From Gajasur to Gajanan

"Om Shree vakratund mahakaay, surya koti samaprabho
Nirwighnam kurumedev sarwa karyeshu sarwada Om”

There is not one Hindu who is not aware of this mantra. And, not just Hindus, the mahima of this mantra has seen its expansion to the nations beyond our boundaries as well.

There is no Hindu ritual or puja anywhere in the world that doesn’t start with this mantra.

And, any individual embarking on the spiritual path begins the journey with jaap of:

“Gama ganpataye namah”

These are the two most important mantras of the Hindus, the deity of which is Ganapati- the beloved son of Shiva. Born out of the very body of Pārbati. The divine consort of Mahadev-the God who bestows on us the ultimate freedom from the torturous cycle of life and death.

Now, we all know who Shiva is. And we all know who Ganesh is. And, how they are both related to each other.

We also know that this cute god of ours who has the head of an elephant adorning his cuddly body was beheaded by his own father while he tried to keep the promise he’d given to his mother.

However, despite knowing all this how much of the entire episode do we really know?

Why is it that the son of this great God got the head of an elephant when he could have got a human one?

Was it so difficult for Shiva to give another head to his own son?

Is anything really impossible for Shiva?

And how is it that this kind-hearted God was brutal enough to behead his own son?

Well, to understand the entire episode we need to delve a bit into history.

So, once it so happened that the Sun God had his ego swollen so much so that he began to believe that he was omnipotent and thus was naturally free to do anything and he had no one to fear.

However, this pride of Sun had a fall when he was killed by Shiva with his trident.

The grief stricken father of Sun went mad in rage and cursed our Shiva.

“You would once behead your own son with this very trident with which you’ve killed my son. And only then,” said he, “would you know the agony of a father.”

But, Shiva being Shiva very calmly explained to the aggrieved father-Rishi Kashyap- that it was really necessary for him to kill Sun as his ego would be unfavorable for the Creation but now that he was devoid of his ahankaar he would be brought back to life as the Creation did need him. He then brought Sun back to life.

Rishi Kashyap was now extremely remorseful and he apologized to Shiva asking Him to make his curse redundant. But Shiva, to honour the words of the rishi, walked away graciously with the curse.

Now, when after the samudra manthan Indra disgraces Ahilya the world plunged into moral darkness and Shiva, in order to find a solution to this problem, goes into dhyaan.

Meanwhile Pārbati crafts a son out of the dirt scrubbed from her body and brings it to life through her mantras. Thus was born Vinayak-the harbinger of prosperity and joy.

When Vinayak comes to life it’s time for Shiva to return. To welcome her husband Pārbati goes for her bath and prayers and allots her son at the door to stop anyone from disturbing her.

The son would not even let a mouse pass through and thus did not pay heed to Shiva’s request to allow him to meet his wife. Shiva thus returns to Kailās and the saints, deities and subjects of Shiva now requests Vinayak to let Shiva meet Pārbati. But the kid would not budge. And he even humiliated everyone.

So, now Shiva had to come himself to reason out to his son that a promise for which he has to show disregard to so many people is not worth keeping but the kid was blinded by the powers granted to him by his mother. He now challenges Shiva and attacks him. And, Shiva willy-nilly had to attack his son with the trident and chop his head off.

The grief stricken mother now refuses to buy any logic from Shiva and shoots on her destruction binge, for the Creation for the good of which her son should have to be departed from her was not worth existing.

Shiva now on requests from saints and deities had to find a way to bring the kid back to life. He asks Nandi and Indra to go to north and return with the head of the being they first meet. The condition being that the creature should donate his head out of wish and that it should be brought before sunset.

As they set off to north they came across Gajasur, the demon elephant that had been waiting for them. He asks them to take his head. On Nandi’s hesitation as to how could Shiva’s son have an elephant’s head the animal very aptly replies, “because that is niyati.”

 And explains to them about his penance and Shiva’s boon. The story goes like this:

Gajasur was an asur in the form of elephant hence the name. Now this is literally double trouble- an asur in the form of an animal. But this fellow made the max of the situation. He did some serious penance and wins himself a boon from Shiva.

When Shiva appears before him the noble creature expresses, “I wish to be the gyaanimost creature in the entire creation. But,” he says, “since that honour is already yours I will not take it from you; instead,” he adds, “I want you to reside in my abdomen, by the virtue of which I shall become the gyaanimost.” The kind- hearted Shiva grants him the boon.

However, right then Vishnu intervenes and explains to Gajasur that if Shiva makes his abdomen his abode then Kailās would be abandoned and it would not be possible for Shiva to carry out his duties as a part of the Trinity.

The naïve pachyderm honours their request and takes his boon back but expresses his wish to be with Shiva and get gyaan from him.

Thus he was destined to offer his head for the body of Shiva’s son. Nandi and Indra now return to Kailās with his head and it was adorned on Ganesh’s body. Thus, Vinayak’s original head which was full of ego, was replaced by the head of Gajasur. Ganesha, the treasurer of gyaan, is therefore also known as Gajanan-the one with the head of an elephant.

Gajasur because of his gentleness and kind-heartedness thus got the honour that no one in the entire manifested Creation had got. No saint. No human. No deity. No demon. It was this demon animal who, with his penance, got the place of honor of being on the body of Ganesha.

Ganesh, the beloved son of Shiva. The one who has the honor of sleeping in his lap and hearing lullabies from him. Of being kissed by him and loved by him. Of being held near his heart. Of being taught by him. Now, that is what Gajasur hadn’t really asked for but received nonetheless because of his humility. Because he trusted Shiva and surrendered to him and for allowed him to decide what’s best for him.

Thus, a penance; a thoughtful wish and, humility coupled with kind-heartedness helped him get to be in the body of the God who was created with the purpose of bringing auspiciousness to the world.

Gajasur thus became Gajanan.