Ganesh in Shwetakalp

Ganesh in Shwetakalp

 According to scriptures every individual is immortal and is endowed with one soul mate who keeps on playing hide and seek through the cycles of various births and deaths. As there is a cycle of four yugas so is there a cycle of kalpas named Brahmkalp, Padmakalp, Varahakalp and Shwetakalp etc. It is also mentioned that each of the billions of galaxies floating in the cosmos are governed by a set of trinity named Brahma-Vishnu-Mahesh. Thus there are innumerable sets of trinity in various galaxies. So once in Shwetakalpa lord Shiv lived with his consort Goddess Parvati.

 It so happened that while Queen Parvati indulged in water sports along with her two friends Jaya and Vijaya, lord Shiv who was not aware of the presence of friends of his wife walked suddenly in and to find him there the three ladies frolicking in water and joyfully having a rambunctious fun were taken aback. This unwarranted and uncalled for appearance of lord Shiv hurt them and they found it objectionable. The twin friends of queen took this to their heart and later on counselled her,-“ Devi Parvati! All the servants here obey only Lord Shiv and you have no privacy, no personal guard at your disposal. This is somewhat not appropriate. You should ensure your personal security and privacy. So that we could rejoice together freely and comfortably.”

  On another occasion again it so happened that when Parvati took bath lord Shiv entered even after being stopped by Nandi by brushing him aside. This hurt the queen all the more and she realized that servitors of lord Shiv were of no help to her as they succumbed to the pressure exerted by their master. The idea of having her own personal guard given by her friends hovered in her mind and she lost no time in implementing the idea into execution. When she sat to massage her body, she took out the used ubtan i.e. a paste of flour, milk, oil and turmeric and created a chubby boy with it. She then infused life force into the boy and gave him the best of clothes and ornaments. When the boy asked her,-“Who am I?” she told him,-“Son you are my son and dearest to me of all. I am your mother and my name is Parvati.”

 Neither the child asked about the father nor did the mother bothered to tell him about lord Shiv.

The son was so drawn to his mother that he innocently assured her,-“What irks you mother when I am beside you? I shall do whatever you say. What am I supposed to do mother?”

“Son! You are here for me. Please listen to me. Be my guard at the entrance of my palace and do not let anyone enter till I allow the person, whosoever that may be. OK?”

‘Yes mother. I shall surely stand guard and obey you all the way..” bowed the obedient son in front of his divinely glowing mother and began to perform his duty with utmost diligence. The mother embraced him and kissed his forehead and also gave him a strong stalk as his weapon to guard against the intruders.

Parvati was now fully relaxed and enjoyed frolicking in water with her friends inside the palace. Her independent action enthralled her friends as well and they all indulged in water sports freely with added enthusiasm and zest.

 The yogi husband who was seldom aware of things going on around and inside his queen’s palace, being mostly imbued in spiritual bliss alone, came walking for a while towards the palace. As he began to enter his home,  he found  a little stalwart with a bulging potbelly obstructing his way with his stalk. The insouciant yogi quivered his eyebrows in awe and looked at the objecting guard who had suddenly appeared from nowhere to stop him from entering his own home. Before the intended intruder could ask anything, the prompt guard came forth, saying,-“Lord! Do not enter in, as my mother has not allowed you to come in yet.” Such inane expression further annoyed lord Shiv and he just shouted at the boy,-“ Who are you to stop me..?” To his amazement the little champion offered no proper response what to talk of an apology expected of him, being in confrontation with the greatest of spiritual master of the earth and rather sternly ordered him,-“ Please go away from here.” Saying so, he lifted his stalk and barred lord Shiv forcibly from entering in. Seeing his uncalled for unprecedented depravity,Lord Shiv felt hurt and shouted at him,-“Fool! Who are you to stop me? O mindless creature! don’t you know me? I am none other than the Shiv the Lord of this entire mount Kailash.” Saying so, he decided to turn away and left the spot. His obedient ganas rushed up and thronged the entrance of the palace to take the newly appointed adolescent security guard to the task. As the master had volunteered to turn away from the fray, his servitors assumed his role of driving away the unknown and self appointed Standing Guard at the entrance of the palace of their master and mother Parvati.

 Having seen the annoyance of their master in fury, the battalion of bizarre ganas of lord Shiv tried their best to persuade the guard to let lord Shiv enter in. From offering his favourite articles to trying varieties of intimidation, they applied all the tricks and tactics to bring him to let their lord enter his own home but failed all the way. The staunch son of an iron willed mother showed no sign of melting and giving in. Whatever they tried and however they persuaded him the obedient son of mother Parvati would listen to none.

 A heated argument followed as senior ganas of lord Shiv appeared to try their might. They loftily pleaded,-“Listen boy! We are the senior guards of lord Shiv. By his order, we ask you to go away from here. We would have easily killed you but believing that you are only one of us, have we not touched you, so far. But enough of your pranks. If you love your life, then better be off, right now?” They thundered at the little guard. To their dismay, the ferocious looks and such harrowing threats could not deter the staunch son of mother Parvati. He stood in front of all as unperturbed and as rooted as a rock and took no time in lifting his stalk with which he thrashed and battered the senior ganas of lord Shiv. The flock of such stalwarts was swished away like flies by the youngest of the warriors of mount Kailash. The hurt and wounded ganas rushed back to their master and narrated their sordid tale of such demeaning defeat.

