Ganesh Chaturthi

"Om Sri Gam Ganapathaye Namaha"
Listen to Ganesh Pooja Mantra

According to the Vaidic literature, Ganesha is the eldest son of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvathi and he is the head of Pramadhaganas, hence Ganapathi. His brother is Kumaraswamy. Hindus worship Lord Ganesha with several other names like Vinayaka, Vighneswara, Gajanana and Ganapathi.

Lord Ganapathi is said to be the form of Omkara. Om, which is written in Devanagari (script) is also considered as the pranava. In Om, the upper arc is said to be the head or the face of Gajanana. The Lower arc is his belly. The twisted arc, which is on the right side of Om is the trunk. Thus Omkara represents the complete physical form of Lord Ganesha. Similarly, yet another divine symbol, the Swastika is also worshipped as another form of Lord Ganesha. According to the Indian culture, both these symbols have divine values.

Every year, the fourth day after the no-moon day (Amaavasya) in the month of Bhadrapada is celebrated as the birthday of Lord Ganesha. This day is known as Vinayaka Chaturdhi or Vinayaka Chavithi.

On this day, Lord Ganesha was born in Hasthami Nakshatra and Kanya Raasi. The Lord of Kanaya Raasi is Budha (Mercury). Green coloured jewel or Emerald represents Mercury. Owing to this, we worship Lord Ganesha with grass, which is of green in colour.

Material required for worshipping Lord Ganesha

Turmeric powder, Saffron , Gulvaalu , Bukka , Camphor , Coconut , Incense sticks , Oil or ghee lamp , 21 grass blades (Darbha) , 21 varieties of flowers , Wood apple,Plum , Black plum , Guava , Pomegranate , Bananas, Panchaamrutam (a mixture of milk, curd, ghee, honey and sugar), Holy water collected from near by river, Turmeric , Round betel nuts (2 numbers) , Unbroken rice, Sandal powder, New piece of cloth , Yagnopaveetham (Sacred thread) , Betel leaves Dates, 21 varieties of leaves, Dakshina (offering in the form of currency or coins), Lord Ganesha’s idol or a photograph, A book or a cassette which details the mantras and process of worshipping.

Om ganaanaam tva ganapathigm havaamahe
Kavim kaveena mupamashravasthamam
Jyeshtha raajam brahmanaam brahmanaspatha
Aanashrunvannuutibhi sseedasaadanam

This vaidic hymn is chanted before starting Ganapathi pooja.
 

Omkara/ Pranava:
Omkara is a combination of the basic syllables A (as pronounced in Other),
U (as pronounced in USHA) and Ma (as pronounced in MOTHER).

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Myths  Mantras

 

Many myths and beliefs are attached to Lord Ganesha. How he came to have an elephant head is an interesting story. According to some legends, Ganesha wasn't actually born to Shiva and Parvati but was created from the saffron paste gathered from Parvati's person. Parvati wanted someone who would owe his first allegiance to Parvati and not Shiva and so she created the boy who was handsome and strong and breathed life into him. "You are my son, my very own son, I do not have anyone else to call my very own" said Parvati. Then Parvati gave the boy a staff and asked him to guard the door to her private rooms and said, "Do not to allow any one to enter without my permission."

A little later Shiva arrived and wondered who the boy could be and why was he there. As Shiva approached the door, the boy stopped him. Shiva tried to explain to the boy that he was Parvati’s husband and he had the right to enter without asking any one. The boy said without hesitation, "No one enters these halls without my mother’s permission." When Shiva ignored him, the boy hit him with his staff. Shiva was furious! He tried to fight the young boy and realized that he was no ordinary boy. Shiva asked his attendants to capture the boy but single-handedly, the boy defeated them all.

Shiva then sent a messenger around to enquire who the boy was. The boy declared, "I am the son of Parvati. I will give my life to carry out my mother’s orders. No one can enter the palace without my mother’s permission."

The messenger returned to Shiva and humbly informed him what the boy had said. Shiva’s pride was hurt. He was so angry that he sent his entire army to capture the boy. Parvati called for her other powers, Kali and Durga and asked them to stand beside her son. Shiva’s army lost the battle and His attendants ran for their lives. Shiva then called Vishnu to join him in defeating the small boy. This was not a fair fight. While the boy was engaged in fighting with Vishnu, Shiva threw his Trident and beheaded the boy. After the head rolled off, Shiva realized his mistake.

