Ganeshji

The birth of Lord Ganesha is one of the weirdest tales i have ever come across...

Shiva's wife Parvati decides to take a bath... While bathing, a lot of dirt comes off her body (may have been meditating many years... these things accumalate :)), and being creative (pun intended) puts that dirt into the form of a really handsome child... and being a Goddess blew life into the child and asked him to wait outside (she could be modest too) and not let anyone come in till she finished her bath (and accessorizing)...

So the little kid goes out and waits and soon enough along comes Shiva, and asks the boy to step aside and let him go in. Boy refuses. Shiva gets angry. Shiva shouts and threatens. Boy doesn't budge. Shiva chops off boy's head! (Children in those days faced pretty harsh disciplining)

Parvati is very upset when she comes to know Shiva has killed her son ... son?! Shiva must have thought... when did that happen?!!... in any case to make her feel better, Shiva chops off the head of a passing elephant and attaches that to the body of the fallen child and gives Him life... Parvati is aghast at how her son looks and says everyone will mock him... no one will respect him... Lord Shiva smiles benignly and says that He will give a boon to the little Ganesha that before any Pooja or ritual of any kind is started, He, Ganesha will have to be worshiped first!

Parvati is quite mollified by this, but demands a vehicle for Ganesha... Shiva presents Ganesha with a mouse as his vehicle... Parvati was very happy with that and the family lived happily for many eons to come (ever after really as far as us humans are concerned)

And that's how Lord Ganesha was born... like is said it is a very weird story with plenty of really big loop holes and questions! To start with Parvati must have been really REALLY dirty for so much dirt to come off her... Then Shiva is the Lord of the Universe, if a small kid told Him to come back later, He could have gone somewhere, looked after a galaxy or two, meditated or something :)... but no, He chops off the kid's head!

Then He puts an elephants head on the child and gives a mouse as a vehicle... no sense of proportion whatsoever!, should have been the other way round! Give a mouse's head and the elephant as a vehicle...

We could go on and on... but as usual there is a secret to the story... Come back tomorrow and you will find it :)

Jai Gurudeva!
love
bawa