There are dancing idols of Ganesha. Although ordinary eyes cannot meet in Ganesha's dance anything more than what a circus elephant can perform, a discerning eye can discover the collosal rhythmic flow of life as Ida and Pingala. The world appears and disappears in between the pacings of his left and right feet. Ganesha's dance in this respect is similar to the dance of Shiva, but with a difference. Shiva's dance appears much more graceful. For this the artist who wrought his icon is alone responsible. The dance of Ganesha is the expression of the underlying unity and rhythm in all material manifestations however gross of grotesque they may appear to the ordinary eye.

Ganesha idols are seen only with one tusk. The other tusk is seen broken. The broken tusk speaks a lot. In Hindu iconography there is a figure depicting the incarnation of Mahavishnu as Varaha (wild boar). The world represented as a globe is seen resting on its two tusks. Although the name Varaha means a wild boar, this name has an esoteric meaning as revealed by the two concepts with which the name is formed. One is 'Vara' meaning wedded to, and the other concept is 'Aham' which means self or ego. Varaham therefore means one wedded to one's ego. In astrological parlance Ahamkara or Angaraka (Mars) is the Karaka (cause) for the appearance of the world. The tusks of the boar indicates the ego and its relative world, YOU and I, a dualistic existence. The dualism disappears when the mind wedded to the ego sheds the ego. This destruction of YOU and I disappears. The broken tusk of Ganesha is the symbol of the shedding of the ego and the remaining single tusk indicates the nondualistic aspect of the mind when it gets merged with the Atman within, effacing the phenomenal world. Ganesha in this respect is Ekadanta (He of single tusk). The legend of Ganesha breaking one of his tusks to use it as a weapon to annihilate the elephant faced Gajamukhasura has a bearing on this aspect of Ganesha. It may be noted that Gajamukhasura is a demon with an elephant face whereas Ganesha who is also called Gajanana meaning elephant faced is a Deity. The annihilation of the demon is the annihilation of the elephant the mind slaying the ego which is sustained by its lower side.