Ganesh Chaturthi

One day before Ganesh Chaturthi is the festival of Haritalika Gauri. Gauri worshipped Har (Lord Shiva) to attain Him as her husband. The next day is Ganesh Chaturdashi.

Ganesha was born from Goddess Parvati. She made Him guard Her Privacy. One day, Lord Shiva came that way and was stopped from entering Goddess Parvati’s private quarters by Ganesha. Furious, Lord Shiva cut off His head. When Goddess Parvati stubbornly insisted that She wanted Lord Ganesha back alive, the God of Gods went about finding a suitable head for Him. The first animal that He found was an elephant and he cut off his head to place it where Ganesha’s head had been present. Lord Shiva also gave Ganesha blessings that He would be invoked before beginning any good or auspicious work.

There is another story behind Lord Ganesha acquiring an Elephant Head. Keeping that aside, we would like to share about the pooja at our home. Mom always handcrafts the Lord Ganesha at home in clay. This time she was preparing for the same. There is a business center on the ground floor of our home. We will share the details about the kind of business happening there some other time. The man is not only a headache for us. He is also a pain in the neck. He arrived at our doorstep at the right time. With him was a man, whom he called a ‘builder’. I wonder why a builder would come so late in the evening to anyone’s house when this building has not been given to him for reconstruction.

Secondly, the business man made such a dirty gesture that we are disgusted even to mention it. This kind of body language is considered a pooja for the people in this building. The main upachara of pooja for these people is to bring my parents to death bed and drive me to suicide. Accordingly, for these people, this is not a sin. In this yuga, for them, there is nothing called sin. That is why; Mom could not complete the scene she had planned to place for pooja.

She wanted to place a handmade Ganesha on Nandi with His shrew and Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati standing behind them. Then she also planned to place Lord Kartikeya in front. But, that did not happen. So, she made a Ganesha with a mixture of mud, cow dung, cow’s urine, rose water, turmeric powder, sandalwood powder, rock salt, jaggary, neem leaves, durva and bael leaves on a plate and we performed pooja to it.

She placed the silver Mangala Gauri that was given to her during her marriage with a small idol of Annapurna and Ganesha and Gauri made out of turmeric paste in the worship area. Since Mom is ill, she couldn’t clear sufficient space for it. Though it is congested, she managed to perform Shodashopachara to it.