Prem Purana: Mythological Love Stories (Usha Narayanan and Puja Singhal)

Ganesha Chathurthi,

Ganesha, worshipped by 108 different names, was beloved in all the realms.

modakas,

Parvati’s young son was happy, his stomach full with all the modakas he had eaten, his heart filled with joy as he went along merrily on his path. But just then, a snake slithered across his path, and the startled mouse dropped the young god in its haste to escape. Ganesha, heavy with all the food he had eaten, was unable to get up for a moment. He muttered angrily, snatched up the bothersome snake and bound it tightly around his stomach as if to ensure that the modakas within would not spill out.

He broke off a piece of his tusk and hurled it at the full moon. ‘You will suffer for your insolence, Soma!’ he said. ‘Your light will fade gradually and you will become dark in fifteen days.’ The tusk shattered the moon’s surface and created a crater, and Soma scudded in fear to hide behind some clouds.

‘I am Riddhi. You must have heard of Brahma’s beautiful daughter!’ she said proudly. ‘I study at Sage Kapila’s ashram nearby.’

‘One day, I saw my mother Durga eating her food with all ten hands!’ Ganesha said. ‘When I asked her why, she told me that when I married, my bride would not allow her to eat in peace. So she would eat to her heart’s content before that happened.’ Riddhi’s eyes widened as she imagined the sight. ‘In order to reassure her, I promised her that I would marry only a plantain tree since it would not be able to harass her!’

‘My Kola Bou is beautiful, no doubt,’ he said. ‘But I do not wish to be married and be caught in a web of troubles!’

‘Do you know what my father Shiva said to my uncle Vishnu?’ he asked in return. ‘He said that love destroys your peace of mind like a Brahmastra in the hands of Kama. And that a woman’s beauty is the cause of all delusion, tempting you with nectar that conceals the poison beneath!’

The serpent Vasuki that he wears around his neck looks hungrily at my mouse. My brother Karthikeya’s peacock waits for a chance to kill the snake. Durga’s lion glares at me because an elephant is his arch-enemy. And Durga herself frowns jealously at Ganga who adorns my father’s head. No wonder then that Shiva drank the halahala poison that emerged from the cosmic ocean when it was churned!

As for my mouse here, he was originally a gandharva named Krauncha. When roaming the skies, he saw the beautiful wife of Sage Sabari and was overpowered by desire. He entered the hermitage and grabbed her by the hand. She screamed, arousing the sage from his meditation, and he cursed Krauncha to become a mooshika, a mouse.

“Allow me to become your vaahana and to serve you for eternity,” he said. Poor Krauncha had already paid for his sins over a long period of time. So I granted him his boon, making my body light so that he could carry me easily!’

‘Poor Soma!’ exclaimed Riddhi, remembering his curse. ‘What happened to him?’ ‘He came to me as a pale crescent, distraught and repentant,’ said Ganesha. ‘I took pity on him and told him that he would lose his light for fifteen days and regain it during the next fifteen.’

‘Perhaps he is another foolish suitor for me to dispose of,’ continued Siddhi, glaring at him. ‘Listen to me, Parvati’s son! I am not interested in marrying you or anyone else. Let me warn you that I wish to emulate the virgin goddess Kanyakumari who destroyed the mighty Banasura.’

A 1000-headed snake is his bed on the sea While an eagle hovers overhead, waiting to kill. His one wife can’t stop talking The other can’t stay still. The playful Manmatha, his son, Inflames the world with passion What can the poor husband do now But lie inert in the ocean?

Prince Gana is coming towards us, travelling along the course of the Ganga, killing and plundering. Our father warned us that he is the lustful Kamasura reborn, made invincible by Shiva’s boons. But I am not afraid. I rather hope that he comes to our ashram so that I can fight him and kill him!’

Ganesha spent long periods of time in dhyana and Buddhi came upon him one day, meditating on the banks of the Ganga. She saw that his trunk was turned towards his right, indicating that he was praying to the gods and was not to be disturbed. If it was turned to his left instead, it would indicate that he was open to this world and its experiences.

Ganesha’s face turned red with anger. He had been polite in speaking to her, but she was brash and threatening. ‘You are too arrogant, Tulasi, and you will pay the price for it,’ he retorted. ‘You will marry a rakshasa and end your life as a shrub!’

Brought to her senses by his fierce curse, Tulasi began to weep loudly. She fell at his feet and begged his forgiveness. Ganesha was now calm again and was touched by her grief. ‘The great Vishnu will release you from your life with the rakshasa and transform you into a tulasi plant,’ he said. ‘Devotees will offer your leaves to him in order to be redeemed from sin. However, I myself will never accept the tulasi in worship.’

‘I must tell you the truth now,’ he said, smiling mischievously. ‘Two beautiful maidens, Kamala and Vimala, had been praying to Shiva, seeking to marry him. He could not accept them for he was married already and so—’ ‘So you married them and pretended that you were unmarried!’ said Buddhi, her face turning red.