Ganesh Chaturthi is tomorrow, the much loved Hindu God. I thought we would explore a few short stories about Ganesh…. The Jai Jais Way.
You might wonder why Ganesh is truly one of the most popular Hindu gods. Ganesh was actually given a boon (a wish) from another god. The boon granted him to be more revered and worshiped than even his father, and he would be the first god to be acknowledged when entering a temple.
Ganesh and his brother Kartikeya challenged each other to see who could go around the world 3 times the fastest. As Kartikeya jumped onto his huge bird of a vehicle and flew at records speeds to get around the world and win the challenge, Ganesh was left on the ground. Nobody had ever given him a vehicle to ride, so he quickly asked his father for some form of a vehicle to ride upon, to which Shiva gave a tiny mouse.
Ganesh, knowing this mouse could never carry him started thinking. An idea came to him and he went up to his parents, walked around them 3 times and announced he had won the challenge, because parents are the highest respected members of any family they are respected as symbol of the world. Shiva was pleased that he won his challenge, and forever after he was revered for his incredible intellect.
Ganesh the scribe who hand-wrote the entire Mahabharata poem. The great sage Vyāsa requested Ganesh to write the poem as he dictated, knowing this would be a huge project Ganesh agreed on one condition, Vyasa must recite the entire poem un-interrupted, without pausing or taking a break. The great Vyāsa agreed to this request however found a loop-hole to give himself a break, he would give Ganesh incredibly difficult complex passages so Ganesh would be forced to ask questions giving the tricky Vyāsa the time to rest when needed.
Ganesh is called Ekdanta according to Brahmavavart Purana, Parshurama once went to the Kailash mountain to visit Shiva when he was meditating. So Ganesh didn’t allow Parshurama to meet Shiva. This angered Parshurama and he used his axe which was granted to him by Shiva himself to attack Ganesh. To respect the power of the weapon given by his father, Ganesh took the attack on one of his tusk and since then he is called Ekdanta., “One tooth”.
Ganesh can actually get angry but once the moon laughed at Ganesa’s fat belly. As a result, Ganesh cursed the moon and said that on Vinayagar Chaturthi, whoever will look at the moon, he would be falsely blamed. That’s why people believe in not looking at the moon on Ganesh Chaturthi.
