The chubby, gentle, wise, elephant-headed Ganesh, or Ganesh, is one of Hinduisms most popular deities. He is the remover of obstacles, the deity whom worshippers first acknowledge when they visit a temple. He is also patron of letters and of learning; he is the legendary scribe who, using his broken tusk, which he often holds, wrote down parts of the Mahabharata epic. Ganesh is usually depicted colored red; he is pot bellied, has one tusk broken, and has four arms that may hold a pasam, a goad, and a pot of rice or sweetmeats. The sweet meats are held in a type of bowl known as a laddus. His appetite for these sweets is legendary and offerings of them are often left at his shrine.

Statues of Ganesh can be found in most Indian towns. his image is placed where new houses are to be built; he is honored at the start of a journey or business venture, and poets traditionally invoke him at the start of a book

Ganesh become the lord (Isha) of all existing beings (Gana) after winning a contect from his brother Kartikay. When given the task to race around the universe, the Ganesh did not start the race like kartikay did, but simply walked around shiva and parvati, both his father and mother as the source of all existence. This beautiful story illustrates the spiritual insight that is so typical of Ganesh. Ganesh and kartikay, both sons of shiva and parvati, enter a contact and is thus the most befitting to temporarily replace shiva and shakti while kartikey rushes off on his peacock, Ganesh walks around his parents at lea sure, b\declaring the universe to be nothing more or less than shiva and parvati. All deities appload him and Ganesh wins.

Many stories describe how Ganesh got the elephant head. One tells how parvati created Ganesh in absence of shiva to guard her quarters. When shiva wanted to see her Ganesh forbid it, at which point Shiva cut of his head. Later Shiva restored Ganesh to life and provided home with the head of an elephant, because not other was available. In another story, Ganesh’s head is burned to ahes when Saturn is forced by parvati to look at her child and bless him.

Ganesh rides a rat that represents the subjugated demon of vanity and impertinence. The conch represents the sound that creates akash. The laddu (sweet) represents sattva. The snakes represent control over the poisons of the passions and refer to shiva, rather of Ganesh. The hatchet cuts away the bondage of desires. The mudra grants fearlessness. The broken tusk is the one with which Ganesh wrote the mahabaratha.

Perhaps the most popular story regarding Ganesh's origin is the one derived from the Shiva Purana. Mother Parvati once wanted to take a bath and created a boy from the dirt of Her own body, asking him to stand as a guard outside while She bathed. In the meantime Lord Shiva returned home to find a stranger at His door, preventing Him from entering. In anger, Shiva cut off the boy's head, upon which Parvati was stricken with great grief. In order to console Her, Shiva sent out His troops (gaNa) to fetch the head of anyone found sleeping with his head pointing to the north. They found an elephant sleeping thus and brought back its head.

Shiva then attached the elephantine head to the body of the boy and revived him. He named the boy Ganapati or commander of His troops, and granted Him a boon that anyone would have to worship Him (Ganesh) before beginning any undertaking.

The Brahma vaivarta Purana narrates a different story regarding the origin of Ganapati. Shiva instructed Parvati, who wanted to have a son, to observe the puNyaka vrata for a year to propitiate Vishnu.

O Beautiful Goddess! Perform the worship of Hari by observing the punyaka vrata for a year. The Lord of Gopikas, the Lord of all creatures, Krishna Himself will be born as your son, as a result of the vrata.

On completion of the vrata by Parvati, it was announced that Krishna would incarnate Himself as Her son in every kalpa. Accordingly, Krishna was born as a charming infant, delighting Parvati who celebrated the event with great enthusiasm.

All the Gods arrived to have a look at the baby. But Shani, the son of Surya, did not look at him and stared at the ground instead. Upon Parvati's questioning regarding his behaviour, Shani said that his look would harm the baby. Parvati, however, insisted that he should look at the baby. In deference to Her wish Shani cast his eyes on the baby. Due to his malevolent glance, the baby's head was severed and flew to Goloka, the abode of Krishna. Parvati and all the Gods assembled there, including Shiva, were grief-stricken.

