The God of Beginnings

Gaayatri Pradeep
10-B

The God of Beginnings
Lord Ganesha is one of the most admired and widely worshiped deities in Hindu culture. He is the God of success and the God of Beginnings.The story of how lord Ganesha acquired his elephant head is very well known, he was following his mother; Parvati’s orders which were to not let anyone disturb her bath and while complying with this order, Ganesha ended up enraging Lord Shiv who in his divine fury severed the boy’s head with his Trishul, killing him instantly. We all know what happened later, in order to breathe new life into Ganesha the head of a baby elephant was placed onto the boy’s body. He was declared as Gajanana and was given the status of being foremost among the gods and leader of all the ganas, namely ‘ Ganapati’. I think we are so attached to him because of this story because often at some point of our life we have all been misunderstood and blamed wrongly when we were indeed doing the right thing. This story speaks of right prevailing over wrong, and second chances. It wasn’t right of Lord Shiva to punish Ganesha for simply doing what he was told to do and eventually, Ganesha was revived and he became known and loved for doing exactly what had gotten him killed in the first place. He stood up against Lord Shiva, the most powerful being ; just because he had given his word to Goddess Parvati. Had anyone else been in Lord Ganesha’s place, they would have let Lord Shiva pass without even hesitating; simply out of fear. Ganesha’s show of sincerity and willingness to do the right thing is why he is the god of beginnings, Every new beginning begins with us trying to do the right thing; forgiving ourselves for having done wrong before and moving on. We celebrate Lord Ganesha’s birth, not just because he is a great deity and is loved by all but because he reminds us that having integrity will always take us the right places, even if it seems like theres no other road ; if you are doing the right thing with an honest and sincere mind ; you will always prevail.

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