The Death and Rebirth of Ganesha
The Death and Rebirth of Ganesha
Parvati created a boy from the dirt of her body. He was handsome in every way and full of strength and valor. When he was created, she said to him, “You are my son.”
“Mother,” said the boy. “What is your order? Command me.”
“Be my gatekeeper,” Parvati told him. “Don’t let anyone inside my rooms without my permission.” She also gave him a club to help him with his duty. Then, kissing him and embracing him, she left him at the door and went inside to take a bath.
Soon Shiva arrived and tried to go inside to his wife, but he found his way blocked by a boy. “You can’t go in without my mother’s permission,” the boy declared. “My mother is taking a bath.”
“Who is your mother?”
“Parvati.”
“Foolish boy. Parvati is my wife and she has no son. Who are you?”
“I’m her son, and I have been commanded by my mother to not let anyone inside.”
“You can’t stop me from going inside. “Don’t you know who I am? I’m Shiva,” he said and tried to push the boy aside, but the boy took up his club and struck Shiva.
Shiva was infuriated. “You obviously have no idea who I am. I’m Parvati’s husband. Now stand aside and let me go to my wife.” But when he tried once again to enter forcibly, the boy beat him with the club again. Fuming with anger, Shiva called his attendant Ganas and told them to deal with the boy at the door. Approached the son of Parvati, the Ganas mocked him and jeered at him. “We are Shiva’s Ganas,” they said proudly. “Who are you, you oversized boy?” “I am my mother’s Gana,” the boy replied, “And I’m guarding her door.” Then they fought with him, but he beat up all of them. Broken-boned and in pain, they returned to Shiva. “He’s too strong,” they said. “We can’t subdue him.”
“You are a useless bunch,” Shiva derided his Ganas. “What good are you if you can’t even defeat a little boy.” Then Shiva decided to go to Brahma and let him figure out a solution. “There’s a boy at the door to my wife’s rooms,” he complained to Brahma. “He won’t let me enter my own house. He’s also brought down all my Ganas. He needs to be brought under control and only you can do it.”
“I’ve tried already,” Brahma replied. “Every being in that vicinity had been complaining about the boy, so I went to check. When I approached him to ask him who he was, he plucked my beard and then took up his club. I’m a brahmin. I can’t fight with him, so I came away, but even as I was leaving, he seized his club and destroyed my attendants. I had to run away to save my own life.”
“This is ridiculous,” Shiva declared. “We can’t manage a pesky little boy.” Then thinking that perhaps the other gods will know to how to deal with this, he went to Indra and Vishnu and apprised them of the situation. “He has to be destroyed,” he said and they agreed. “Such opposition is dangerous for our existence.” Then they called all the gods, and, with joined forces, the gods advanced towards Mount Kailash, certain that the battle would be swift and painless.
When Parvati heard that the entire army of gods was headed towards her son, she became furious and called her two Shaktis, Kali and Durga, to assist her son. Kali assumed a terrible form, opening her mouth wide like a cavern inside a mountain, and Durga became lightening, and with their many arms, they began to fight the armies of the gods, alongside the boy, who repelled every weapon with his club. In no time all, the gods lay helplessly on the ground, groaning in pain. Then Vishnu faced the boy, and the two Shaktis entered the boy’s body, so that they could fight Narayana as one. Soon Vishnu, too, was defeated.
Finally, Shiva took up his trident and hurled it at his young foe. Infused with the Shaktis, the boy thought of his mother’s lotus feet, and bowing before her in his mind, struck the hand that was holding the trident, and the weapon flew out of Shiva’s hand. In the meantime, Vishnu once again engaged the enemy in combat, and, this time, when the boy threw his club at Vishnu, Garuda, Vishnu’s loyal attendant, caught the club in his massive beak and shattered it. This was the opportunity Shiva was seeking. He grabbed his trident again and cut off the head of Parvati’s son. And the boy fell to the ground like a great mountain.
On hearing that her son had been killed, Parvati first fell down lamenting, but then she thought of how all the gods and the hosts of her husband’s Ganas had banded together to fight with her son, who was just a boy, and her lamentation turned to fury. “I’ll destroy them all,” she roared, getting up, her eyes flashing with rage. In a moment, she created hundreds and thousands of Shaktis and commanded them to create a great fire, and that flaming deluge swept through the celestial forces, burning everything in its path.
“Is this dissolution?” the gods yelled in panic. “Is this the end of time?” They all fled to Brahma. “How can this deluge of fire be stopped?”
“This is the fury of the goddess,” Brahma said. “Only when she is appeased will this cease. Let me go to her in peace and beg her to show us a way.” Brahma then came to Parvati and with great humility, propitiated her. “You are mother. You are the primordial Shakti. You are the cause of creation and of dissolution. Be at peace Great Mother. Let your fury subside.” Then, all the sages who had also accompanied Brahma, bowed at her lotus feet and begged forgiveness. “What can we do to appease your anger?”
“Restore my son’s life,” she thundered. “Only then will I be appeased.”
When the sages reported this to Shiva, he was penitent, but he could see no way to revive the boy. This may by the end, he thought. The Goddess will not be appeased and her wrath will destroy everything. But then a thought came to his mind—a means to save the boy. It would birth a new god, but, perhaps, that would be most beneficial for the three worlds. “Go towards the north,” he told the gods. “And the first being you see, cut off his head and bring it me. I’ll place it on the boy’s body and restore his life.”
They laid out the boy’s headless body on the ground and washed it in ritual waters. Then they went north. The first being they met was an elephant with a single tusk. Killing him, they brought his head back and gave it to Shiva, who fitted it above the boy’s shoulders. All the sages then recited Vedic mantras and anointed his body with holy water, while Shiva meditated and restored the boy’s consciousness. He woke up, as though from a long, refreshing sleep. Ruddy and handsome, with an elephant’s head, he looked at everyone with peace.
A wave of jubilation spread though the gathering. Parvati, too, was delighted to see her son brought back to life. She took him in her arms, and sitting down with him in her lap, smeared his forehead with auspicious vermilion. “Be blessed,” she said. “And be a blessing to everyone. You will be worshipped before all the other gods and will remove everyone’s distress.” Shiva placed his hand on the boy’s head and said, “You are my son. From today, you will be the leader of my Gana and everyone will call you Ganesha.”
From Meena Nayak’s Blue Lotus: Myths and Folktales of India. (Original source: Shiva Purana)