When Parvati heard of the unfair fight she decided to destroy the world. Brahma humbly approached Parvati, seeking for mercy to save the world. Parvati agreed on two conditions, "My son must regain his life and he shall be worshipped before any of the other gods." By that time Shiva had calmed down and apologized for his rash behavior. He agreed to bring the boy back to life. He asked Brahma to go North and bring the head of the first creature that crossed his path. Brahma left with his party and soon brought back the head of a strong elephant. The head was then fitted to the body of the boy and Brahma sprinkled water on it. The boy came to life with an elephant’s head on his shoulder. Parvati embraced her son with joy. She then turned to Brahma to fulfill her second condition. Indra and the other gods brought Shiva to Parvati. Shiva apologized for his arrogance and declared "Hence on, this valiant boy will be my son. He will be respected as any other God and will be worshipped before any other God. He will be called Ganesh, the chief of my Ganas or attendants, and also Vigneshwar, the remover of all obstacles."

Thus Lord Ganesha came into being and began to be worshipped by one and all.

Myths & Beliefs of Ganesh Chaturthi

Why does Lord Ganesha have a half-broken tusk?

When he came up with the idea to Mahabharatha, Sage Ved Vyasa looked around for someone who would write down the words even as he recited them. He approached Lord Ganesha and asked him if he would do so. Lord Ganesha readily agreed.

Ved Vyasa said "I will narrate the story and you must take it down as fast as I say it and should not interrupt or stop anywhere in between" and Lord Ganesha too said that "I will do so and if you halt or hesitate, I will stop writing and your epic will never be written". Ved Vyasa agreed with his final condition "So I agree but you must also agree to fully comprehend the meaning of the poems as you write and not just blindly write them as I say".

The elephant headed God gave his consent and they started writing the epic Mahabharata. To write this Lord Ganesha broke a bit off his tusk and used it as a pen.

As they continued with the writing, Ved Vyasa found that Ganesha was very fast and he didn't even have any time to breathe in air! His face slowly turned blue and he wondered how will he go on without pausing to draw his breath also. Then he came up with the solution and narrated a difficult stanza. Ganesha, who was writing at a furious pace, stopped for a second to get the meaning of the stanza and Ved Vyasa thankfully used the split second gap to gulp deep lungful of air. But Ganesha carried on immediately and they went on. And so, whenever Ved Vyasa needed a break, he would tell a difficult phrase and used the time Ganesha took to comprehend the meaning. Thus the original Mahabharata contains many difficult stanzas placed at intervals throughout the length of the epic.

Why people don't look at the Moon on that day?

There is very popular legend regarding this context. Lord Ganesha was very fond of sweet pudding or Ladoos. On one of His birthdays, He was going around house to house accepting the offerings of sweet puddings.

Having eaten a good number of these, He set out moving on his mouse at night. Suddenly the mouse stumbled as it had seen a snake and became frightened with the result of that Lord Ganesha fell down.

His stomach burst open and all the sweet puddings came out. But Lord Ganesha stuffed them back into his stomach and, caught hold of the snake and tied it around his belly.

Seeing all this, the moon in the sky had a hearty laugh. This unseemly behaviour of the moon annoyed Lord Ganesha immensely and so he pulled out one of his tusks and hurled it against the moon, and cursed that no one should look at the moon on the Ganesh Chaturthi day. If anyone does, he will surely earn bad luck.

Beliefs

Lord Ganesha  is worshipped first on all auspicious occasions, whether it is a marriage or a religious function. Lord Ganesha  is the foremost god of the Hindu Pantheon. Any new project or venture that a Hindu family undertakes starts with his name, the housewife utters his name before even starting a small chore as he is the remover of all obstacles and is an extremely benevolent god, fulfilling the wishes of those who pray to him sincerely.

Lord Ganesha  also has long been associated with commerce, and merchants still pay homage to him. In households, it's common for small offerings of money, flowers and food to be placed before one of the family's effigies of Lord Ganesha . These tokens please him and he therefore brings more beauty, money and food to the family.

