Unknown Stories About Ganesha

On the eve of Ganesh Chaturthi. We at Indian Novella are celebrating the birthday of Lord Ganesha whom we pray before every major event of our lives be it exams,interviews, adventures.Let’s look into  some unknown facts about Lord Ganesha.

1.Most of us pray Goddess Laksmi along with Ganesh but Lakshmi is not the wife of the Lord Ganesha.”Riddhi” ( wealth and prosperity ) and “Siddhi” ( intellectual and spiritual power ) are the two wedded wives of Lord Ganesha.There is a popular story that since Ganesha was the elephant-headed no  one wants to marry him so he started making troubles in the marriages of the other demi gods with his mount, Mice.Then Brahma created Riddhi and Siddhi on the plea of other demi gods.

2.Ganesh has two sons named “Subha ”( auspiciousness ) and  “Labha” (profit).We usually paste stickers named Subha and Labha on the eve of Diwali are actually the names of the sons of the lord Ganesha.

3.Ganesha is also called “EkDanta” because his lost his one tooth while fighting with ParshuRam, the  devotee of Lord Shiva.When ParshuRam strikes with the axe provided by lord shiva then to show respect towards his father and the weapon he took the blow of the weapon on his tooth and thus lost his tooth and became”EkDanta”.

4. Lord Ganesha was the one who wrote the great epic Mahabharata as sage Vyasa recited it to him. This was done on the condition that Vyasa would not stop while reciting the epic and Ganesha would not stop while writing, and also that Ganesha would not merely write it but would also understand every verse of it.

5.Ganesha used his broken tooth to write down the Epic ,Mahabharata

6.The axe we see that Ganesha holds in his hand was actually provided to him by ParshuRam when he fought with Ganesha and broke his tooth.So in order to repent as Ganesha was merely following the instruction of lord Ganesha to not allow anybody to disturb lord shiva during meditation.

7. In the rare incidents when we hear of Lord Ganesha being angry, he once cursed the moon as he laughed at his fat belly. Lord Ganesha cursed him saying whoever looks at the moon on Ganesh Chaturthi would be falsely blamed. This is still believed in most sections of the Hindu faith, as people avoid looking at the moon on Ganesh Chaturthi.

8. Lord Ganesha has around 108 names, including Vighna Harta (the remover of obstacles) and Buddhi Pradaayaka (the giver of wisdom and intellect).

9.In 1893, revolutionary freedom fighter Lokmanya Tilak urged the masses to come together to celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi.His main motive was to inculcate the feeling of patriotism among people at a time when British discouraged social gatherings.

How Father Beheaded His Son?

Let’s Welcome the Lord Ganesha  in this blog post. Ganesha might be the only god from the tier II level to be worshipped as prominently as the Trinity or the incarnations of the Trinity. Here Tier II gods mean  basically the sons and daughters of the Trinity or other gods which are just a level below the Trinity and in no way it was a mean to disrespect to sentiments of the people or his devotees. Not only that Ganesha must be worshipped before any god is worshipped and must be invoked during any Puja and Yajna for  its completeness.

Lord Ganesha was blessed by the Trinity for all these things.To understand the story lets look a little back to understand the story of the birth of the Ganesha.

Once Lord Parvati was  going to meet  Lord Shiva while he was meditating .The Nandi , the mount of lord Shiva obstructed the path of Parvati and make her aware of the fact that Shiva had instructed him not to allow anybody to meet him while he was meditating.Parvati has no choice but to return .

Once Parvati was taking a bath and need someone to guard the door while she was inside. She thought of calling Nandi or other Ganas of Lod Shiva but the friendParvatirvati reminded her that these people wouldn’t go beyond the command of Lord Shiva  and are not dutiful to Parvati instead only obey Shiva.If Shiva commands  them to move aside they would not have any choice but leave the path unprotected.So they need someone who only listens to Parvati and do as per the command of Parvati.Then Parvati created a human menaquinone from the dirt of her body  and then induced life form in it and named it “Vinayak”.She commanded him not to allow anybody to enter the premises  while she is inside and provided Ganesha with divine power and weapons.

