On Ganesh Chaturthi

[Nausheel Unnadkat]

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Birth of Ganesa 

A little known account of the divine origin of Lord Ganesa 

This description of the appearance of Lord Ganesa is given in Ganapati Khanda of Brahma-vaivarta Purana. The popular story of how Mother Parvati created Lord Ganesa from her cosmetics is given in Rudra-samhita, Kumara Khanda of Siva Purana, where Lord Brahma confirms the version presented below. The different versions mentioned in the Puranas are due to variation in pastimes that took place in different yugas. 

Srila Narada Muni inquired Lord Narayana about Ganesa’s birth and his qualities. 

Lord Narayana explained that after the birth of Kartikeya the commander-in-chief of the demigods mother Parvati requested Lord Siva for one more son. On the request of his beloved wife, Mahadeva asked her to perform a punyaka ceremony (vrata) to Lord Krsna. The procedures include singing kirtana, offering bhoga, flower garlands, Tulasi lamps to Lord Hari. 

After explaining the details, Lord Siva, who can award the fruit of penances, went to perform meditation on Lord Hari. 

Following the order of Lord Siva, Mother Parvati arranged for all the paraphernalia required to be used in the ceremony, with Sanat-kumara the head priest of the ceremony. On the day beginning a year long observance, everyone arrived on Mount Kailasa, including Lord Visnu, to greet and offer their blessings upon Mother Parvati for the successful completion of the ceremony. The host Lord Siva made comfortable arrangements for the guests. 

After satisfying the guests, Lord Siva requested Lord Visnu to sit on the elevated throne and inquired: “O all cognizant Lord Srinivasa, kindly instruct us on the performance of this ceremony.” Smiling gently, Lord Visnu replied: “O master of Parvati, the essence of performing any activity or any ceremony is devotion to Lord Sri Krsna which is very rare. It is by His devotees’ mercy only one can get devotion to Him. A devotee becomes qualitatively equal with the Lord, he never perishes even after annihilation of this world and returns back to the Lord’s abode Goloka Vrndavana. O Siva, you devastate the whole world, but you cannot harm My devotee, nor does powerful illusory energy delude them because of My mercy upon them.” 

“Your wife is mother of all living entities in this material world. By the influence of this ceremony, Parvati will beget the child who will be the partial representative of Lord Krsna. He will be known as Ganesa (master of all devagana), Vighnanighan (remover of obstacles), Lambodara (whose belly is stretched out due to offerings made in ceremony), Gajanana (elephant-faced) and Ekadanta (one who has only one tooth). And by My blessing, he will receive the first worship in any auspicious occasion.” 

After completion of the sacrifice, the head priest Sanat-kumara requested Mother Parvati to give Lord Siva as his remuneration. On hearing this demand Mother Parvati fell unconscious. When brought back to consciousness she said, “Just like the worship of a tree is useless without worship to Mother earth, who is the cause of tree, similarly, what is the use of any benediction to me, if my husband is taken away from me?” 

While this argument was going on, Lord Narayana descended from the sky. His beautiful form was seen by everyone assembled. The Lord cannot be seen by anyone who does not have devotion to Him, even after millions of births. He told Mother Parvati that for the completion of ceremony and to obtain the result of it, she should fulfill the desire of sage Sanat-kumara. She should give Lord Siva in charity, but then exchange her husband with the offering of a cow to the sage. Mother Parvati did as instructed and her husband was returned. 

Lord Krishna Appears

At that time a brilliant globe of light appeared there which was brighter than crores of suns. All the present demigods glorified that effulgence of Supreme Lord, Krsna. After Mother Parvati’s prayers, Lord Krsna became pleased with her and revealed to her His charming, eternal, youthful form, holding a flute, decorated with a forest flower garland, peacock feather on his head, yellowish garments, and an enchanting smiling face. His beauty defeated the beauty of millions of Cupids. Seeing this form, Mother Parvati desired a son like Him. Instantly granting that boon Lord Krsna disappeared.

