Praying to Lord Ganesha before other Gods

[ScottMalaysia]

I know that Lord Ganesha is invoked at the beginning of religious ceremonies as the remover of obstacles, and I've heard that he is prayed to before any other Gods, but does this mean that every single time I pray (even if it's just a short prayer) to any other God that I have to pray to Lord Ganesha first? I mainly worship the Holy Mother (I fast on Tuesdays in accordance with South Indian practice) and I consider Guan Yin and the Virgin Mary to be forms of the Goddess as well.

So every time I want to make a short supplication to the Holy Mother, do I have to pray to Lord Ganesha first? Or can I pray straight to Amman without first making a supplication to Lord Ganesha?

[Eastern Mind]

Scott; Not sure but its kind of traditional. Even 'Aum' can be considered to Ganesha. Last night at our temple we were sponsoring a Siva Abhishekham for Pradosha, and the priests first words there were the "Aum Gananam Tva, Ganapati gum havamahe... mantram.

But of course, as you know, nothing is 'necessary' . There is no compulsory stuff.

Aum Namasivaya

[hthakar]

The concept of praying to Lord Ganapati before recital of any mantras is because Ganapati translates the "Prakash bhasha" (language of light) used by the devas to the "Naad bhasha" (language of sound) used by us humans. As the sound of the mantras have to be translated correctly to light, we pray to Ganapati for removal of obstacles.

For basic prayers, its the bhav (spiritual emotion / love) of the devotee that matters. It is beyond any language or ritual that we do. So go ahead and pray to Mother Goddess, but make sure you call her with bhav.