It is also a firm belief of every religious Hindu that he / she must pray to Lord Ganesha before undertaking any job. Once, Lord Siva set off in his chariot to wage war against a demon. Soon after He set off, one of the wheels broke. Then He realised that He had forgotten to pray to Lord Ganesha. So, He went back home, prayed to His own son, and successfully defeated the demon!
 

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Sri Vinayaka Chathurthi special recipes
Modak

Ingredients Method
100 gms. almonds
100 gms. pistachios
200 gms. sugar
1kg. powdered sugar
1 kg. khoya
4 drops of rose essence.
 Put the khoya in a big and deep metal plate.
Add the powdered sugar and drops of essence of rose.
Mix together and knead together to make a soft dough.
Without blanching the almonds and pistachios, chop them into small bits.
Rub them and husk them.
Mix 200 gms. sugar in the chopped bits.
Lightly grease the palms, take out a small lump from the prepared dough of khoya, roll it in between the palms and shape into a ball.
Make a hollow in the middle of the ball and place about a teaspoonful of the almond-pistachios mixture.
Carefully pull up the sides and gather them at the top, giving it a conical shape.
When ready the modak should resemble a fresh fig, thus make all the modaks.
 

 Sundal

Ingredients Method
500 gms. Channa
Coconut pieces - 1 cup
Red Chile - 4
Curry Leaves - 1 bunch
Salt
Oil - for seasoning
mustard seeds - 1 tsp
asafetida - 1 pinch
 Soak Channa for 10 hours.
Cook in a cooker with salt.
Heat oil in kadai season with mustard seeds, curry leaves and red chiles.
Put in the cooked channa and mix well.
Add the chopped coconut pieces.
 

Aval Urundai (puffed rice laddus)

Ingredients Method
Aval (Puffed Rice) - 250 gms
Coconut (scraped) - 1 cup
Sugar - 100 gms
Elaichi - 1 - powdered
salt Soak puffed rice in water for 15 minutes. Squeeze out the puffed rice. Add salt, sugar, coconut and elaichi powder. Mix well.

Roll the mixture into lemon sized balls.
 

Kozhukattai

Kozhukattai, (Mothagam in Sanskrit) is the most favorite dish of Lord Ganesha. Ganesha is referred to as Mothagapriyan, denoting his liking for this sweet.

Ingredients Method

Rice Flour: 1 measure in a 200ml cup
Coconut: One coconut
Jaggery: 200 gms.
For the outer cover:

Wash and soak raw rice for an hour.
Drain the water completely and spread the rice on a cloth and allow it to dry. The rice can be allowed to dry in the shade itself.
Grind the raw rice to a smooth flour.
For 1 measure of rice flour take 2 measures of water. Boil this water in a kadai (a shallow thick bottom vessel). Add a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of seasame oil.
Allow the water to boil. When the water starts boiling add the rice flour to this, stirring continuously without allowing any lumps to form.
When the mixture has formed into a smooth thick batter, remove from the fire. The batter must be thick enough like chappathi batter.
 

Alternatively...
Soak raw rice for 2 hrs. Grind the rice into a smooth consistency, with water in a mixer grinder like a dosa batter.
Boil this batter adding a pinch of salt, stirring continously to make a smooth thick batter.

For the filling...
Grate fresh coconut.
Add a teaspoon of milk to the grated coconut and grind it in a mixer grinder lightly. (This is optional).
For one measure of grated coconut you need one measure of powdered jaggery.
Add a little water to the powdered jaggery and keep on low fire and stir for some time. When the jaggery has dissolved completely in water add grated coconut to this and keep stirring for some time. Then remove from fire and add powdered cardamoms to this.

For the making Kozhukattai cups...
Smear your hands with a little seasame oil. Smoothen the prepared rice flour batter with your hands.
Make small balls (the size of a lemon).
Make cups out of these balls which is an art! If you can't get it, forget Kozhukattai!

Fill these cups with the prepared coconut-jaggery filling.  Put these filled up cups on an idli-plate and pressure cook them

 

PARASHAKTHI (The Eternal Mother) Temple 551 W. Kennett, Pontiac, Michigan 48340 Phone - 248 - 322-4731 Maps & Directions e-mail: omshakthi@parashakthitemple.org