Then Mother Parvati distributed immence charity, and after the ceremony, she and Lord Siva spent time together at their residence. When they were engaged in union, a brahmana knocked on the door desperately calling for food. His body was emaciated by penances, and he was very hungry. Both Siva and Parvati received the untimely guest. The brahmana explained his condition and asked for food which was prepared in the punyaka ceremony. Lord Siva and Mother Parvati went to bring the foodstuff, but suddenly the brahmana disappeared. Shocked, they lamented for not being able to serve him. At that time, a divine voice spoke from the sky, “O Parvati. Do not lament. Go inside the residence and see the new-born child that has appeared there. The brahmana was none other than Lord Janardana.” 

Parvati rushed inside and to her amazement a beautiful child had appeared on the bed. Delighted, her heart filled with joy just like a poverty-stricken person becomes happy after getting a big treasure house, or like people suffering from drought become happy upon the arrival of rain. She called for Lord Siva to see the child and both of them embraced the child heartily. 

Sanideva’s Arrival

Lord Siva, then distributed charity to the brahmanas. Hearing the news of a new-born baby in the home of Lord Siva, all the sages, demigods, Gandharvas, and Kinnaras arrived at their residence to see the child and offered their blessings upon him. 

Amongst them was the son of the sun-god, Sanideva. As he arrived he offered his obeisances to Lord Visnu, Brahma, Siva, Suryadeva, Yamaraja and asked permission to see the child. His face was gently bowed down, eyes were half closed in meditation, his mind was fixed on Lord Krsna and internally and externally he was remembering Lord Krsna. He went in the chambers where Mother Parvati was sitting with her child, Ganesa but did not glance at them. Mother Parvati asked him, “What is the matter? Why have you lowered your head instead of seeing the new born child?” 

Sanideva replied: “Everyone in this world suffers the reactions of his own activity (karma), by either enjoying or suffering. These activities decide one’s birth as the king of demigods, Indra, or an insignificant insect. One gets a beautiful attractive body or an ugly one based on his activities performed. 

“Since my childhood, I was a devotee of Lord Krsna, and was always engaged in his meditation. Once, my wife desired to have a union with me while I was in meditation on the Lord’s lotus feet. Being oblivious to the surroundings I could not respond to her desire and she cursed me, saying that whomever I glance at will be destroyed. To avoid violence now I don’t glance at anyone.” 

Mother Parvati remembered Lord Hari, “Everyone is controlled by the Lord’s desire,” she replied, and asked Sanideva to look at her and her son. Confused, Sanideva hesitated. Avoiding the mother, he just glanced on the child from the corner of his left eye. At once, the child’s head got separated from his trunk and went back to Goloka, where it merged into Lord Krsna. As Mother Parvati saw her dead son, she fell unconscious. Everyone stood stunned, including Lord Siva. 

Seeing this condition, Lord Hari went to the northern side of the bank of the River Puspabhadra where an elephant was resting in the forest facing north. The Lord immediately cut off its head with Sudarsana cakra and brought it back to Mount Kailasa. He placed that head on the trunk of the dead child and revived his consciousness. 

Seeing the child alive, the whole atmosphere filled with joy and bliss. In this way, the child became known as Gajanana. 

Lord Visnu said to Parvati, “Everyone has to face the result of his own karma. Only Lord Krsna is the bestower of the results of karma, the controller of death, time, the supreme protector and ultimate sheltor. We Brahma, Visnu, and Siva are His expansions. In that Sri Krsna is Vinayaka situated.

Lord Ganesa agrees to Write 

The scripting of Mahabharata displays a special mood of mutual love. 

Vedic deities are very popular in and around the Indian subcontinent. It is not uncommon to find ancient deities such as Lord Ganesa and Lord Rama even in distant lands like Malaysia and Indonesia. Try as he might, the modern man finds it difficult to abandon his affinity for them. Sometimes, however, this multitude of deities seems to create an idea of pantheism in the immature minds of the uninformed. Some even go to the extent of imagining some form of rivalry between these deities. To understand the reality better, let us examine a pivotal incident from time bygone. 