Thereupon, Vishnu mounted Garuda and rushed to the banks of the Pushpa-bhadra river and brought back the head of a young elephant. The head of the elephant was joined with the headless body of Parvati's son, reviving him. All the Gods blessed Ganesh and wished Him power and prosperity. Vishnu blessed Ganesh thus:

O Excellent God! O dear one! May Your pUjA be performed before that of any other God. May You be situated in all venerable beings and may You be the best among Yogis. This is My boon to You.

Shiva made Ganesh the leader of his troops (gaNa), and also gave Him the following boon:

All obstacles, whatever they may be, will be rooted out by worshipping Ganesh, even as diseases are cured by the worship of Surya and purity results when Vishnu is worshiped.

Who is the boy who got an elephant's head? His name is Ganesh and he lived in India long, long ago. He is also called Ganapati. Actually, he still lives, because he is considered by the Hindus as one of the Immortals. His is a fanciful story, full of twists and turns and "maybe 'twas and maybe 'twasn't"; but let us follow the tale as best we can, and enjoy!

The boy was born to Parvati, also known as the Divine Mother, the wife of Shiva. She thought him a most beautiful baby (for at that time he had a normal head) and he grew to be the darling of her heart in any case, and a very wise boy. In fact, even today he is looked upon as Wisdom itself, among other things. (And you know how smart elephants are!)

One day his mother brought out her most precious necklace of sparkling jewels. She wanted to test her two sons and said she would give the necklace as prize to the one who went around the whole universe and came back first. The brother of Ganesh darted out at once to begin the long journey. But Ganesh solemnly walked in a circle around his mother. Then he asked for the necklace. "What is that?" Parvati asked, "What do you mean?

Mother," replied Ganesh, "I know that you are the Divine Mother herself, that the whole universe is contained within your body." Parvati was highly pleased at her son's spiritual insight. After many days the brother returned. Who do you think had got the necklace? Yes, Ganesh, the truly wise, and he put it around his neck.

However, all this was after he got the head of an elephant. We have to go back. It is said that when all the gods came to honor Parvati and admire her child, one of them (the one which we in the West call Saturn) refused to look at the boy. His mother was very peeved about this. Other gods chided him, but you see, he knew that one glance from his powerful eyes would burn the child's head to ashes. Still Parvati was insisting that he give the baby his admiring glance. At last, yielding to what we today might call "peer pressure," Saturn cast his eyes on the boyand sure enough, his head was immediately burnt to ashes. Of course his mother began to weep and wail (although it was mostly her fault) but the god Vishnu, who always wants to preserve things, ran quickly and found a freshly-killed baby elephant brought its head and put it on Ganesh's neck.

Growing up like this, he became "the one who removes obstacles," watches over the beginnings of things such as books, performances, building of a house, weddings etc. So in India when people begin those things, they appeal to the immortal Ganesh to give them a good start. Big as he is, he weighs very little, and this makes it possible for him to ride on a Rat. If you want to know why he rides on a rat, you must understand that his rat can get into all the small places where Ganesh cannot go; this helps him in his work of solving and removing difficulties.

Ganesh is worshiped all over Southern India. Statues and paintings show him as short, pot-bellied, with four arms and of course two tusks; but, one of the tusks is always shown broken off. The reason for this is that he was protecting the home when his father Shiva was inside. An enemy of his father's came along looking for his foe and found only Ganesh, guarding the door. Ganesh skewered the warrior and whirled him around on one his tusks! And the fellow was so humiliated and angry that he threw his hand-axe at the boy, breaking off the tusk. Along with all the other things, he stands for purity. He vowed never to marry. The great author Vyasa thought so highly of him and his power of memory ("an elephant never forgets") that he persuaded Ganesh to write down at his dictation the longest poem in the world, the epic Mahabharata