Ganesha Stories – 7 Most Popular Stories of Ganesha

Lord Ganesha is the son of Lord Shiv and Goddess Parvati. He is considered to be a combination of four creature- man, elephant, mouse and snake. His vehicle is a mouse. He has four hands, a big belly and the face of an elephant. In his hands he carries – a rope (to help lead the worshipers to the truth), an axe (to cut away the devotees wrong attachments) and ladoo (to reward the devotees). Lord Ganesha is a very popular god and there are many interesting stories about him. Here are a few popular Ganesha Stories-

The Birth of Ganesha

Goddess Parvati wanted to take a bath. She needed someone to stand guard at the entrance and not let anyone in till she finished her bath. So she took the sandalwood paste on her body and created the form of a boy and breathed life into it. She told the boy (his son) to stand guard for her and not let anyone in. Lord Shiva returned after sometime and saw the boy. He did not know that the boy was his son. The boy refused him to enter which angered Shiva. So in his rage he cut off the boy’s head. When Parvati came outside after taking the bath she was horrified and filled with rage upon seeing her Son’s headless body. She threatened to destroy the entire creation if her son was not brought back to life. So Shiva asked Nandi, the Bull, to go and bring the head of the first animal he sees. Nandi first came upon an elephant on his search and brought its head to Shiva who then joined it to his son’s body. He named him Ganapati (lord of all the ganas) and gave him a boon that he will be worshiped first before any beginnings.

Ganesha and the Moon

Ganesha loved sweets a lot. So his devotees always offered him sweets which made him happy. One day a devotee gave him lots of sweets. Ganesha was so happy he sat and ate till his stomach was full. Then he got up, gathered the remaining sweets and started slowly towards home on his vehicle- a tiny mouse. The mouse couldn’t bear his weight and it tripped which led to Ganesha falling off and the sweets scattering everywhere. Ganesha was embarrassed and he quickly got up and gathered all the sweets, looking around to see if anyone had seen him fall. The moon, in the sky who saw all this, started laughing as he found it really funny. He was proud about his own handsome feature and had always found Ganesha’s pot belly very funny. Seeing him laugh filled Ganesha with anger. He called the moon vain and cursed him that anyone who looks at the moon on Chaturthi will be wrongly blamed. The moon realized his mistake and begged Ganesha to remove the curse. Seeing this Ganesha softened and forgave the moon. He told the moon that he couldn’t remove the curse but he would reduce its impact. Anyone who looked at the moon on Ganesh Chaturthi could redeem themselves by looking at the moon on the second day of fortnight and listening to stories of Krishna or Syamantaka gem.

Lord Ganesha and Murugan

Once the demi-gods had an argument over which son of Shiva and Parvati was the wisest. They couldn’t settle this argument and went to Lord Brahma to find the answer. But Lord Brahma did not know the answer. So he asked his son ‘Narad’ to go and find the answer using his tricks and antics. So Narad went to Shiva and Parvati and offered them a golden Mango. He said that the one who eats this mango will be granted immortality and supreme knowledge. Shiva and Parvati decided to give to one of their sons. Now they didn’t know who was more deserving of the fruit. So they decided to hold a test. The one to circle the world three times and return first will get the fruit. Lord Murugan immediately climbed on to his peacock and left. He knew he would win because Ganesha’s vehicle- the mouse was very slow as Ganesha was heavy. Ganesha knew this too. So he thought about it and came up with the solution. He circled his parents (Shiva and Parvati) three times with full devotion. They were surprised and asked him what his was doing. So he told them that they were his entire world and hence he circled them. Ganesha won the race and upon returning Murugan accepted defeat. Ganesha got the fruit and the demi-gods got their answer on who was the wisest among the two sons.