Then After some time Lord shiva arrived there and wanted to meet Parvati and  Ganesha(Vinayaka) was standing firmly outside the gate of the premises and was not allowing Shiva to enter the premises.Shiva  got infuriated and had to return and in the meanwhile asked his followers to remove the Ganesha from the door and after that the would arrive.All the Ganas of the Shiva including Nandi   fought with Ganesha but cannot  stand a ground against the divine power provided by Parvati to Ganesha. Now Devas like Indra,Agni etc fought with Ganesha but  all were defeated and finally  Mahadeva himself had to arrive at the battle scene and he  cut the head of the Ganesha with his ultimate weapon Trishul. The cry from the Ganesha while his head being severed from Shiva’s Trishul forced Parvati to come outside.Seeing  the headless body of Ganesha  provoked her to  take the form of Kali ,”The Goddess of Destruction” and started began destroying the universe. Everyone pleaded before her to stop the destruction.She told them she would not stop until her son is not alive.Everyone started thinking of possible solution then Sri Hari suggested the Ganas and the other gods to move into the North direction and bring the head of the first living being in the sleeping state.Then Ganas went into that direction and brought the head of the elephant which was later fixed by the Brahma on the body of Ganesha and brought to live.

Parvati also asked for the boon to Ganesha that he would be first to be worshipped among the gods which was granted by none other than lord shiva who provided him with weapons and bestowed the privilege to worshipped first even before himself and pronounced Ganesha to be the leader of his Ganas .Thus Ganesh became “Ganapati” and every other god also bestowed some power to the Ganesha  who ultimately become the god of well-being and Growth of Humanity.

And since Ganesha was born on the Fourth day of Shukla Paksha that’s why Ganesh birthday is celebrated as Ganesh Chaturthi.Later  Ganesha wedded two wives namely “Ridhi” and “Sidhi”.Now more on Ganesha  on some later post and let’s celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi on this auspicious day.

“Ganpati  Bappa Morya”

How Yadav’s Clan Vanished?

It is said that Lord Krishna had a desire for an extraordinary son, just like Lord Shiva. To appease Lord Shiva, Krishna meditated for years. When Shiva was pleased, Krishna sought to be blessed with a son like Shiva himself. Krishna wanted a son who had the destructive powers of Shiva as he could foresee the decline of the Yadava’s who would be needed to be eliminated in future. Soon Jambavati gave birth to a son, who was named Samba, after the name of Shiva. 

Once, three great sages came to Lord Krishna’s palace in Dwaraka. Krishna was resting. When he was informed of their arrival, he said, “Please tell them that I shall be there in a short while. In the meantime, let them be welcomed with proper respect and devotion.” Unfortunately, over the years, Krishna’s relatives and others who were close to him had become very undivine. Because they were dear to Krishna, they used to get everything. As a result, they became corrupted by the pleasure life. They used to drink and quarrel and do all kinds of unthinkable things. A few members of Krishna’s immediate family did not have any respect for the sages and saints who came to pay homage to Krishna. These relatives felt that as long as they had Krishna, it was enough. To them, all other spiritual people were as worthless as straw. Krishna’s son, Samba, was famous for his pranks. Even though he was no longer a child, he and some other young men decided to play a practical joke on the sages. Samba’s friends tied an earthen pot on his stomach and dressed him in a nice sari. Then they brought him before the sages. The young men said to the sages, “This woman is with child. Please, before Krishna comes, can you tell us whether she will give birth to a boy or a girl?”  Since the sages had occult vision, they immediately saw that the young men were mocking them. They became furious. “You are Krishna’s relatives! You, Samba, is his own son! You dare to make fun of us! Yes, this ‘woman’ will give birth, but she will give birth to an iron lump. It will bring about the destruction of Krishna’s entire clan. You have no respect for spiritual people. We are great sages and you have mocked us.” 

