Hindu gods are bizarre and sometimes it’s difficult to understand why. One of which is the Elephant God or a God with an Elephant’s head Ganesha. He was not born like this but later he got the head of an elephant. There’s a very interesting saga behind it. Let’s talk about it. I’m sure you’d be thrilled to know more about it.

Elephant God: Birth

Let’s start from the very beginning. Nandi, Shiva’s associate used to guard Mata Parvati’s door while she took a bath. Nandi relented while Shiva wanted to go in while Parvati was bathing but couldn’t stop him. After seeing him Parvati got scared, covered herself, and felt embarrassed. She then decided that there needed to be someone who could guard the door while she was bathing as Nandi can never disobey Shiva.

She then created an illusion trance so that she couldn’t be seen by anybody. Took turmeric powder which she applied on her skin while bathing and carved an idol of a boy with it. Parvati breathed life into the idol and named him Ganesha. She also gave him super strength and knowledge so that he was capable of guarding the door. Since he was carved using the turmeric powder from Parvati’s body, the skin particles were also mixed into the powder. Hence, he is known as the son of Parvati.

If you notice Lord Ganesha is kind of obese. He is very fond of food. He loves to eat motichoor laddoos. Also, nobody could satisfy his hunger apart from his mother. There’s a very interesting story around that which you can read here. The Elephant God also has a pet rat which used to be his ride. He used to travel on his rat.

How did Ganesha get it?

The next day when Ganesha was standing on the door and Nandi Maharaja came to guard the door, he picked a fight with Ganesha. Nandi thought that it was his job to guard the door and he would not let anybody else do it. Ganesha was given instructions by her mother so he was also stubborn. This led to a fight between Nandi and Ganesha.

Since Ganesha has super strength he easily defeated Nandi Maharaja. Nandi then asked for help from the army of ghosts who are devotees of Shiva. But Ganesha defeated all of them easily due to his super strength and knowledge. This made lord Shiva very furious as to how a small boy defeated my whole army along with Nandi.

Shiva raged with anger and headed towards the cave where Parvati used to bathe. He tried to enter but was stopped by Lord Ganesha. Both Ganesha and Shiva were not aware of each other’s existence. Shiva tried to talk his way through the kid but nothing worked. He became more furious and took his trident and beheaded the boy.

As soon as Parvati heard the crying of his son, she came out of the cave and saw his loving son lying down beheaded. This made her angry and she declared that all the creation in the world would be ruined. Hearing this Lord Brahma ran there and requested her to take back her curse. She then declared that she would take back the curse only if her boy was brought back to life.

Elephant God: Saga

Lord Shiva also repented killing the boy with his powerful trident after knowing the truth. Even the Vedas forbid the killing of a child, a woman, a cow, and a Brahmin even if they are at fault. He then asked Brahma to head up north and get him the head of the first living being he saw. Brahma crossed paths with the Elephant first and requested it for its head.

He ran towards Kailash where all of it happened with the head of an elephant. Shiva with his powers fixed the head of an Elephant on Ganesha and brought him back to life. This is the reason we call him Elephant god. Lord Shiva could transform an object to its constitutional position. The Elephant God was made of turmeric powder but it also had dirt accumulated on Parvati’s body which represents material nature.

The Elephant God was made of dirt which symbolizes the illusion of the mind and stopped Shiva from meeting Parvati. In a sense, it prevented the soul from meeting the mind. When Shiva cut the head off and replaced it with Elephant which means memory. This symbolized that the mind has now taken birth to meet the soul.

That’s why Ganesha or the Elephant God represents this auspicious realization and personifies intellect, memory, patience, humility, and divinity. This is the reason he is worshipped first even before the supreme gods. A person who has all these qualities should be honored first in all three worlds.