Ganesha (also Ganesh, Ganapati Tantra, Ekadanta or Vinayaka) is the elephant-headed deva in the Hindu pantheon. He is the god of knowledge and wisdom, remover of obstacles and patron saint of travellers. His vahana, vehicle, is a mouse or rat called Mashika. Hindus pray to Ganesha before starting something new, such as a new job or when moving.
Ganesha is the son of the god Shiva and the goddess Parvati, who together in the cosmogony of Hinduism actually symbolize the unity of everything. Shiva represents the subjective conscious and Parvati the energetic material. A statue of him often stands at forks in the road in India, so that he can help travelers when they have to make a choice and take a new path. Ganesha always stands at the beginning of something, a first impulse.
