OM GAM GANAPATAYE NAMAHA

Ganesha Mantra

Ganesha, the elephant headed god, is the remover of all obstacles and stands for all new beginnings. He is the God of the “Gana”, the people and one of the most popular gods in Hinduism.

Ganesha was created by his mother Parvati out of turmeric paste. One time Parvati wanted to take an undisturbed bath and told her son Ganesh, to watch the door and to not let anyone enter.

Once Parvati vanished in the bathroom her husband Shiva came back from a long journey. Shiva and Ganesh didn’t know each other at that time. Ganesha followed his mother order and didn’t let Shiva inside. But Shiva was very eager to see his wife after a very long time and became angry, that a stranger was keeping him from seeing his wife. He quickly chopped Ganesh’s head of. When Parvato came to notice, she became angry herself and explained to Shiva, that he just killed his son. Shiva regretted his action immediate and run into the forest to get the head of the next animal he would encounter. It was the head of an elephant.

Ganesh is also know as the god of wisdom and intelligence.  

Once Ganesha and his brother Kartik were challenged by their parents Parvati and Shiva, to win a fruit of supreme knowledge and mortality.  They set up a competition in which  they had to encircle the world three times. Karthik, eager to win, jumped on his vehicle the peacock and started quickly the journey. But Ganesha’s vehicle was only a small mouse.  Ganesha knew, that he would have no chance. So he just started to circle around his parents Shiva and Parvati three times with full devotion. Once he was done, his parents wanted to know, what he was doing. So Ganesha told them, that his parents , Shiva and Shakti, are the whole world for him, as within them is the whole universe.

Maybe you are wondering, why Ganesha is worshiped as the remover of obstacles. When Ganesha is pictured, he always holds some Laddus (Indian sweets) in his hand. Hi likes them very much and often can’t control to not having them. Once he was on a party eating dozens of Laddus. He was eating them so quick, that he was hardly chewing them. After the party he was riding back on his mouth through a forest. That time it happened that his mouth was falling over a snake, which was in the way. Ganesha fall of his vehicle on his belly and all the Laddus came out again. Quickly Ganesha was collecting them to eat them again. This time he used the snake- his obstacle- as a belt around him, to not lose the sweets again.