The lord of mount Kailash was infuriated and rather boomeranged over them,-“Who is this?  He is raving like an enemy? Remove him soon. Why are you telling me this all and bearing with him like impotents?”

 The ganas rushed back to charge at the enemy and again tried their level best to dampen his spirit but ultimately faced only defeat. Left with no choice and strength they again went back to their master and stood in front of him with a wilted face. Their drooping heads narrated their saga of humiliation and their lord also began to boil in anger and thundered sternly,-“Let me know who this new guard is and why is he behaving so impudently?”

 His ganas rushed around to explore about the new servant of mother Parvati and reported aback to their master,-“Lord! This new champion is the creation of mother Parvati. She has appointed him as chief security officer of her palace.”

 Hearing so, Shiv called all devtas with their army and they all attacked the son of Parvati with all of their might. The son of divine mother showed not an iota of fear and nervousness even though being attacked by an array of divine enemies applying their best of weapons and tactics. He looked as sporty as an adept player playing with an army of toys. The junior most warrior enjoyed battering all the senior warriors all alone sportily.

 Seeing his all servitors and allies having tasted a bashing defeat, the lord of mount Kailash rose up from his seat and stood in front of the creation of his consort, face to face in the battleground. The little master found a matchlessly glowing figure of perfect masculine grace standing in front of him with the spirit of fight and spontaneously felt reverence to him. He mentally touched the feet of his mother and prayed to her to usher in as strength in him  and  attacked his reverential enemy Shiv with all his might. As the entrance turned into a scenario of fierce fray lord Shiv finally beheaded the boy and proclaimed his supremacy over all.

 

 Parvati turns into Kali

 

Mother Parvati suddenly found lord Shiv standing in front of her in an awesome mood. The stern expression of his face turned the glowing countenance of mother into a burning cinder. “How come you enter here? Did no one stop you at the entrance?” Her wrath erupted in speech, seeing which lord Shiv turned pale and uttered nothing. The servitors’ noise soon divulged the macabre act of her lofty husband. Having realized the chain of events she lost no time and in an eye blink created millions of female warrior to attack the warriors of lord Shiv. Her stormy wrath turned her into a ferocious goddess kali who went on rampage to take upon all, devour all in the fire of her vengeance.  Her gigantic tongue lolled out to gulp down the blood of her enemies who had at the behest of her husband ruthlessly attacked her innocent and brave son. The three spheres began to tremble in awe as the divine mother reeled in uncontrollable fury. All threw up in despair and lost their mind as the mere sight of ferocious mother Kali unnerved all. None knew as to how to face the aftermath, the orgy occurring in the hitherto peaceful precincts of mount Kailash. Lord Shiv was stupefied. He had not foreseen the consequences of his simple act of vanquishing a defiant security guard.

When creation rolls into doldrums of uncertainty, the great and wise souls wake up to balance the scenario. So to rise to the occasion, Sage Narad rushed to establish peace and found himself helpless in front of the maudlin divine mother wantonly pouncing upon ganas of lord Shiv with the swiftness of a ferocious tigress. The scenario of fierce yoginies attacking, battering and slaying ganas of lord Shiv assumed such vociferous form that all human and subtle deities felt absolutely non-plussed and beside themselves. When the tide of seething wrath refused to wane, the deities gathered and began to worship divine mother in various ways but she showed no sign of getting pacified. All the divine councillors then pondered over the cause of her such harrowing wrath. As they realized the reason behind her wrath, they began to look for the possible remedy. As it was lord Shiv who had invited the wrath, he was advised to appease the ferocious divine mother and realizing the magnitude of destruction her array of yoginies had created lord Shiv  calmly lied down in the path of divine mother. As the infuriated goddess Kali unmindfully stepped over lord Shiv, she looked down and found her husband helplessly lying down. Repentance gripped her and she regained her wisdom. Her wrath mellowed and she found all the great sages and yogis praying to her with folded hands to calm down and stop her yoginis from playing havoc further.

 She closed her eyes for a while and then said,-“ Sages! If my son is brought back to life and accepted as leader of all deities then only my yoginis will be pleased….”

 

Sages took her message to all the deities who turned pale to hear her proposal as it amounted to their own loss of status and power. They all saluted lord Shiv who stood amides them now having appeased the goddess kali. ”All right. Let us do what is beneficial for all. Let us search in all direction and find the head of a creature to revive the slain son of Parvati.” Lord Vishnu and other deities found an infant elephant sleeping beside his mother with the back of the mother to the new born son. They beheaded the infant elephant and brought the head of baby elephant where other deities were worshipping the slain body of son of mother Parvati.

 All chanted auspicious mantra and after adding the head of baby elephant with the body of son of mother Parvati infused life force into it. In not time the new creature began to smile and turned into a glowing deity who was worshipped and honoured by all deities and celestial sages and seeing whom his mother turned into a joyous mother All celestial couples worshipped and praised her for her power and affection. The mother was pleased to see her son back in her arms.

Lord Shiv and mother Parvati kissed the forehead of their son and blessed him. “Son! You have suffered a lot. But now you are blessed. You will be worshipped before all other deities by the mankind and named Ganesh. People will offer you sandalpaste,vermillion, laddus and betel leaves and you will be endowed with the power to remove their all obstacles.” Thus all deities and sages etc. saluted the family and left for their abodes with great joy and enthusiasm.