how ganesha got his head

This was an e-mail for my brother, because he got a Ganesha from us for Christmas and I wanted him to know about him. However, I figured that maybe other people might want to know too.

As with all Indian myths and holidays, there are countless different versions of what any one thing might mean. The country is large and comprised of many different cultures and locales. I mean, this is a place that has over 215 spoken languages, with fifteen (15) of them being official (Assamese, English, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Sanskrit). So here is the story of Ganesha, Chennai style:

Ganesha is the son of Shiva and Parvati. Shiva is like the head honcho god; Shiva the Destroyer. Parvati is his wife. Now when Ganesha was born, Shiva went on a hunting trip that lasted a very, very long time, 'cause he's a god and he can do whatever he wants to do.

One day, Parvati went to bathe in her special goddess bathroom. She put Ganesha at the entrance to guard her and keep evildoers from bothering her. Ganesha was very loyal to his mother, and when a stranger came and demanded entrance, he refused to let him pass.

Unbeknownst to poor Ganesha, the stranger was his very own father, Shiva, returned from his long hunting trip. Having been separated for so long, Ganesha did not know Shiva and, likewise, Shiva did not know Ganesha. Furious at being kept from his own wife's bath, he cut Ganesha's head off with his sword.

Now, understandably, Parvati was none too happy about this development and got rather angry. When she told Shiva what he had done, he was very distraught, both because he had killed his own son and because Parvati was wicked pissed. Here is his dead son, with no head, and blood all over and just a general mess all around. So he did the only thing that was possible at the time, which was to replace Ganesha's head with the head of the first thing he saw, which happened to be a baby elephant. So he cut the elephants' head off and stuck it on his son's neck, thereby saving his life and creating Ganesha, the Elephant-Headed God.

Now, other drastically different versions exist. In one, Parvati creates Ganesha, a boy, from a piece of sandalwood to keep her company and Shiva is jealous. In another, Parvati is bored and prays to Lord Vishnu to give her a son, which he does. In yet another, Parvati forces the son of Surya, the Sun God, to look at her baby in order to bless him and the gaze burns Ganesha's head off. But whichever version of the myth one chooses, it is always the same that Ganesha's head gets cut off and is replaced by an elephant head to save his life.

Ganesha is the most popular Hindu god because he is happy and good-natured and his major chore is to remove obstacles and ensure safety and well-being. Also, he is cute and he rides a mouse. One prays to him and takes care of him in order to have him help smooth you life's path and protect you , your family, and your home from the evil eye.

To worship Ganesha, you stand facing the temple, cross your arms across your chest and under your chin, and grab your earlobes, so that your right earlobe is in your left hand and your left earlobe is in your right hand. Then you bow slightly forward as you, basically, do squats. This looks rather funny, but makes sense. You see, unlike other gods, Ganesha appreciates and is amused by things that humans can do but that he cannot. His head is too wide for him to reach his earlobes with crossed arms and his tummy is too big to bow and squat down. It makes him happy to see you doing it.

It makes me happy to see everybody at the temple doing it.