We have to travel back in time around 5,000 years. The end of Dvapara-yuga loomed ahead on the horizon of time. Srila Vyasadeva, impelled by compassion for the masses of the future, thought of putting down in writing all knowledge that was available at that time in sound form. The advanced people of his time, described as srutidhara, remembered for posterity all that was heard even once during their lifetimes. Foreseeing the world of Kali-yuga, Vyasadeva envisaged the next age as an age of diminishing competence. Human capabilities would dwindle and frailties would rise. Intelligence and memory would decline. Many other limitations would become prominent. To help the needy, Vyasadeva compiled the Veda and then divided it into four, viz. Sama, Yajur, Rg andAtharva. After this, he further explained the text in histories called Puranas. At this point he felt that these texts would be difficult for the common man of Kali-yuga to comprehend. He wished to compile for them something that would explain the same subject matter of the Vedas in a simple, attractive and lucid form, easily understandable by ordinary man. At this point he thought of compiling the Mahabharata, the epic narration of the activities of the greatest dynasty of Bharata-varsa. 

Wanting to express his approval, Lord Brahma gave his blessings to Srila Vyasadeva by mentioning, asya kavyasya kavayo na samartha visesane (Mahabharata, Adi, 1.73): the greatest poets of this world will not be able to compose a better composition than this one. He then advised Vyasa to take help from Lord Ganesa for the purpose of writing the composition. 

Even though Vyasadeva had a son of the caliber of Srila Sukadeva Goswami and disciples like Vaisampayana, Lord Brahma’s selection for this valuable task was Ganesa. It is also interesting to note that Vyasa himself is an incarnation of Narayana and whenever anyone chants the Vedic literature, one offers obeisances to him. Before reaching this point, Srila Vyasadeva had already compiled the Vedas and had even summarized it in the form of the Vedanta-sutras. Clearly, there is no doubt about the capabilities of the compiler himself or his followers in the form of his son or his disciples. Yet, Lord Brahma ordered Vyasa to commission Lord Ganesa for this important service. Clearly Lord Ganesa is a personality specially chosen for this important service.

Following the great authority Lord Brahma, when Srila Vyasadeva called upon Ganesa, the text was ready in the mind of Vyasadeva, but as advised by Lord Brahma, he requested Ganesa to help him write it down. It is mentioned in the Mahabharata (Adi Parva, 1.78-79) 

srutvaitat praha vighneso 

yadi me lekhani ksanam

likhato navatisthet

tada syam lekhako hyham 

“Hearing this Lord Ganesa said, ‘O Vyasa! I shall agree on one condition while writing, my pen shouldn’t stop even for a moment.’” 

Vyasa replied, vyaso ’pyuvaca tam devama-buddhva ma likha kvacit omityuktva ganeso ’py babhuva kila lekhakaù: “You too may not write a single alphabet without properly understanding its meaning.” Lord Ganesa gave his assent by replying with the ‘Om’ sound and thus agreed to write. 

The counter-condition put forward by Vyasa is another striking feature of this whole episode. The Mahabharata primarily follows the lives of the Pandavas, who as staunch and unshakeable devotees of Lord Krsna faced many difficulties in their lives. Yet in the face of reversals, their devotion to Lord Krsna never wavered. The culmination of this poetry is in the great war. The best of all instructions, the Bhagavad-gita, was spoken by Lord Krsna just before the start of this war to guide His dear devotee Arjuna. The Bhagavad-gita is glorified as a succinct spiritual textbook taking its hearer (or reader) from the basics to the advanced levels of spirituality. For this, it is highly respected throughout the world. 

The text clearly explains how the pantheism that is alleged by modern man against the Vedic conception of authority is not true, and establishes clearly Lord Krsna’s position and His relationship with other deities (Bhagavad Gita. 7.20-23 and 9.20-24). It is clear and transparent for the student to understand that there is no such thing as rivalry even in a subtle form between the different Vedic deities. The Vedic texts certainly do not promote pantheism of any sort. And if this was written by Ganesa, then as per Vyasa’s condition, he must have understood these concepts clearly before writing them down. If these words would have explained anything contradictory to the real understanding, Lord Ganesa wouldn’t have put it down in writing. Thus, this simple incident proves that the Vedic deities are in harmony with each other and Lord Ganesa is happy to render service of glorifying Lord Krsna, by glorifying His words that form a part of the Mahabharata.