If Shiva has his way, there would be no Ganesha, no harvests, no obstacles, no world… just snow-covered desolate peaks where everyone meditates in silence. While the rest of the Ganas – creatures known as Yakshas and Pramathas and Bhutas – are fearsome and forbidding with their unusual misshapen forms, loved, included and understood only by Shiva, their ascetic-master, Ganesha has been able to delight us all – inspiring artists to create and recreate him in various shapes, each one joyful in mood and awe-inspiring in expanse. Ganesha is Gana-esha, foremost of Shiva’s Ganas. That son is Ganesha, Gauri’s Ganesha, seated on her lap, corpulent, elephant-headed, cute and powerful. The sun is making its journey south the days are becoming shorter and the nights colder the earth is wet, worms and snakes are wriggling out, the walls are damp, and there is moss in every corner… it is Chaturmaas, the four months when sages don’t travel, stay indoors and tell the stories of gods.Īs the rains start to wane, the earth covers herself in green, and brings forth her son, the one who will remove all obstacles as the seasons begin their march towards harvest time. The rainy season is considered an inauspicious time. Just three days before Ganesh Chaturthi, before we call out Ganapati bappa morya, Devdutt Pattanaik tells us the tale of Ganesha, our most lovable god.
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