The Story of Vighneshwara

Sootha Maharishi started narrating the story of the genesis of Vighneshwara, the negative
effects of viewing Moon and the remedies for that to the gathering consisting of sages as
Sounaka.

Once upon a time, there lived a demon king Gajaasura in the elephantine form, who
undertook a severe penance to appease Lord Siva. The Lord was pleased with his devotion and
asked him to state his wish. Gajaasura sought the boon that the Lord reside in his stomach
forever. Siva, being the devotees’ God, acceded to this request and entered the stomach of
Gajaasura.

Meanwhile, in the Kailasaloka, Parvati Devi was searching for her husband; She got to
know that her husband was residing in Gajaasura’s abdomen. At a loss to know what to do, she
approached Lord Vishnu and requested thus: “O Lord! Even earlier, you had saved my husband
from Bhasmaasuraa. I request you to save my husband this time also.” Lord Vishnu comforted
and sent her back. He called for a conference of Brahma and other Devas where it was decided
that Gajaasura needed to be killed. Nandi, Siva’s vehicle took the form of a festive bullock
(Gangireddhu) while the Gods took forms of various musicians with Lord Vishnu taking up the
shehanai. They reached the capital of Gajaasura and gave a fine performance, which impressed
and gladdened his heart. He asked them to state their wish at which point, Lord Vishnu revealed
their true identities and told him to free Lord Siva. Having realized that his death was imminent,
Gajaasura requested Lord Siva (who was still in his belly) to grant him two boons – his head
would be worthy of prayer and devotion across the three worlds and his skin would be worn by
Lord Siva. These boons having been granted, Nandi tore the entrails of Gajaasura with its horns,
thus freeing Lord Siva. Lord Siva praised Lord Vishnu for freeing him while the latter advised
him to not grant such boons to demons as it is equivalent to feeding a vicious snake with milk.
Lord Vishnu returned to Vaikuntha while Lord Siva started to Kailasa.

Parvati Devi heard of the happenings and with the objective of welcoming her husband in
all finery, she proceeded to have bath. She created the figure of a boy with sandalwood dough
and gave it life; she appointed this boy as the gatekeeper to her abode. Parvati Devi finished her
bath, bedecked herself with jewels and was awaiting the arrival of her husband in her quarters.
Meanwhile, Lord Siva was stopped by the boy at the gate. With great anger, Siva used his trishul
and severed the head of the boy.

Siva entered the abode of Parvati and she welcomed him with worship and devotion.
With great happiness, they were talking to each other, when the topic of “the boy at the gate”
came up. Lord Siva regretted for what had happened; he stuck the head of Gajaasura to the
lifeless body of the boy, brought him to life and named him “Gajaananaa.” He was treated as a
son by Lord Siva and Parvati Devi; Gajaananaa also served his parents with great devotion. For
easy mobility, he selected Anindya, the king of rats, as his mode of transport.

After sometime, Kumara Swami was born to Lord Siva and Parvati. He was strong, had
the Peacock as his vehicle and commanded the army of Gods.
 One day, all the Gods and rishis came to worship Lord Siva and requested him to appoint
a leader for all the obstacles (An adhipathi of the vighnaas). Gajaananaa requested his dad to
give him the position as he was the eldest son while Kumara Swami requested that he (Kumara)
be given the position, since “Gajaananaa is a dwarf, unqualified and incapable.”

Lord Siva told his sons that “whoever between the two would bathe in all the holy rivers
of the world and come back to reach him first would be given the position,” at which point
Kumara Swami took off on his Peacock vehicle and sped away. Stunned, Gajaananaa went to his
father, bowed to him in reverence and prayed, “Dad! How could you ask me to do such a task
knowing my capabilities? I’m a servant of your lotus feet. Please show sympathy towards me
and advise me as you deem fit.” At this, Lord Siva became compassionate and asked his son to
recite the Narayana Mantra. Gajaananaa rejoiced at his dad’s advice, stayed put in Kailasa and
started reciting the mantra with great devotion.