Lord Ganesha and his Broken Tusk

There are two versions of this story-

• Sage Vyasa wanted to write down the poem of Mahabharata. So he approached Ganesha and asked him to write down what he dictated. Ganesha agreed but he had a condition that Sage Vyasa would not stop dictating the poem till it ended. The Sage in turn also gave a condition that Ganesha will understand what he dictates before writing it down. Ganesha agreed and they started writing. Sage Vyasa would dictate a difficult verse each time he needed to catch his breath as Ganesha would take time to understand it. In his hurry to complete the poem Ganesha broke the feather he was writing with. So he broke of his tusk and dipped it in the ink and continued writing till the poem ended. In this way Ganesha sacrificed his tusk for knowledge.

• According to another version Bhagwan Parshuram, the axe carrying incarnation of lord Vishnu came to visit Lord Shiva as he wanted to thank him for providing him with the power and the axe that led to his victory over Kartavirya Arjuna and the kings allied with him. Ganesha stopped him from visiting saying that his father was sleeping with his mother and he did not want him to disturb them. This angered Parashurama and he started fighting Ganesha. Ganesha was winning but then Parshuram threw his axe at Ganesha. But Ganesha did not block the axe as he knew that it was a gift of his father Shiva to Parshuram and the axe cut his tusk.

Ganesha and his Two Wives

As Ganesha had an elephant head, there was no girl ready to marry him. While every god had someone, he did not have anyone. This angered him and he started creating troubles in the marriages of the other demi-gods using the help of his mouse friends. He asked them to dig holes along the way on which the wedding procession of demi-gods went. The demi-gods had to face a lot of trouble. So they complained to Lord Brahma who agreed to help them. He created two beautiful girls – Riddhi (wealth and prosperity and Siddhi (intellectual and spiritual power) and married them to Ganesha hence solving the problem. They had two sons together – Subha (auspiciousness) and Labha (profit).

Lord Ganesha and Lord Kubera

Lord Kubera was the god of wealth and he was very proud of his riches. One day he organised a big feast and invited many popular people. He also went and invited Shiva. Lord Shiva knew his true intentions of keeping the feast. He just wanted to show off his wealth. So he told him that his son Ganesha would attend the feast and to take care of him and his hunger. Kubera was confident that he would be able to serve Ganesha well. When Ganesha came on the day of the feast he started eating. He ate everything given to him and each time asked for more. Eventually all the food finished and Ganesha was still hungry. He started eating the vessels and furniture and other things next. So Lord Kubera ran to Lord Shiva for his help. Lord Shiva handed Ganesha a cup of roasted ice that immediately satisfied his hunger. Lord Kubera realized his mistake and asked forgiveness for his pride over his wealth.

Lord Ganesha and the Bool of Kheer

Once a little boy was roaming a village shouting that he had a fistful of rice and a spoonful of milk and he wanted someone to make a bowl of kheer from it. The villagers ignored him and did not offer him any help as they knew that a fistful of rice and milk was not enough for the kheer. The boy did not lose hope and he roamed around the village the entire day shouting. At last a poor old woman agreed to make him the kheer. The boy was delighted and he asked her to cook the kheer in a big vessel. The old woman was puzzled but she did as he said and borrowed a big vessel from her neighbour. She put in the rice and milk and a little sugar. As the kheer cooked the boy left for some time after making the old woman promise that she would not eat the kheer before he tastes it. The old woman agreed. She fell asleep and woke up to the delicious smell of cooked kheer. When she looked at the vessel she was surprised to find the vessel full to the brim with kheer and she knew it was the blessings of Lord Ganesha. She was very hungry but waited for the boy to return. When he did not return she took a spoonful of milk and set it aside for lord ganseha and then she ate the kheer until she was full. The boy returned and the old woman asked forgiveness for breaking the promise. To this the boy smiled and replied that she had not broken the promise as he was Lord Ganesha. The woman fell to her knees and asked forgiveness for not recognizing him. Ganesha embraced her and granted her a wish. The woman asked for beauty and riches and Ganesha fulfilled it.