4 Ganesha
Lord Vinayaka is called as “Mushikasura Samhara Moorthy”, since he killed the demon Mushika. Once there lived a demon, whose name was Mushika, who was in the form of a rat, and he created lot of troubles to the whole universe, and the matter was reported to the first god Lord Vinayaka. On hearing the cries of the celestial Devas, Lord Vinayaka decided to wage a war with Mushika. When Vinayaka fought with Mushika, he began to take a big form, and laughed on Lord Vinayaka, by looking at his small size.
In order to teach him a lesson, Vinayaka began to grow in size, much bigger than Mushika, and to his surprise, Mushika found that the whole universe lies in the stomach of Lord Vinayaka. And in that stomach, he has seen even the Trimurty and the Tridevi and also seen them worshipping Lord Vinayaka.
On seeing this wonderful divine vision of Lord Vinayaka, Mushikasura had understood about the significance of Lord Vinayaka, but, even, then in order to get a holy death under the hands of Lord Vinayaka, he began to fight with him using various weapons, but finally he was killed by Lord Vinayaka, and Vinayaka also granted him salvation by making him as his divine vehicle, “MUSHIKA”. Mushika is also considered to be an aspect of Lord Vinayaka, since he permanently lives with him in the “GANESHA LOKA”.
Lord Mushika occupies a permanent place under the feet of Lord Vinayaka, similar to Lord Nandi Bhagavan and Garuda Bhagavan who are sincerely serving their masters with great devotion. From this incident, we could knew, how the great almighty is showering his unlimited blessings even to the demons, animals and birds, like Mushika, Nandikeshwara and Garudazhvar. In the Vinayaka Purana, the significance of Mushika is mentioned, and he is considered to be the part and parcel of Lord Vinayaka, and he also act as a mediator between us and Lord Vinayaka.
Whenever we come cross any Vinayaka Temple, after worshipping Lord Vinayaka, we have to worship his favourite Mushika also, in order to get the blessings of both of the gods.
Lord Vinayaka is also called as “VIGNESHWARA”, since he removes the obstacles of the people, and makes them to breathe easily in their lives, and he is also called as “SARVESWARA”, the one who controls the entire universe, and he is also called as “MOTHAKA PRIYANE”, since he is very fond of Mothakams also called as Kozhukattai in Tamil. Lord Vinayaka is also very fond of Holy Prasad items like Bananas and Guava fruits. He is also called as “VARASIDDHI VINAYAKA”, since he is the giver of boons to his devotees in a merciful manner, Lord Vinayaka is known as “KAMALA VINAYAKA”, since he gets seated on a holy Lotus flower.
Lord Vinayaka is the favourite god for all the people, and even some people belonging to other religions would worship him during the Vinayaka Chaturthi festival day. Lord Vinayaka is apart from caste, creed, community and religion. He would even shower his grace to the non-believers of god, since he is considered to be the most “MERCIFUL AND LOVELY GOD”, who always thinks about our welfare, and also takes care of us, whenever we seek his help during the times of our difficulties.
“OM SRI MUSHIKASURA SAMHARA MOORTHY NAMAHA”
WRITTEN BY
R.HARISHANKAR