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Welcome back to my website! I hope you all enjoyed the last stories about Sharabha and Narasimha. However, I am a little hesitant to tell this week's story. You will understand after you are done reading, but I hope you all realize how embarrassing and scary it was for me in the moment! Nonetheless, let me introduce to you my most famous family animal member: Ganesha!
The story begins with my wife, Parvati. You will meet her next week when she narrates her story. Every night on Mount Kailash, my heavenly abode, Parvati would prepare for bed by taking a bath. This normally was a time for her to relax and get ready for her next day. This also meant she wanted her privacy so my beloved vahana (basically my pet and vehicle), Nandi the bull, would dutifully guard the bathroom door as she bathed.
Now one night I had what you would call an emergency. With the river Ganges flowing down my head you can understand that I am more than well hydrated and sure enough I had found myself in urgent need of the restroom. Yet, there was Parvati in the bathroom taking her nightly bath before bed with my Nandi standing in the way.
While Nandi was technically the family pet, in reality he was more like a child, so I tried my best to make him move. "Nandi, you must step aside and let me enter. It is an emergency."
Nandi responded, " I am sorry, my Lord Shiva, but I made a promise to Mother Parvati to make sure no entered."
"Never mind her orders. You must listen to me. I am the master of the household. Move aside at once or you will be punished," I answered back.
Slowly but reluctantly, Nandi moved away from the door and I immediately ran inside to tend to my need. However, as you can imagine, my wife was not happy. She screamed not only at me but also Nandi for insulting her by gazing while she bathed privately. Alas, she could not blame Nandi as she knew the bull ultimately answered to me. Thus, Parvati set out to find her loyal child.
With the divine soil from the feet of Mount Kailash, she began to shape herself a young boy and soon breathe life into the new being, whom she called Ganesha. Sure enough, Ganesha guarded the bathroom door so that no one would disturb her bath. I get it may seem a bit drastic to have a son just to have privacy, but Parvati is my wife and I have already wronged her, so I won't spend time arguing. However, what Parvati failed to do was even tell me that we had a new child!
That night I returned to Mount Kailash after a day of overseeing the realm, and sure enough, there a was a young boy standing before the bath door. Now you can imagine how surprising it was to see a stranger within my home, so I demanded the boy step aside at once. Ganesha, though, quietly shook his head. As the mighty Shiva, I wasn't used to this disobedience and again demanded the boy move aside. Again, Ganesha refused. This left me with no choice. How could I let someone challenge me within my home? At once, I called forth Nandi to take the boy away from the door. I could hear the water moving within the bathroom, but I dared not to disturb Parvati just to find out the origin of the boy.
Nandi soon appeared before me and charged Ganesha. Yet, with almost no trouble at all, the boy threw Nandi to the ground and subdued the mighty bull. A small boy defeating my powerful bull? Ganesha was certainly no simple child, so I took matters into my own hands. I transformed into my mightiest form, the great Sharabha, and charged towards Ganesha. We battled tooth and nail as I quickly began to see why he overcame my Nandi. Nevertheless, Ganesha was still a little boy and I was the powerful lion-bird Sharabha. With one quick swipe of my claw, I severed Ganesha's head.
Okay, I know you may be thinking that was a bit drastic to do, but I had to do what was needed to protect my home. However as the boy's body lay lifeless on my floor, Parvati stepped out from her bathroom, shaking at the horror. She soon turned to me and unleashed a wave of anger I had never seen before. I quickly realized the significance of my actions as she explained to me her creation of Ganesha. Yet, there was nothing I could say to appease her. Parvati began to destroy everything in sight, from the mountains to the rivers to the fertile soil of India. Ganesha was her son, and a mother's anger was endless.
I could see no solution in sight, so I pleaded with my fellow gods to help before Parvati destroyed all of creation. Seeing the severity of the issue, Brahma stepped forward, as the Creator, and proposed to Parvati that he would return Ganesha if she stopped her destruction. Parvati agreed and Brahma returned with the head of an elephant, the first creature he came across in his process of reviving of Ganesha. Brahma with his powers placed the elephant head on Ganesha and breathed new life into Parvati's child. Sure enough, Parvati at once stopped her ravaging as she embraced her son once more. After apologizing profusely, I also embraced Ganesha, who would now be worshipped as a god, the one who removed all obstacles, even if that obstacle was me.
As you can see this story was not one of my finer moments, but we had a happy ending regardless. Come back next week when my wife Parvati retells one of her most famous animal stories, Bhramari.
Author's Note:
Similar to my last story, I wanted to create a personal and lightweight interaction between the reader and Shiva, the narrator. That is why there are many moments where I have Shiva talking directly to the reader as well relating and having humorous takes. In regard to the story, there was not too much that changed from the plot of Ganesha's origin. The story I used was taken from the Shiva Purana, but there are other Ganesha origin stories. One other Ganesha origin story for example tells how Parvati threw her used bathwater into the Ganges and this water was drunk by the elephant-headed Goddess Malini. Malini then gave birth to a boy with five elephant heads and four arms. Shiva claimed the boy as Parvati's son, cutting off four of the elephant heads and naming Ganesha a god. There were some changes such as the inclusion of Sharabha. I thought it was the perfect moment to bring in Sharabha considering the beast was the focus of the previous week's story, and it would be neat to see the two stories interact. Additionally another change was having Nandi charge Ganesha first before Shiva. There were some editions of the origin story that did not include Nandi, but I felt it was necessary to really show the power of Ganesha.
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