In plain words
He who is master of all the senses is Gaṇapati
What does Gaṇapati mean? ‘Ga’ means ‘Buddhi’, and that means Vijñāna. Gaṇapati is the master of Vijñāna and Prajñāna. He who is master of all the gaṇas is Gaṇapati. The gaṇas are nothing but the principles of man's senses! He who is master of all the senses is Gaṇapati. ‘Vigato nāyaka iti Vināyaka’ is the definition. That is, He who has no leader over Him is Vināyaka. He is His own leader. He has no other master. He Himself is master of everything. That is the right meaning of the word ‘Vināyaka’. The festivals of the people of Bhārata are all full of inner meaning bound up with the spiritual, not of acts bound up with the outer. First of all, on festival days, as soon as we rise in the morning, we tie green leaves over the doorways. The green festoon is the chief sign of lasting auspiciousness. So the green festoon teaches the inner meaning, ‘May our life be ever auspicious.’ One may also draw another meaning from it, a scientific one. The festoon of green leaves tied at the doorway takes in the carbon dioxide that people breathe out and gives us the oxygen within it. So in a scientific way too the festoon of green leaves is a help to man. What man wants is oxygen. What trees want is carbon dioxide. So the two help each other. On this festival day, as soon as he rises in the morning, man takes an oil bath. What is its inner meaning? Cleanliness of the body is a chief cause of health. Not only that: since God is both within and without, man needs both outer purity and inner purity. What is the aim of inner purity? To put bad qualities far from oneself and to fill oneself with good feeling. This is the inner meaning in wearing new clothes. We put on new clothes, or else clean clothes. That is to say, ‘garment’ is a name for the heart. So to make the heart within pure is the aim of inner purity.