Why does Lord Ganesha have an elephant's head?

We have lot of answers for the question why Ganesha has elephants head. The story is typical. Parvati creates Ganesha without the knowledge of her consort Shiva. Shiva beheads Ganesha without knowing that he is his son, when Gansha refuses to allow Shiva to meet Parvati. Later he realizes his mistake and instead of replacing Ganesha’s original head, replaces it with the head of a young elephant.

The answer seems perfect, except for the fact the question remains unanswered? Why did Shiva use elephants head in preference to the the original head of his son? This is what every one wishes to know.

When we think of elephant in Hinduism what comes to our mind is the Airavata of Indra.

Is there any relationship between Airavata and Ganesha?

What does Ganesha symbolize anyway? Ganesha removes obstacles in the path of our actions and is known Vighneshvara.

What has Indra to do with obstacle removal?

All scriptures are based on seven stage muscle tone based thinking. Indra symbolizes the first stage i.e. stage of daydreaming. It is for this reason that we have more verses in Rig Veda dedicated to Indra than to any other Rig Vedic god.

What does elephant head of Ganesha signify? If an obstacle in the path of an idea has to be removed it should be at the earliest stage i.e. at the stage of Daydreaming / Indra only. It is for this reason that Ganesha has the head of an elephant. Thus, Shiva wisely selects the head of Shiva for his son and not at random.

Thus, the actual reason why Ganesha has the head of an elephant is that it symbolizes the fact that an obstacle creating idea has to be removed at the very moment it tries to enter the conscious mind from the subconscious mind. Otherswise the obstacle creating idea would enter the conscious mind and get converting into an action, never giving a chance to the idea we intend to convet into action.

It is for this reason that Ganesha is worshipped before any activity to ensure that the obstacles in the path of the activity are removed.

Thus, Ganesha has the head of an elephant to signify the fact that any obstacle in the path of a desired action must be removed at the earliest stage i.e. the stage of dreaming. This stage is symbolized by Indra, whose vehicle is Airavata, an elephant.