Lalbaugcharaja Aarti

Lalbaugcha Raja is the popular public Ganesha idol kept at Lalbaug, a prominent locality in Mumbai during Ganesh Chaturti festival. The idol is kept for public display for Eleven days thereafter it is immersed on the auspicious day of Anant Chaturdashi. The pendal attracts lakhs of devotees during the festival and is the center of prime attraction.

It is believed that this Idol of Lord Ganesha is Navsacha Ganpati (which means the fulfiller of all wishes) and hence around 1.5 million people or more visit this Ganesh Pandal daily during the 10 day Ganeshotsav festival.

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Lord Ganesha and Kartikeya

Lord Ganesha and Lord Kartikeya is the son of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati. Lord Ganesha, being the elder son, was very intelligent and wise in nature. On the other hand, Lord Kartikeya was very impatient and short tempered. They both possessed different nature and different physical qualities, thus some time they had serious arguments or fight.

Once they had a serious argument on their strength and wisdom. So they approached to Lord Shiva for final settlement and justice. After hearing both of them Lord Shiva declared that among the two, who will first complete circling the universe would be the winner.

Without any delay Lord Kartikeya sat on his “Vahana”, the peacock, and started his journey round the universe travelling across the mountains, the sea and the rest universe. But big bellied Ganesha knew that with his “Vahana” the little rat, he can’t win the race. So he stopped and thought for a while. Suddenly he got an idea; he made Lord Shiva and Parvati to sit together and walked around them thrice. When Kartikeya returned after successfully completing his round, he saw Ganesha sitting in lap of his father. He could not understand why Ganesha is sitting rather than completing his task and blamed Ganesha for being unjust. Lord Ganesha told him that he had completed his round not once but thrice. Ganesha said his parents are his Universe, thus he proved himself by circling them. Lord Shiva was very pleased with Ganesha and boon him with the first one to be worshipped by people before starting any work. But Kartikeya lost his patience and thought that his father especially his mother was partial to him. He took a pledge, not to see any women face specially his mother face. He kept his words that’s why in many temples of Lord Kartikeya women’s are not allowed to enter.

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Legend of Ganesh Chaturthi

The mythological basis of the celebration is found in the Puranas. Parvati, while taking a bath, wanted somebody to guard from outside. She got the idea of making an idol out of the dirt that came from her body. She placed the idol outside. The idol did not even let her husband enter. Shankar became furious and instantly severed the head of the idol.

Parvati finished her bath and came out. She explained to her husband the reason for placing the idol before the door. The idol was her creation. In fact the idol was her son ("manas putra"), and consequently also Shankar's son.

Shankar felt sorry for what he had done. His servant Gan was standing nearby. Shankar ordered him to go and bring the head of the first living being he would meet. The servant saw an elephant, and he at once cut his head and took it to Shankar. Shankar joined the elephant's head to the body of Parvati's son. "Gaj" means elephant and "anan" means head, so Parvati's son became known as "Gajanan". Shankar made him the deity of his armies and thus his name became Ganesh.

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Shree Panchmukhi Ganesha

Panchmukhi Ganesh means five headed Ganesha Pancha means Five and Mukhi means faced. The most relevant meaning of the five-headed Ganesh is certainly that these heads symbolize the five kosha in the subtile anatomy experienced. Thus, the fifth head of Ganesh symbolizes the highest level of yogic experience. Lord Ganesha has all the five elements under His control. He is the embodiment of all potency. No one is superior above him. This unique form of Ganesha is quite popular in south India.

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Ganeshji Writing for Mahabharata

The Mahabharata is the longest epic of the world, written in Sanskrit and consisting about 1,00,000 shloka and 1.8 million words. The epic of Mahabharata was written by great poet Sage Vyasa with blessings and suggestion of Lord Brahma. Vyasa asked Lord Brahma to suggest him someone very intellectual and understanding to write down the epic, as both composition and writing of such great epic was not an easy task. Therefore on recommendation of Brahma Vyasa prayed and requested Lord Ganesha, also known as "Lord of knowledge" to write it down. Lord Ganesha agreed on one condition that his pen shouldn't stop even for second once he starts writing the composition as he had lots of other work to do. For this Vyasa in return put one condition before Ganesha to write the whole epic only after understanding the meaning of each and every word. In this way they made an agreement whith each other that, once started neither Vyasa would stop his dictating nor Gansha will write without understanding. It is been said that whenever Ganesha was too fast in writing, Vyasa used to dictate him some difficult composition. So that Ganesha would take time to understand and in this meantime Sage Vaysa used to compose new lines. In this way The Great Epic of Mahabharata was composed and written.

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Names of Ganeshji

Ekadant (one-toothed) 

To scribe the Mahabharat Katha Ganeshji removed one of his tusks to carve a quill from it. He then scribed the epic on palm leaves as the sage Ved Vyas recited it. The scribing took three years!In south India there is a belief that when ploughing first began on earth, it was Lord Ganeshji who first ploughed using one of his tusks

In the Uttar Ramayan, Brahmand Puran and Padma Puran there is a reference of a battle between Ganeshji and Parshuram. During the duel, the latter's axe fractured one of Ganeshji's tusks According to the Brahmand Puran, it was his left tusk.

There are other names related to his body and virtues.

A few commonly known are listed below: 

Lambodar - from the long - 'lambo', tummy - 'udar'.

Gajkarna - from the large elephant 'Gaja' ears - 'karna.'

Kapil - from his ruddy complexion.

Vikat - heavy-bodied.

Bhalchandra - having a Chandra (moon) on his forehead - 'bhal.

Dwaimatur - one who has 'dwi' - two, 'mata' - mother; Parvati - who gave birth to him and Malini - a demoness who nurtured him

Vakratund - one who breaks the ego of he who behaves anti-socially ('Vakra').

Mudgal - In south India, a special 'Mudgal Puran' extols Ganapati's glory. It cites 32 names, while 'Shardatilak' lists 51 names.

Vigneshwar - One who removes mayic obstacles - 'vignas'

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Ganesh History

Ganesh Birth 

Once Lord Shiva left his usual dwelling on Mt.Kailas in the Himalayas, to meditate in one of the caves in the same mountain. Two friends of Parvati, his consort, suggested that she should have a 'gana' - attendant of their own, since they were not too happy with Shivaji's 'ganas'. Parvati agreed. Soon after, using her divine powers, she created a son, naming him Vinayak. She instructed him to guard their home.

When Shivaji returned Vinayak prevented him from entering. After some bickering, Shivaji beheaded Vinayak with his 'trishul' (trident). When Parvati heard of this she lamented intensely. Shivaji realised his error. To set things right he sent his men to the forest to fetch the head of the first living thing they met. They encountered a baby elephant and returned with its head. With his divine power, Shivaji placed the head over his son's body. Instantly Vinayak sprung to life. Henceforth Vinayak also earned the name of Gajaanan. 'Gaja' means elephant. Shivaji blessed him with a boon that people would first worship and offer him dedication in all their auspicious activities. Those who didn't would not attain success.

Bhadarva Sud 4th is the day Parvati was offering the final pujan to the dead Ganeshji, when he resurrected.

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