Spiritual Import of Religious Festivals :Ch-7. Part -6

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Chapter 7: Lord Ganesa – The Remover of Obstacles.

Part-6.

Such a Master's son is Sri Ganapati, Sri Ganesa.

We have endless stories about our Gods, all partly humorous and partly highly illuminating.

The usual belief is that Lord Ganapati is a celibate and He never married, though there is a belief in North India that He has Siddhi and Buddhi, two consorts, behind Him.


There is a humorous story about His marriage.

He was about to be married and the bridegroom's procession was moving with great gusto from Mount Kailasa, evidently, to the bride's palace.
We do not know who that contemplated bride was.

We know only that there was a procession of the bridegroom.

And His potbelly, it seems, burst on the way due to eating too much, and He took a snake, which is sometimes identified with Subrahmanya, tied it around His stomach, and again ate.



It seems Chandra, or the moon, looked at this scene and laughed, saying, "Look at this man who is going for his marriage!
His stomach has burst and he is tying it up with a snake!"

This took place on the fourth day of the bright half of the lunar month, Bhadrapada (August-September).

Ganapati was irritated very much.



He cursed the moon: "You fellow, you talk about me like this. You have insulted me. Well, whoever looks at you on this day will also be similarly insulted."
So, people dread to look at the moon on that day.

Chauthi Chandra, the moon on the fourth day of the bright half of the lunar month, is considered very inauspicious, resulting in Apavadam or censure and reproach for the one who sees it.

Apavada means undeserved blame and scandal.

You might have done nothing, yet somebody will go on telling some evil against you.

is the result of looking at the moon on the fourth day, because it has the curse of Ganapati.



But they say, in our tradition of curses, that there is also what is called Sapamoksha, or a kind of remedy.

The moon said, "Please excuse me. Why do you curse me like this?"

The moon pleaded for some remedy.

Then Ganapati, in reply, said, "OK, alright, I pardon you. Whoever looks at you on the first day after the new moon will be relieved of this curse."



I have seen people running to terraces and climbing trees and trying to see the little streak of the moon appearing like a thread on the first day after the new moon, to be rid of all the evils that might have grown around them even by an unconscious look on the fourth day because on that fourth day, especially, the moon is just before our eyes and is very clear.

He is located very peculiarly in a position in the sky where one cannot avoid seeing him.

So then, when our eyes fall on the moon on the fourth day, we rub our eyes and say, "Oh, very sorry, some mistake has taken place," and we expect some trouble afterwards.

Somebody will say something against us. Anyhow, the remedy is seeing the moon on the first day after the new moon.

Swami Krishnananda
To be continued  ....