Lord Ganesha’s elephant head makes him easy to identify. He is worshipped as the lord of beginnings and as the lord of removing obstacles. As Ganesh Chaturthi fever is already taking over our lives and we are getting ready to gorge on modaks and chant aartis dedicated to the patron of arts and sciences, and the god of intellect and wisdom, here are a few things about the cutest lord of them all, you probably didn’t know:
Ganesha is a combination of four beings- man, elephant, serpent and mouse. They individually and collectively have deep symbolic significance which represents human beings, eternally striving to be one with nature.
When Ved Vyas (creator of Mahabharata) approached Ganesha to write down Mahabharata for him, he agreed but kept a condition that Vyas had to narrate it in one go, without any break. As he started writing the story, there was one point when the quill he was writing with broke down and without wasting anytime, he broke off one of his tusks and made it into a pen to continue writing.
Some are also of the belief that Lord Parashurama cut off one of Ganesha’s tusks because he didn’t allow him to enter the Shiva abode and meet Lord Shiva, who was busy praying.
The head of the elephant god symbolises the aatma or the soul, which is considered the ultimate reality of humanity and his human body symbolises the trappings of the earthly existence.
Gajmukhasur was a demon who was a devotee of Lord Shiva. He prayed and asked Shiva for a boon that no god or human would be able to harm him. Being benevolent, Shiva granted it to him but warned him against its misuse. But Gajmukhasar, being a demon, began killing people and destroying their homes. Seeing this, Shiva sent Ganesha to control him, who then turned Gajmukhasur into a mouse. And that’s how the mouse became Ganesha’s vehicle.
Once, Ganesha and his sibling Kartikeya took a race to take a round of the world. While Kartikeya climbed up on his peacock, Lord Ganesha realized that he can’t win the competition with a mouse. So, he revolved around his parents, and called them his world, thus won the race.
One day after eating to his heart’s content, Ganesha’s stomach was full and had become terribly large. Walking around with it became difficult for him and he ended up losing his balance and fell down. Seeing this, the moon began laughing at him. Humiliated, Ganesha cursed the moon, making it completely invisible. Later, the moon realised its mistake and began pleading to Ganesha for forgiveness.
Lord Ganesha was basically behind the origin of the river Kaveri. Long ago, sage Agastya wanted to create a river that would provide water to the people living in South India. So, he set off with his Kamandala filled with sacred water. When he reached Coorg mountains, he wanted to take rest, but couldn’t keep the pot down. Then, he saw a young boy and asked him to hold the pot until he came back. That boy was Ganesha. He kept the pot on the ground as he knew it was the perfect place for the river to originate. Just then a crow came and sat on the top of it, when the sage returned, he shooed the bird away which led to the Kamadala falling upside down and the water started flowing from the spot, which was later called river Kaveri.
Om Gam Ganapataye Namah!