1. HOW GANESH GOT AN ELEPHANT'S HEAD:

The following story is narrated about His birth and how He came to have the head of an elephant:

Once upon a time, the Goddess Gauri (consort of Lord Shiva), while bathing, created Ganesh as a pure white being out of the mud of Her Body and placed Him at the entrance of the house. She instructed him not to allow anyone to enter while she went inside for a bath.

Lord Shiva Himself was returning home quite thirsty and was stopped by Ganesh at the gate. Shiva became angry and cut off Ganesh's head as He thought Ganesh was an outsider.

When Gauri came to know of this she was very much grieved. To console her grief, Shiva ordered His GUNAS to cut off and bring to Him the head of any creature that might be sleeping with its head facing north. The GUNAS went on their mission and found only an elephant in that position. The sacrifice was thus made and the elephant's head was brought before Shiva. The Lord then joined the elephant's head onto the body of Ganesh.

Lord Shiva made His son worthy of worship at the beginning of all undertakings, marriages, expeditions, studies, etc. He ordained that the annual worship of Ganesh should take place on the 4th day of the bright half of Bhadrapada.

2. WHY IS GANESHJI WORSHIPPED FIRST?

Ganesh and His brother Lord Subramanya once had a dispute as to who was the wise and should be worshiped first out of the two. The matter was referred to Lord Shiva for final decision.

Shiva decided that whoever would make a tour of the whole world and come back first to the starting point had the right to be the elder. Subramanya flew off at once on his vehicle, the peacock, to make a circuit of the world.

But the wise Ganesh went, in loving worship, around His divine parents and asked for that he be declared as having won the race.

Lord Shiva said, "Beloved and wise Ganesh! But how can I give you the prize; you did not go around the world?"

Ganesh replied, "No, but I have gone around my parents. My parents represent the entire manifested universe!" Thus the dispute was settled in favor of Lord Ganesh. Mother Parvati also gave Him a fruit as a prize for this victory.

Ganeshji is reputed to be highly intelligent, and this became apparent; he just went around his parents on his slow musak and declared that as they were the Supreme they were the real world. No one could dispute that; hence he was chosen to be the first to be worshipped by all the gods and men without argument.

3. CHANGING ASTRONOMY

Another legend explains Ganesha's role in changing astronomy. In the month of Shravan and Bhadrapad, after a feast of modaks Ganesha was on his way home. He is very fond of sweet pudding or balls of rice flour with a sweet core. On one of His birthdays He was going around house to house accepting the offerings of sweet puddings.

He was riding his mouse, a snake slithered into their path, and the mouse tripped and Ganesh took a tumble. His stomach split, and the modaks fell out, Chandra (the Moon) was watching and he began to laugh. Ganesh picked up the snake and used it as a belt to hold his stomach together.

Seeing all this, the moon in the sky had a hearty laugh. This unseemly behavior of the moon annoyed Him immensely and so he pulled out one of His tusks and hurled it against the moon, and cursed Chandra and banned him from the night skies.

Soon the gods and humankind were dazed with glare of the relentless Sun. There was no respite of darkness when the Moon was banished from the sky. The gods took a delegation to Ganesh and pleaded their case.

Ganesh gave in, but made an astronomic condition. The Moon would never shine like before. Full Moon would be just once a month (earlier every day was a full moon). On other days the Chandra as a reminder of his misadventure should wax or wane!

The moon hid himself behind the clouds, immediately Ganesha pronounced a curse on Him saying, "Let no one look at your face on my birthday." The symbology behind the mouse and snake and Ganesha's big belly and its relationship to the Moon on His birthday is highly philosophic. The whole cosmos is likely the belly of God. Shakti Parvati is the primordial energy.

The seven lokas above, seven lokas below and seven oceans are inside the cosmic belly of Ganesha, held together by the cosmic energy kundalini symbolized as a huge snake which Ganesha ties around Him.

4. WHY GANESH HAS ONE TUSK.

Ganesh is portrayed with only one tusk in some pictures: Ganesh had two tusks as is usual with elephants, but he had a great fight with Parshuram, when Ganesh laid claim to immortality. There are only seven who are immortal - Hanumanji, Vibhishan, Kripacharya, Parshuram, Ashwathama, Bali and Ved Vyas (Markande joined later).

These great men do not die and even when the world dissolves and a New World takes birth they will be here. They are not born again and again. Ganeshji declared that he was eligible for such a position, but Parshuram was not satisfied and wanted to test him. Parshuram is supposed to lose his temper very easily and declared he would fight Ganesh and if Ganesh won he would be immortal. There ensued a terrible battle and in the heat of the moment Parshuram broke one of Ganeshji's tusks.

Ganeshji then gave up the idea of being immortal! Therefore, he is born like us but the difference is that he is born at the beginning when the world is formed and only dies when pralay or the end of the world comes.

However, another story says that when Ganesh was writing the Mahabharata as told to him by Vyasa, his writing instrument, an iron spike, broke. But he broke off his right tusk and continued writing on the palm leaves. This act of Ganesha clearly reflects his great wisdom and resourcefulness and the idea that no sacrifice is too great for a noble cause. Because of this incident Ganesha is also known as Ekadanta or Single-tusked.

5. GANESH - THE REMOVER OF ALL OBSTACLES:

Ganesh is the remover of all obstacles, and yes, there is a story connected with this aspect of Ganesh as well. All the gods and devtas were married and those that were not were getting ready offers because of their position and good looks. No one was, however, ready to marry his daughter to Ganesh although he was the first amongst all the gods and devtas. His elephantine looks dismayed everyone and no one was ready to give his daughter to him in marriage.

So Ganeshji decided to create problems for the other gods and devtas who had the audacity to make fun of him. He asked all the rats and mice to make burrows in the path of all those getting married and make it impossible for them to tread the path. Thus creating so much confusion in life.