At that moment, Krishna entered the hall. He was so sad to hear the curse of the sages. At the same time, he knew that his relatives deserved it. The sages also felt sorry that they had uttered such a dreadful curse, but they could not withdraw it. In spite of this unfortunate turn of events, Krishna stayed and had a long talk with the sages, and they received Krishna’s blessings. Krishna was beyond, beyond everything. He advised them and illumined them, and then the sages departed. In due course, the curse came true and Krishna’s son gave birth to a heavy iron chunk. Samba and his cousins realised that their destruction was imminent. Akroora immediately ordered, “Grind the mace to a fine powder and cast it into the seas.” The Yadavas nodded and retreated. Akroora cast his gaze at Krishna, his eyes full of questions. Krishna simply smiled back. “The wheels of time are turning Uncle”, he said, “and Samba has played his part perfectly.” He left without another word.“What did he mean by that?” asked Ugrasena. “I can tell you that, father.” Ugrasena turned around to the source of voice – Rukmini. “Thirty-six year ago, Krishna prayed to Shiva for a son like him…A son like the god of destruction! Krishna wanted Samba to aid in destruction…” And even more slowly, her voice down several levels, she uttered, “Gandhari’s curse. The time for her curse to act has arrived. A reward for her devotion in him.” Leaving Akroora agape, Rukmini left.

Outside the palace, the Yadavas had obeyed Akroora’s command to the dot. They had ground the mace finely. Everything was ground except a sharp triangular piece which appeared to be very hard indeed. And then they had thrown the fine powder and the lone piece into the sea. Happy that they had taken care of the matter so easily, they returned back to their general state of intoxication and bliss. Time rolled by. The triangular piece of the mace was swallowed by a fish. The fish was caught by a hunter, who upon finding the piece in the fish’s entrails immediately used it to craft a fine poisonous arrow. The fine powder, on the other hand, washed back ashore and deposited itself by the beautiful coast of Dwaraka. A certain grass grew in lush abundance in the area where the powder was deposited. Everything was set for the final showdown.The Yadavas soon forgot all about their curses. The consumption of alcohol was banned in the entire kingdom of Dwaraka. However, after 36 years of Mahabharat war, lots of omen used to appear in the Dwaraka city. The Sudarshana chakra, Panchajanya shankh, the chariot of lord Krishna and the plough weapon of Balarama disappeared from the earth. One day, the Yadavas gathered on the beach. 

The liquor that they drank made them lose their senses completely.They started teasing one another, bringing up the gory pasts and gruesome mistakes of each other. Satyaki and Krithavarma acted as the starting points of the doom of Dwaraka. Satyaki had fought on Pandava’s side in the battle of Kurukshetra and Krithavarma, on the Kaurava side. They taunted one another, bringing back memories of the horrific war. In a fit of rage, Satyaki, jumped on Krithaverma and cut his head off. The friends of Krithavarma pounced on Satyaki and a great brawl followed. As the Yadavas had come to the sea shore for a pleasure, they did not carry any weapons along with them. They saw the long grown grass in abundance along the sea shore. They picked up the grass stems and beat and killed each other. Those grass stems are nothing but blades made of the powder of the same lump of Iron born to Samba. Thus the curse of saints fructified.Each blade of grass became a mace, smashing into the Yadavas, killing them instantly. It was a matter of moments before the Yadavas lay dead, killed by their own clan members and in front of their very King. Except Krishna, all Yadavas were killed.

While the Krishna himself was killed Jara,the hunter who had received that triangular piece of metal from the fish belly and craved it into arrow.That arrow was finally shot by Jara On Krishna who assumed Krishna as some animal while he was meditating under the tree.

[Source: Speakingtree ]

Unknown Facts of Krishna

 1.Krishna had 16008 wives  of which  only eight were his princely wives known as ‘AsthaPatrani’.Bhargava Purana lists them as  – 

1. Rukmini,
2.  Satyabhama, 
3. Jambavati,
4.  Kalindi, 
5. Mitravinda, 
6. Nagnajiti,
7. Bhadra and 
8. Lakshmana

2.Krishna had eighty sons since each Patrani gave him 10 sons.Some of the Prominent sons of the Krishna were  Pradyumna, Samba , Charu Deshna Sudeshna and  Charudeha.

3.There is a quite popular story about Samba ,son of Krishna.Krishna always wanted a son like Shiva, the god of Destruction.So he penanced for Lord Shiva and got a boon from Shiva to have a son similar to Shiva.Later Jambavati gave birth to a son and was named Samba, another name of Lord Shiva.Samba later became the anchor who brought destruction to Yadav clan.

4.Eklavya was actually the Krishna Cousin.He was the son of DevSharava who got lost in the forest.Nishad HiranayaDhanau found him.Eklavya died protecting his father in Rukmini Swayamvar when Krishna was eloping with Rukmini.He was killed by Krishna and  for his great Sacrifice and he was blessed that he would be born as DhrishtDhumn and would kill Drona.

