not true that we can overcome any obstacle by increasing our knowledge? Once upon a time it was difficult for man to cover a distance of ten miles; it was a problem to cross a stream. People would have laughed if they had been told that man could fly; they would have thought it impossible. Today man travels thousands of miles easily, crosses oceans and even steps on the Moon. How has the impossible become possible? Is it not because man has increased his know- ledge? If man is to progress, he should remove obstacles, by increasing his knowledge. If we know the mechanism of a bicycle, if it breaks down on the way, we can repair it and then proceed. So knowledge removes obstacles. Man understood what obstacles there would be to his journey to the Moon, studied how to 
overcome them and then stepped on the Moon. Knowledge does not simply mean getting new information. Learning how to treat others, realizing what is really most important in life and what is not so important, realizing that others also are human beings like ourselves andpracticing this principle without thinking only of our comfort and power, to have high ideals in life-these are the ascending steps of education. As we step higher and higher we learn to live with others. We learn to make our lives worthy and meaningful. We learn to overcome the obstacles in the way of such a noble life.

May such knowledge-knowledge, which brightens us within and without - be ours I may all the obstacles in the way of getting such knowledge melt away! May the blessings of Varasiddhi Vinayaka, of Vidya Ganapati, protect us!