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Ganesha – The Remover of Obstacles
Shiva, Ganesha and Parvati
Ganesha is a charming deity, very fond to many Hindus predominantly of India and also countries of West and South Asia. His parents, Shiva and Parvati are supremely powerful and Shiva forms the ‘transformation’ aspect of the trinity Godhead. Ganesha inherited from his parent’s wisdom and majesty, but as you can see, he hardly resembles them.
So, how did Ganesha get an elephants head? It happened after Shiva had decided to leave his and Parvati’s abode to enter into a meditative trance for a number of years (since the Cosmic Gods live in eternal time, this kind of thing is quite acceptable in a marriage).While he was away Ganesha grew up to be a strong, charming boy. Parvati loved him dearly and as he handled the hatchet so nicely, she had him stand guard outside their abode from time to time.
Ganesha
It so happened that one day Parvati went to take a bath and asked Ganesha to kindly guard the gate and not let anybody enter until she was finished. Ganesha stood guard and but who should try to enter but Shiva himself. Shiva went to walk right in but was stopped by a young boy he had never seen before. Since Shiva, also known as Mahadev (great-god) was being blocked from entering his own house he became furious. Ganesha being obedient to his mother would not Shiva pass him and stood bravely rooted. Shiva flew into a wild rage and a battle ensued, finishing with Ganesha’s decapitation.
Parvati was heartbroken when she found out what had happened to her favourite son, so Shiva to try to make amends said that Ganesha will be revived with the head of the next being to pass by which of course was an elephant. As you can imagine Parvati still wasn’t very happy with the turn of events and sobbed that nobody would worship her noble son. So Shiva had it that before any ceremony or puja Ganesha would be invoked before any other particular god or goddess.
Sri Chinmoy has published over 3800 stories written in a simple, clear language many of which are tales from his Motherland India. There he has written many more stories attributing to Ganesha, why he has only one tusk and how he encircled the universe in a number of seconds.