Due to the effect of the mantra, Kumara Swami who was approaching the river Ganges to
take bath, saw Gajaananaa just finishing his bath in the river and proceeding to the next; the
same process repeated at each of the rivers numbering three-and-a-half crores. Surprised and
blaming the ineffectiveness of his own strengths, Kumara Swami returned to Kailasa, bowed to
Gajaananaa (who was near his father) and prayed to his father thus: “Dad, I did not realize the
prowess of my elder brother. Please excuse my earlier utterances and bestow the position to my
elder brother.”

Lord Siva appointed Gajaananaa as the Vighnaadhipathi on the auspicious day of the
Bhaadrapadha Shuddha Chathurthi. That day, all people worshipped Lord Vighneshwara and
offered sweets and delicacies apart from coconuts, milk, honey, bananas etc. The Lord ate some
of them, fed some of them to his vehicle and carried some of them home in the late evening
taking slow steps. He reached Kailasa and tried to bow to his parents; however, he had
difficulties, as his hands did not reach the ground while his stomach touched the ground; if he
forcibly brought the hands to the ground his legs automatically rose up. Seeing his difficulties in
bowing, the moon who was decorating Lord Siva’s head laughed derisively. At this,
Vighneshwara was stung to the quick, his belly gave way, the foodstuffs he consumed rolled out
and he dropped dead. A desolate Parvati Devi wailed and cursed the moon thus: “O Sinner! My
son died because of your evil glances; From now on, people who see you will face (unfounded
or baseless) accusations of sinning (neelaapa nindhalu).”

The effect of the curse on the rishis’ wives:

At the same time, the saptharshis were doing a yaaga and going round the sacrificial fire
along with their wives. Agni, the fire God was smitten by the beauty of the rishis’ wives but felt
helpless and started declining in his prowess as he was afraid that the rishis would curse him if
they caught him in his misdemeanor. Realising this, Agni’s wife, Swaahaa Devi took the form of
all the wives of the rishis (with the exception of Arundhathi) and served her husband. The rishis,
not knowing the truth, suspected the fidelity of their wives, and disowned them. The wives of
rishis suffered for no fault of theirs – this was the effect of seeing the moon after Parvati Devi’s
curse.
 Various Gods conferred with Lord Brahma and informed him of the treatment meted by
saptrashis to their wives. Being the Omniscient one, Lord Brahma told the saptharshis the truth
and enlightened them about the curse on seeing moon. He went to the Kailasa along with them,
paid respects to Siva & Parvati and propitiated them by reviving Vighneshwara from death.

Then, the Gods prayed to Parvati Devi thus: “O Mother! Your curse is causing harm to
the entire universe. We request you to remove your curse.” Thus appeased, Parvati Devi
modified the curse, limiting its effect to the day moon laughed at Vighneshwara, i.e, the day of
Bhaadrapadha Shuddha Chathurthi. Happy with this arrangement, Brahma and other Gods
returned to their respective abodes and exercised caution by not viewing moon on the day of
Bhaadrapadha Shuddha Chathurthi a.k.a. Vinayaka Chathurthi.

In the Dwaapara yuga, Sage Narada visited Lord Krishna at his abode in Dwaraka, made
obeisance and discussed various matters with him. Before the evening set, he sought leave of
Krishna and said, “O Lord! The evening will set in a short time. Today is the day of Vinayaka
Chathurthi. Owing to Parvati Devi’s curse, no one should see the moon tonight; hence I’d like to
reach home before dusk, please grant me leave.” Thus, he narrated the story of the previous
times to Lord Krishna and left for his abode in the heavens.

Then, Lord Krishna made it known in the entire city of Dwaraka that no one should see
the moon that night. That night, he being the lover of milk, Krishna started milking a cow and
saw the reflection of the moon in the milk vessel accidentally. He wondered what the effect of
this would be and what accusation he would have to face. After some time, Sathrajith, the king
who had received the Syamantaka gem from Surya, the Sun god visited Dwaraka to meet Lord
Krishna. After the usual courtesies, they started talking and Lord Krishna asked him to present
the gem to emperor Ugrasena. At this, Sathrajith remarked, “daily, this gem bestows eight
measures of gold. Only a fool would give it up.” In response, Krishna did not press his request
any further.

