We cannot handle obstacles alone; hence Ganesha

Swami Krishnananda 

Human life is beset with obstacles. We face oppositions and encounter difficulties galore, and the whole of our daily activity may, in a sense, be considered as a struggle against all odds which come in different forms as the sorrows of life.

This whole world is too much for a single man, and considering the incongruous, disproportionate relationship between a single human individual and the vast world outside, there is very little hope of man’s achieving anything in this world, successfully, because we cannot bail out the ocean of waters with a spoon, though our effort may be laudable.
We are, no doubt, very sincerely industrious in emptying the ocean of its waters with a little spoon or a ladle. Notwithstanding the fact that this effort on our part is praiseworthy, it is not going to lead us to any success, and the expected result will not follow. The ocean cannot be emptied by any amount of bailing out with a spoon. Such seems to be the type of world into which we are born, and people who are acutely conscious of this situation become humble enough to accept that even an inch of success cannot be expected in this world without the miraculous grace of God. So, even the little success that sometimes seems to come to us is a kind of undeserved promotion, as it were, granted to us by the mercy of the Almighty.

Our efforts are only a puny child’s whining and weeping with a helpless weakness of body and mind. The traditional annual worship of God in this role, as the remover of all obstacles, as Vighna Vinayaka, is known as Vinayaka Chaturthi or Ganesa Chaturthi. It is the day on which we offer special adoration to the Remover of obstacles.
We are terribly afraid of obstacles. There is no other fear in this world except of obstacles. So, we always cry, “Remove the obstacles, clear the path, cleanse the road.” On the fourth day of the bright half of the lunar month of Bhadrapada (August-September) every year, the great Lord Ganapati, called the Lord of Hosts, is worshipped throughout India, and perhaps in many other parts of the world also. There is no Hindu who does not recognize the pre-eminence of the worship of this mysteriously conceived deity called Ganapati whose name occurs right in the beginning of the Rig Veda itself, the earliest of scriptures, where pointedly the name is taken in a Mantra, “Gananam tva ganapatim havamahe…”
The fear of God is supposed to be the beginning of religion. A person who has no fear of God also has no religion, because religion is respect for God. The fear of God goes together with the acceptance of the greatness of God and His Power. Wherever there is power, we are afraid of it.

Excerpted from swami-krishnananda.org. Ganesh Chaturthi is being observed on September 13