5.The narration of Bhagwad Gita was heard firsthand not only by Arjuna but Hanuman and Sanjaya who was blessed with divine power by Ved Vyasa in order to narrate the events of battle to king DhritRashtra.

6.Pradumnya ,son of Krishna was Kamadeva in the earlier life who was turned to ashes by Lord Shiva.

7.Pandavas was related to Krishna from his mother side as Kunti was the sister of VashuDeva , father of Lord Krishna.

8.Once Dhurvasa was eating Kheer(pudding) and eventually he asked Krishna to apply that kheer on his whole body.Krishna obliged and applied kheer to his whole body except his feet thinking of Kheer to be consecrated.Durvasa angered and told him that his whole body would be impenetrable except his feet and we all know whole the Jara killed Krishna by shooting an arrow on his feet by mistake.

9.Jara , the hunter who killed Krishna was actually Bali who killed by Rama,the avatar of Vishnu .

10.The Six brothers of the Krishna who were killed by Kansa were 1.Smara 2.Udighta 3.ParishVanga 4.Patanga 5.KshudraBhit 6.Ghrini. The Seventh was BalaRama while eighth was Krishna himself. 

Dashavatar of lord Vishnu

In this post simplicity is the theme .This blog post will contain the all the ten incarnations of lord Vishnu  and which yuga they appeared or will appear in.

1.MATSYA  –(SATYA YUGA)

It is believed that Lord in Matsya Avatar had rescued the  first man,Manu from a great deluge.

2.KURMA  –(SATYA YUGA)

Lord Vishnu took the Kurma Avatar to hold the Mount Mandara while churning of the ocean of Milk from which the nectar of immortality aroused.

3.VARAHA –(Satya Yuga)

In this Avatar lord saved the Mother Earth from the demon Hiranyaksha who had imprisoned mother Earth in the vast ocean.

4.NARASIMHA  –(Satya Yuga)

The famous incarnation of half lion-half man to rescue his disciple ‘Prahlad’ from the hands of his torturous father Hiranyakashipu who was indeed brother of Hiranyaksha who was slain by lord Vishnu in the Varaha Avatar.

5.VAMANA –(Treta Yuga)

The Lord measured the whole universe in two step while he was awarded Land worth three steps by the king Mahabali.Then to fulfill his promise of three step land Mahabali offered his head as a destination for the third step.We will talk about this story in another post.Till then let’s wait.

6.PARSHURAM  –(Treta Yuga).

We have talked about this in the great detail in our blog post ‘ Ram to ParshuRam’.please have a look on it.

7.RAMA  –(Treta Yuga)

Who doesn’t know the story of lord Rama inscribed in an Indian epic ‘Ramayana’ who had killed the much-feared demon named ‘Ravana’.

8.KRISHNA   –(Dwapara Yuga)

Krishna the master strategist who anchored the whole Mahabharata and who can forget all the plays performed by Krishna in his childhood and also slained the demon Kansa and freed his mother and father from his clutch.

9.BUDDHA  –(Dwapara Yuga)

Buddha is described as the ninth avatar of lord Vishnu and all Puranas and Vedas had referenced Buddha as the ninth avatar of Lord Vishnu.

10.KALKI –(KALI YUGA)

Kalki is the last avatar the lord will take during kali Yuga to bring justice to the world and kill all the evils and negatives.Kalki is assumed that he   will be atop a white horse with a drawn blazing sword. He is the harbinger of the end time in Hindu eschatology, after which he will usher in Satya Yuga.

Son of HariHara (Vishnu-Shiva)

Most of the readers might be bewildered after reading the title of the post which seems pretty confusing .How can Lord Shiva and Vishnu have a child as both of the deities are male. Now let me tell you a story about the birth of the son of lord Vishnu and shiva.

Ashuras (demons) and devas (gods) were the sons of sage kashyapa which fathered them with his wives Diti and Aditi respectively.Till that time Gods doesn’t have the power of immortality and were same as mere mortals.Devas fought with the gods and drove them out of their palaces in heaven.Then Devas approached Lord Vishnu to solve this problem and he suggested them to engage with devas in a diplomatic fashion.Devas engaged with Ashuras and decided to churn the nectar of immortality from the Sir-Sagar( Ocean of Milk) and distribute it among themselves and leave peacefully as they have an assurance from Lord Vishnu that only Devas would get the nectar of immortality .

