During our freedom struggle Bal Gangadar tilak used ganesh utsav festival as a method to unite the people of this country.
One should not see Lord Ganesh as a mere god. He is a concept based on vaktatvam. He is the lord of intellect and knowledge. That's why in some parts of the country he is seen with consorts siddhi and buddhi. One should not come to the conclusion that hindu deities promote bigamy.
Some vaishnavites consider that lord ganesha is the god of saivas so they don't worship him. Again, I stress that ganesha should be seen as a concept/technology.Technology do not differentiate people background. But, vaishnavities worship vishveksena (a counterpart of ganesha). Same effect but, two different service providers that's all.
Ganesh chathurthi not only celebrated in India. It is celbrated around the world. In Indonesia, the country with largest population of muslims in the world, their currency has the picture of lord Ganesha embossed on it. Where he is known as god of knowledge and counting.
The red Indians celebrate ganesh chathurthi . A lots of ganesha idols excavated from mexico region.
The lord ganesha represents mooladhara chakra as per yogic science. mooladhara is nothing but earth concept. That's why people in India make ganesh idols out of mud.
The purpose of visargan (to put it simply, it is nothing but beating a retreat) the next day of the puja the ganesh idol is immersed in water (be it well, stream and ocean) . Actually, God is formless but, in order to understand a particular concept we give form to the formless. After understanding the concept, we return the apparatus. just like we return the book to the lending library after reading it.
