Swastikas

I have had a "thing" lately with Ganesha, a god in the Hindu pantheon related to obstacles, both placing them and removing them.  I did a Google image search for an nice image, and found this one, which I quite like.  It gives the appearance of being created from banana plant leaves, which resonates with my personality quite well.

Upon closer inspection, however, you will note that the symbol on the left is a swastika.  I am not sure how I feel about that.


I know that the swastika was originally a symbol of good, until it was adopted by the National Socialist Party of Germany in 1920, and the symbol came to mean something entirely different.

"The word "swastika" comes from the Sanskrit svastika - "su" meaning "good," "asti" meaning "to be," and "ka" as a suffix.

Until the Nazis used this symbol, the swastika was used by many cultures throughout the past 3,000 years to represent life, sun, power, strength, and good luck." from About.com

 So I have been debating the symbol, and symbols in general.


In one way the image bothers me, because of the "modern" meaning of the swastika.  At the visceral level, I see the symbol and react tot he Nazi connotations, and it bothers me.  On the other hand, I appreciate the original meaning, and I can understand refusing to give in to the people that tried to take it from the original culture.  I respect the creator of the picture for refusing to let the spirit of the symbol be tarnished.