The extravagant festival celebrated in the month of Bhadrapada of Hindu calendar, Ganesh Chaturthi has begun on Monday, September 2. The 10-day long festival will conclude on September 12, after a grand celebration. While pandal hoping and chanting hymns is a common practice among Ganesh Utsav, the festival also brings in the time to listen to popular short stories related to Bal Ganesha. Here are a few stories that might help you know more about the childhood of Lord Ganesha:
1. Beginning with the story of his birth, Lord Ganesha was born to Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati, who used to stay at Mount Kailash. However, he wasn’t born like an ordinary child. It happened so that one day when Parvati wanted to take a bath, there was nobody to guard her door. She made a structure out of the turmeric paste she used to clean her body with, and put life into it. This child was called Ganesha.
2. However, he was not born with the elephant face. He got it after Lord Shiva cut off his face. According to mythology, one day, when goddess Parvati was going to take bath, she told Ganesha to guard the door. He was so loyal that when Lord Shiva showed up, he stopped him from entering. Lord Shiva beheaded Ganesha out of anger when Parvati told Lord Shiva about their son the lord sent his troops into the forest to get the head of the first animal they saw in the forest. They brought in the head of an elephant, and thereafter, Lord Ganesha got the name of the elephant god.
3. One of the popular stories till date is about the racing competition between Ganesha and his sibling Kartikeya. Once, both the brothers 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.
4. Ganesha and, thereafter most elephants, usually have one tusk. This is because, according to a legend, when Ved Vyas approached Ganesha to write down Mahabharata for him, he agreed to do it on a condition that Vyas had to narrate it in one go, without any break. As he started writing the story, his quill broke down. To keep on writing uninterrupted, Lord Ganesha broke off one of his tusks and made it into a pen to continue writing.
5. Lord Ganesha’s ride is a mouse. But the mouse was originally a demon. According to stories, Gajmukhasur was a demon who wanted to become a very powerful king. The demon prayed to Lord Shiva. When he asked him for the boon, the demon asked that no god or human would be able to harm him. Shiva granted it to him. Gajmukhasar began killing people. Seeing this, Shiva sent Ganesha to control the demon, who then turned the demon into a mouse. And that's how the mouse became Ganesha’s ride.
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