Afer heavy penance from both sides; as the nectar of immortality emerged Lord Visnu took the form of Mohini and seduced all the Ashuras such that their mind went into abeyance and they couldn’t notice that Mohini was not feeding the nectar of immortality while the doing the opposite for the gods.

Lord Shiva when heard of these events, he also wanted to know what was the look of Mohini that made the minds of Ashuras go into Abeyance.He, Lord Shiva then requested the Lord Vishnu to show him the Mohini Avatar.The Lord Vishnu obliged him and showed him his immensely beautiful Avatar of Mohini.

Lord Shiva became so enchanted with the beauty of Mohini that he fused along with the Mohini (avatar of Lord Vishnu ) to form the HariHara (Hari-Vishnu  and Hara-Shiva) and from this union came the “AYYAPPA”, the son of Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu.

There is also another story revolving around the birth of Lord Ayyappa.Mahisi was one of wildest demons and had dethroned Indra from his heavenly kingdom as he was blessed by the Lord Brahma that only the son of Vishnu and Shiva could Kill Mahisi.Then gods approached Vishnu and Shiva and the both gods fused together to give  world, the Lord Ayyppa which later killed the demon Mahisi on his way to the forest to bring the milk of lactating tigress.We will look onto this story on some another post.

Arjuna and Hanuman Encounter

Arjuna ,as instructed by  Lord Krishna went to every place to search for the divine weapons that could be used in the upcoming war and helped them to won war against Evil. Arjuna after gaining the Pashupatastra became boastful of his skills and possession of celestial weapons  went towards Rameswaram and met the lord Hanuman in disguise.

He said to Hanuman that Lord Rama didn’t have to wait for that many days for the completion of the bridge if he would have been there.He would have done that with one arrow “.Hanuman replied  that “Leave alone the Vanara Army your bridge of arrows wouldn’t have enough strength to carry the weight of mine”.This irritated Arjuna and he betted that he would build a bridge of arrows and if it crumbles under the feet of Hanuman he would jump into the fire and if it withstand the weight of Hanuman, he must adorn the banner of Arjuna.

Then Arjuna chanted some hymns and unleashed his arrow which created a bridge of arrows and when Hanuman just stepped onto the bridge it crumbles under the weight of Hanumana.Arjuna now had to fulfill his promise and prayed Lord Krishna before he jumped into the bridge and then Lord Krishna appeared.

 Lord Krishna asked Hanuman to give Arjuna one more chance.Now this time 

 after Arjuna unleashed his arrow and built a bridge of arrows ,Krishna touched

 the bridge with his toes before Hanuman could step over the bridge.The bridge

 blessed by the divinity of Lord Krishna  was capable enough to withheld even

 when Hanuman jumped and dance on the bridge.Then Hanuman realised

 that Lord Krishna was an incarnation of Lord Rama and he bowed before him 

and agreed to adorn the banner of Arjuna to help them win the win over evil.

The Unknown Story of Dattatreya

Now, it’s time for the three-faced god,  Dattatreya and the story of his birth which is quite unique in its own ways.Have we heard of the supreme goddess being jealous of  a mere mortal human being. But Anasuya was one of the names which created jealousy among the supreme goddesses .Anasuya, the mother of Dattatreya was a highly virtuous woman and had full devotion to his husband ,Atri father of Dattatreya.

Once when Narada was singing praises about the mother Anasuya , the three supreme goddesses ,Saraswati and Lakshmi and Parvati heard the wordings and asked Narada why is he singing such praises about a human.Narada answered that “Mother Anasuya is free from all vices of the world.She is free from jealousy and envy. She is very pious, and always practiced austerities and devotion”.This created jealousy among the supreme goddesses.

Then three goddesses approached their husbands and asked them to test the divinity of the Anasuya.They initially disagreed but after continuous persuasion from their wives they agreed.They transformed themselves into sages(rishis) and then went to Anasuya hermitage and asked her to feed them.Mother welcomed them inside, offer them to sit and serve food.Then the real drama began, the three sages put a condition that they would eat only if Anasuya serves them naked without any piece of cloth or jewellery on her body.

