Ganapati

Ganapati

Ganapati is one of the names of Ganesh, but it is also the name of a small religious Hindu festival held normally around November or December

The story behind it is mainly the story of how Ganesh was born. On the day of Ganapati, there is a huge puja with all the family and many friends coming to visit.

One day, the Goddess Parvati, Shiva’s wife, decided to have a ritual bath while her husband was away from their mountain home, helping the Gods win a war against the demons.

She wanted to have someone to guard her and the house while she was bathing, so she carefully sculpted a beautiful boy from the clay and from the saffron that she took off from her body. Once the full head, torso and body were created, she made him, so that he was carrying a spear. She then stood back and looked at him adoringly before breathing the breath of life into him. He stood up and immediately bowed to Goddess Parvati whom he considered his mother and asked her respectfully what she wanted him to do. Parvati smiled with approval and asked him to stand and wait for her to finish her ritual bath and under no circumstances, to let anyone into the house. She realised that he needed a name, but chose to do it later. For the ease of writing, I will refer to him as Ganapati anyway.

So then, as Ganapati took up his vigil on the threshold, Lord Shiva arrived home, tired and dirty, wanting to have a bath. He was stopped in his tracks by Ganapati.

Because he was adamant that nobody should enter, Lord Shiva challenged him to a fight. After some time, and also after some other celestial beings and Gods had joined the fight against Ganapati, one of the fighters, Lord Vishnu, incidentally, slay Ganapati from behind as he was fighting with Lord Shiva. Just as this happened, Goddess Parvati came out of the house, having finished her ritual bath.

She took one glance at her dead ‘son’ and started to cry, screaming at her husband and the other Lords because he was killed by unfair means and for unjust reasons. She demanded that he would be brought back to life.

So, trying to pacify his wife, Lord Shiva sent off his followers and his soldiers into the jungle and the surrounding area to find the head of the first living creature that crossed their path. While travelling, a baby elephant came by and was immediately killed. The head was taken to Lord Shiva who fixed it onto his son’s head and uttered a magical mantra to bring him to life.

However, Goddess Parvati was not satisfied yet. She wanted her son to be given God status and more. Shiva promised her that he would be named Lord Ganesh, and he would be worshipped before any other God because he would be the remover of all obstacles and God to those who were facing tough challenges.

Ganapati is celebrated by doing Puja and Aarti on the day.