The Story Of Lord Ganesha

Before narrating this it would be helpful if I introduce some of the gods of the hindu pantheon.

Brahma:
The hindu god of creation

Vishnu:
The hindu god of sustenance, he maintains righteousness among us humans. Whenever we did stray too far from the path of righteousness he came down on earth as one of his avatars (yes avatar is an Indian word). They are Matsya, Koorma, Varaha, Narasimha, Vamana, Parasurama, Rama, Balarama, Krishna and Kalki.

Shiva:
The hindu god of destruction, he is the one who dances the divine dance called the tandav, which is the eternal dance of creation and destruction.

Nandi:
Lord Shiva's steed, an ox.

Ganesha:
Also known as Vinayaka, Vighneswara, Gajanana etc. He has 108 names and is known in the west as the Elephant God.

Well. It all started when Gajasura (a demon with the head of an elephant) did pennance to be able to see lord Shiva. And since Shiva is easy to please, he appeared in front of Gajasura and said, "Demand whatever you wish for and you shall have it." To this Gajasura said that he wanted Shiva to live forever in his stomach. Thenceforth, Shiva started living in his stomach.

Then, Shiva's wife, the Goddess of beauty and health, Parvathi, went to lord Krishna (one of lord Vishnu's avatars) and sought his help to facilitate the return of her husband. Now, Krishna took Nandi, and decorated him as a show animal and went to Gajasura and set up a show for him. At the end of the show Gajasura was so pleased that he told the showman (lord Krishna in disguise) that he would grant any wish asked of him. To which lord Krishna replied, “This is no ordinary ox, he is the great Nandi who seeks his master who happens to be trapped in your belly.” It was then that Gajasura realised that the showman was actually Krishna, and that his death was inevitable. He then spoke to Shiva who was in his stomach and said, “I will set you free, but I want one favour in reurn. I want you to make it such that my head is worshipped in all three worlds (heaven, hell and earth). Then, Nandi tore his stomach open with his horns and freed his master, lord Shiva. Shiva collected the head of Gajasura and went on his way to Kailasa which is his abode.

Hearing of her husband’s return, the overjoyed Parvati decided to bathe. In those days, when this story was written, the husk of several edible pulses and gram were used to bathe with in lieu of soap. She had already applied this powered mixture on her body, before She went to rinse off, She took some of the dired powder off her body and made a small figure of a young boy. She breathed life into the figure, and left the child to guard the door while She attended to herself.

While she was bathing, Shiva returned. But the guardian at the door didn’t let him in. So he took his trishool (trident), and decapitated the kid. When She heard of this, She asked her husband to bring him back to life. So He attached the head of Gajasura to the body of the child and rekindled the life that he had taken. Thus was born their first child by the name of Gajanana (the one with the head of an elephant). In the due course of time Gajanana grew up and acquired as his steed a mouse by the name of Anindya. It is this comic and affable picture of him that has made him close to many hearts. Although many hindus have ishta devatas (favourite gods), there are very few of them who do not worship Gajanana.

Sometime in between Shiva and Parvati had their second child by the name of Kartik who is the Hindu god of war; he has for his steed a peacock. One fine day, all the gods decided that they needed one of them to exclusively see to it that no one faced any hurdles in her/his life. Kartik said that his pot bellied mouse riding brother would be unfit for the task so it should be given to him.

Then the gods decided that whoever would bathe in all the holy rivers in the three worlds (heaven, hell and earth) and return the first would be given the task. Then the crestfallen Gajanana realised that he would be unable to complete the required test, so he recited a mantra and circled his parents in a clockwise direction (this is called a pradakshina and it is an expression of devotion). As a result, whenever Kartik entered a river to bathe, he would see that Gajanana had finished his ritual and was leaving the river. It was then that he realised the greatness of his brother and withdrew his claim to the position.

On the fourth day after the new moon in the month of Bhadrapada, Gajanana was conferred with the title of Vighneswara (remover of obstacles). His devotees world wide prepared a feast for this occaision to congratulate him. He visited each house and gorged himself on all the sweets and other items prepared by them and fed some to his steed. As he was undertaking the long and arduous journey back to his abode, he cast a very very comic picture and the moon could not help himself so he laughed out loud.

Overcome by embarassment, Vighneswara failed to notice a bump in the road and tripped and fell, his belly burst and all his innards were scattered all over the ground. Parvati blamed the moon for her son’s death (the gods later revived him) and said that anyone looking at the moon would be mowed down by unfounded accusations. So all the righteous people in the world, whoever saw the moon incurred heavy sins. When requested by the other gods, She decreased the curse saying that whoever saw the moon on the fourth day after the new moon in the month of Bhadrapada without listening to the story of Vigneswara, would incur unfounded sins.

On one such day, lord Krishna (one of the avatars of Lord Vishnu, the god of maintenance) saw the moon in a reflection in a milk platter while he was drinking. He then realised that he would have to go thorugh some unpleasant ordeal or the other. And he did:

A king by the name of Satrajit had in his posession a Mani (jewel) which used to create a lot of gold each day and Krishna asked for it. Quite obviously he refused. One day Satrajit’s brother Prasena took the Mani and went on a hunting trip. In the forest, a lion saw the Mani and mistaking it for meat, killed Prasena and took it. Later, a bear by the name of Jambavan killed the lion and took the Mani from it and gave it to his daughter. The blame for Prasena’s death was laid on Krishna. So Krishna vowed to find out what happened of Prasena and the Mani.

In the forest, he found Prasena’s corpse, and a little further he found the Lion’s corpse and from there the footprints of Jambavan leading up to his cave. In the cave he found Jambavan’s daughter Jambavati playing with the Mani. When he snatched the Mani from her, she started crying her heart out. And Jambavan came there immediately to find the Mani in Krishna’s hands. Jambavan and Krishna started fighting. Twenty one days later, they were still fighting and and Jambavan’s strength started waning. He then remembered that when he helped lord Rama, he asked of him the boon to fight him, he then realised that Krishna was an avatar of the same. He begged for Krishna’s pardon, and gave him the Mani. He also realised that he would not be able to find a better man than Krishna and so he offered him his daughter in marriage.

When he returned to Satrajit’s palace with the Mani, Satrajit was so overjoyed that he not only gave the Mani to Krishna, he also offered to him his daughter’s hand in marriage.

So, Krishna, even though he was a god had to go through all that trouble just because he looked at the moon (accidentally albeit) before hearing this story on the fourth day after new moon in the month of Bhadrapada.

Disclaimer:
To some of you, this story might come across as being male chauvinistic. I have no hand in it being so. This story was originally written in sanskrik on the far side of two thousand years ago. During this period it had gone through many different translators some of whom might have been male chauvinists. It is my firm beleif that the original text was not of this nature at all.