Anasuya was in a dilemma as she couldn’t let the sages leave the place without feeding and didn’t want to remove her clothes.She prayed to her husband and then sprinkled holy water to all three sages and converted all of them into infants.Then she removed her clothes and fed them food, played with them and made them sleep .She was totally taking care of them as her own child.The  world started going out of balance as three gods Brahma,Vishnu and Shiva were infants and playing with Anasuya instead of caring out their responsibilities.Now the everyone was begging before three goddesses to go before Anasuya and plead to her to reconvert the Trinity into their original forms.

Then Three goddesses went before Anasuya and asked for forgiveness for their ego and pleaded her to reconvert the Trinity into their original forms.Mother obliged them and reconverted the gods into their original forms.The gods were very impressed by the mother and wanted to give her a boon. The Mother told them as they called her “Mother” ; she  wanted to be their mother forever.Gods obliged her and told her that they would always be his son in the form of  “Dattatreya”.Then the god Dattatreya was born to mother Anasuya and god left the place to carry out their responsibility.

Why Krishna killed his own Nephew?

Krishna , the enchanter had killed his own nephew; if I would say this to anyone none is going to believe me.Do you remember the story of Jaya and Vijaya that I talked in the post titled “ Truth About Ravana and KumbhaKaran”. One of their Incarnation was Shisupal and DantVakra. Shisuapal  and DantVakra were nephews of Krishna born to the sister of his father, Vasudeva.Shisupal was born with four limbs and three eyes.His father and mother wanted to kill this child then suddenly a celestial voice proclaimed that  this son of yours would be very powerful  and strong and the man, on whose lap when placed, and the child would lose his superfluous members, would be the one who would ultimately slay him.

Shisuapal  father called many kings and priests and placed his son in their lap but nothing happened. One day Krishna and BalaRama visited his aunt place and when Shisuapal was placed in the lap of Krishna ,his superfluous  limbs disappeared and he also lost his third eye.The mother rejoiced but then he remembered the wordings of the celestial voice and began weeping before Krishna and told him the whole story.Krishna could see the weeping mother promised him  that he would let go the 100 mistakes of Shisuapal and thereafter destiny would take its due course.

Shisuapal later became the king of chedi and was to be married to Rukmini, the sister of his best friend Rukmi.But Rukmini loved Krishna and when Krishna eloped with Rukmini , Shisuapal was infuriated  and his hatred grew manifold for Krishna.One day when Yudhishtira organized Rajasoovya Yajna ;  he invited many kings including Shisuapal The Rajsooya Yajna was nearing its completion. The last part  was to confer honors upon the kings who had participated in the Yajna.

Before starting the last part, it was customary to worship the best person in the gathering according to the religious scriptures. Yudhisthir consulted  all the participants present there. Sahadeva, ruler of Magadha, proposed the name of Krishna , as he was personally obliged to Krishna for his coronation. Most of the kings and the Brahmans seconded the proposal though a number of kings opposed it . The opposition consisted of the supporters of Shishupal, who had an old grudge against Krishna because of Rukmini.

Shishupala opposed the worship of Krishna as the best participant using objectionable and disgraceful words for him. He suggested that either Bhishma or Drona should be the candidates for worship.  But these two worthy stalwarts had already supported Krishna’s candidature.

Shishupala cried, “Have all the kings in this hall lost their senses?  Why have everyone accepted a cowboy to be the guardian deity when there are many great warriors in this hall?  Why should noble Kshatriyas like us devote our prayers to a cowherd who has no noble family, is dark skinned and is a virtueless person.he who has an illegitimate relationship with Draupadi.Krishna pretends to be the friend of Draupadi but has ill will towards her.”

These wordings from the mouth of Shisupala infuriated Krishna and Shisuapal while using these derogatory remarks forget the count of his mistakes the Krishna promised to let go.He crossed the number 100 and Krishna immediately called his Sudarshana and directed towards Shisuapal and in a flash the Shisuapal was severed and his body was lying on the floor. 

Thus Lord Krishna gave the moksha  to Jaya as Shisuapal from  this worldly cycle of birth and death.