Thank you everyone for the good wishes for my brother. Honestly I would feel he was tough enough to handle it on his own, but THEY brought him to this country and THEY wanted the marriage to enable his emigration and THEY are now basically dumping him out. All of their finances are combined, etc., so I really hope they are fair.
Neither do I want to get torn apart in the middle of all this. Eesh.
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It’s been so long–I took a comparative Eastern religions class in college well over thirty years ago, about the same time that I was getting involved with the Sikh religion (I was a western 3HO Sikh for about 4 years in the 70s). I just really liked the stories about Ganesh and Hanuman, especially ones involving where the Gods were supposed to live, which (I think) was what is now called Sri Lanka, formerly known as Ceylon? I only remember that Ganesh took the form of an elephant and Hanuman, that of a monkey. We read from the Upanashads in the class, which also covered Buddism, Tao, and Shinto (I think! it’s been many years!).
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Here’s something about Ganesh:
Parvati, Shiva’s wife, was chatting with some of her husband’s staff who teased her about not having a true attendant of her own - they all considered Shiva their true master. Slightly hurt, Parvati decided she would make her own attendant.
She created a statue of a young boy out of saffron paste and gave him life. Embracing him, she said “You are my son, my very own son.”
one day Parvati was going to take a bath, and she told her son, “Guard the door and allow no one entrance.” And off she went.
In a little while, while she was still bathing, Shiva came home. He tried to enter the bath, only to be stopped by the young boy. “My mother is bathing,” he said, “and no one must enter.” When Shiva ignored him, the boy hit him with his staff.
Shiva is/was always quick to anger and grew furious. Shiva threw his trident and beheaded the boy.
On he went into Parvati’s bathing chamber. However when he told her of what had transpired, she burst into weeping. “How could you, my Lord? I created him myself. I loved him like a son. How could you kill him?”
She was furious, and Parvati has the power when she wants to destroy the world, being the Wife of the Destroyer. She threatened to do so, and Brahma, the Creator himself, came to her and humbly begged her to tell him how to make amends. She asked for two conditions: her son’s life, and for her son to worshiped before any other gods. Brahma agreed.
By this time Shiva felt contrite for what he had done. When Brahma told him to go and bring the head of the first creature that crossed his path, Shiva agreed. He left with his hunting party and soon returned with the head of an elephant.
Brahma fitted the elephant’s head to the boy and returned him to life. Shiva apologized for his rashness, and said, "From now on I take this boy as my own. He shall be worshiped before all the gods, and I will name him Ganesh, “chief of attendants”.
And this is why before we do anything, before we pray to any other gods, or undertake any new task, we pray to Ganesh first.
Ah well… at least it should make the reunion all the better, right? 