One day, Prasenjith, Sathrajith’s younger brother wore the gem in a necklace and went
into the forest for hunting. There, a lion mistook the gem to be a meat ball and killed Prasenjith
in an attack. In turn, it was attacked by a huge bear, which carried away the gem and presented it
to its baby daughter as a plaything. The next day, Sathrajith, anxious that his brother has not yet
returned from the hunt, suspected Lord Krishna and spread the word that “Krishna has killed my
brother and stole the gem as I was not willing to give him the same.” Krishna came to know of
this and realized that this baseless accusation that he was facing now, is the result of seeing the
moon on the day of Vinayaka Chathurthi. In an effort to clear his name, Krishna went to the
forest along with his entourage, followed the trail of Prasenjith, found his dead body, realized
that he was killed by a lion and decided to follow its footprints. After traveling some distance,
Lord Krishna realized from the footprints that the lion was attacked by a bear and hence followed
the trail of the bear leading to the entrance of a huge cave. Asking his entourage to wait outside,
Krishna entered the cave and saw the gem hanging from the cradle of a little bear girl. As
Krishna removed the gem, the girl started crying. An ayah came rushing, saw Krishna, and
shouted that a strange man has entered the cave. This hullabaloo caught the attention of the huge
bear, who was none other than the bear king Jambavantha. Angrily, he attacked Krishna with his
claws and jaws; Krishna retaliated by attacking him with trees, stones and even bare hands. The
duel went on non-stop, day and night, for a long period of twenty-eight days. Then, Jambavantha
recognized that he was weakening and that his strength was sapping; he realized that Krishna
was none other than an avatar of Lord Rama. When Rama slayed Ravana and defeated the
demon king’s armies with the help of Vanara (monkey-men) and Bhallooka (Bear) armies, he
asked Jamabavantha to choose a boon for the services rendered. Jambavantha, in a not-so-well
thought request, wanted to have a duel with Lord Rama. Then, Lord Rama assured him that he
would have a duel in the due course of time. Now, Jambavantha realized that his wish has at last
been granted and prayed to Krishna to forgive his misdemeanor. Krishna forgave him readily and
spoke thus: “O King of bears! I’ve come here in the search of Syamantaka gem so that I can free
myself of the baseless allegations hurled at me. Hand over the gem to me so that I can leave and
prove my innocence.” Jambavantha not only gave the gem back, but also gifted his daughter
Jambavathi to Krishna. Krishna came out of the cave with the gem and his bride Jambavathi,
informed his entourage of the happenings in the cave and reached his abode. He called for
Sathrajith, narrated to him the truth in a large assembly of people and returned the gem.
Ashamed, Sathrajith repented the baseless accusations he hurled at Lord Krishna; he offered the
hand of his daughter, Satyabhama in marriage to Krishna and also gave the gem to Krishna.
While Krishna accepted the hand of Satyabhama, he returned the gem back to Sathrajith. On an
auspicious day when Lord Krishna was to marry Jambavathi & Satyabhama, all the rishis and
Gods descended to the venue of marriage, praised Krishna and prayed thus: “O mighty one! Only
you could free yourself of such accusations, as you are infinitely capable. What about
insignificant beings like us? ” Krishna, the compassionate one declared in response – “Even if
some one sees the moon accidentally on the day of Vinayaka Chathurthi, he has no need to fear
about baseless allegations as long as he has performed the Ganapathi Puja that morning, heard
the story of the Syamantaka gem and placed the akshinthalu (raw rice mixed with turmeric) on
his head.” The Gods and rishis returned to their abodes in a happy frame of mind with this
assurance from Lord Krishna.

Thus, Sootha Maharishi finished narrating the story of the curse related to Ganadhipathi
and its remedy to the gathering consisting of sages such as Sounaka.

“Sarvejanaassukhinobhavanthu!”

“May the whole populace live happily!”

Note: - I request people to bear with the quality of my translation, if you find some deficiencies in the same. I’ve used the story appearing in the
Vinayaka Vratha Kalpam appearing in Rohini Publications’ Pedda Baala Siksha as the main source for the translation.
- Regards,
Srinivas Gunta
FPM III (CSP)
30/08/2003.