Vinayaka Purana

Vinayaka Puraram is an ancient Purana, and it is considered to be one of the best Purana, since it tells about the significance of Lord Vinayaka, who is also called as Ganesha, Ganapathy, Gananata and by various other names. This wonderful Purana is also called as Bhargava Purana, since it was heard by the great Bhrigu Munivar, who is also considered to be an aspect of Lord Vishnu.

ORIGIN OF VINAYAKA PURANA

Once various sages approached the creator god and our Divine Father, Lord Brahma Deva, and prayed him to select a particular sacred place in the earth, in order to perform fire sacrifices (Yagnas). Lord Brahma has advised them to do fire rituals in the Naimisaranyam Forest, since it is considered to be a best place for performing penance and for doing fire sacrifices even till today! When the sages went to that worshipful place, and began to start doing Yagnas, they have met the learned sage Soodama, who is well versed in all the Puranas. All the sages worshipped the great sage Soodama, provided him with fruits and tree roots as food, and asked him to tell about the wonderful Purana of Lord Vinayaka.

As per the request of the sages, Soodama Rishi began to tell the wonderful story of Lord Vinayaka.

This Purana was first known by Lord Brahma from Lord Shiva, and Lord Brahma has told about the Purana to Sri Vedavyasa, later Vedavyasa has told the Purana to Rishi Bhrigu.
The story of Somakandan

As per legend, in the country of Sourashtra, once there lived a King whose name was Somakandan and he ruled the Devanagar City in a well-versed manner. His wife was Sudamai who was a chaste, pious and a kind hearted woman, and they had one son whose name was Yema Kandan. Though the king Somakandan had prosperously ruled over his kingdom, yet due to his past birth karmic deeds, he began to suffer from leprosy. Due to that, he has crowned his son as a king for his kingdom, left his palace along with his queen, went to the forest. There he met Rishi Bhrigu, and told him about his sufferings. The great Rishi Bhrigu had patiently heard about his problem, and he began to tell about the wonderful story of Lord Vinayaka.

Once the entire world began to suffer from bad activities, and due to that, the practice of worshipping the god was stopped and the significance of Vedas was lost. In order to put an end to the problems, Sri Vedavyasa, an aspect of Lord Vishnu was born to Rishi Parasara and Machakanti, and he began to segregate the Vedas into four forms, and named it as Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharvana. Later he has learnt the 18 Puranas from Sanat Kumaras, the mind born sons of Lord Brahma, but, still after doing these types of good activities, his mind was upset, and due to that he worshipped Lord Brahma. Brahma appeared before Vedavyasa and asked him to worship Lord Vinayaka before doing any type of work. Rishi Vedavyasa had realised his mistake, he chanted the various names of Lord Vinayaka, and after that, he has got good confidence and will power, to do any kind of activity.

As per the request of Vedavyasa, Lord Brahma began to tell about the significance of Lord Vinayaka.

“Hey My Dear Vyasa, all the Trimurti including me, are controlled by Lord Vinayaka, since, he is the remover of obstacles, provider of good prosperity, happiness, peace of mind and many more. Those who worship Lord Vinayaka would be relieved from their sins and diseases. Hence always keep chanting the wonderful names of Lord Vinayaka”.

As per the saying of Lord Brahma, Rishi Vedavyasa has performed severe penance on Lord Vinayaka for a period of twelve years, and pleased by his devotion Lord Vinayaka had appeared before him and granted sufficient boons to him.

After hearing this excellent story, King Somakandan had got completely relieved from leprosy and his body began to shine like the glittering gold. Thereafter till his death, the king and the queen worshipped Lord Vinayaka sincerely, and due to that, they have attained the lotus feet of Lord Vinayaka.

After telling this wonderful incident to the sages, Rishi Soodama had taken rest for a while, and then again he began to tell about the divine play and about the significance of Lord Vinayaka.

DIVINE PLAY OF LORD VINAYAKA

Devi Rishi Narada who is well known for his mischievous acts, had once visited Lord Shiva and Ma Parvati at their holy abode Kailash, by keeping a delicious mango on his hand. Narada wants to give the fruit to the divine parents, and hence he gave the fruit to Lord Shiva and Parvati, and asked them to eat it. But since they showered great love and affection on their sons, they decided to give the mango to one of their sons.

As per the suggestion of Narada, the two children must have to travel the entire world for three times and whoever wins, are to be rewarded with the mango. Lord Muruga immediately started riding on his peacock vehicle in order to circumambulate the whole world. But Lord Ganesha circumambulated his parents for three times, since he considered that circumambulating Shiva and Parvati, is equivalent to circumambulating the entire world. After some time, Lord Muruga had arrived to Kailash with his peacock vehicle, and after knowing about the entire incident, he declared that his elder brother Lord Ganesha is the winner, and he happily agreed to consume the mango by his brother Lord Ganesha.

SIGNIFICANCE OF LORD VINAYAKA

Lord Vinayaka is the true Brahman, and only from his powers, the entire universe, including the gods, goddesses and other creations were born. Lord Vinayaka created Brahma and asked him to do his creation work. But since Lord Brahma didn’t worship Lord Vinayaka before his creation activity, all of his creations looked very strange in size. Lord Brahma had realised his mistake, sought apology to Lord Vinayaka, and with his blessings, he began to again do his creation work in an excellent manner.

MARRIAGE OF LORD VINAYAKA

Lord Brahma’s two beautiful daughters are Siddhi and Buddhi. As per the request of Lord Brahma, Lord Vinayaka had got married with his two daughters, Siddhi and Buddhi, and took them to his abode, the marvellous, “GANESA LOKA”.

LORD VISHNU’S VINAYAKA WORSHIP

Once while Lord Vishnu was in the state of Yoga Nidra, two demons, Madhu and Kaitaba were born from his ears and they began to fight with Lord Vishnu. Though Lord Vishnu bravely fought with the two demons for several years, yet he was unable to defeat them. After some time, he realised his mistake, and began to worship the first god Vinayaka. Due to that, he was able to destroy the two demons within a few seconds itself!

LORD SHIVA’S VINAYAKA WORSHIP

Lord Shiva was able to easily destroy the powerful demon Tripurantaka, since he worshipped Lord Vinayaka.

MA PARVATI’S VINAYAKA WORSHIP

When Ma Shakti Devi has taken birth as Ma Parvati, his father Himavan, the king of Himalayas, has asked her to worship Lord Vinayaka, in order to marry with Lord Shiva. Ma Parvati has also worshipped Lord Vinayaka, and as a result, she was able to marry with Lord Shiva, and she was able to settle down in the Holy Mountain Kailash, along with her consort, Lord Shiva.

VARIOUS FORMS OF LORD VINAYAKA

1. Bala Ganapati
This form of Ganapati looks in the form of a child, and he resembles similar to child Krishna. While child Krishna was fond of butter, here Bala Ganapati was very fond of mothakams. By worshipping this form of Ganapati, childless couples would be blessed with good child, and we would get peace and prosperity in our life.
2. Taruna Ganapati
This form of ganapati looks red in colour, and appears in youth form, and contains divine appearance. He has to be worshipped mainly by the teenagers in order to prosper in their education, job and marriage.
3. Bhakti Ganapati
This form of Ganapati showers his blessings to his ardent devotees, and gives good fortunes in their life. Those who worship this form of Ganapati in the Vinayaka Chaturthi day, would be relieved from their past birth sins and would get great happiness and peacefulness in their life.
4. Veera Ganapati
This form of Ganapati gives braveness, courage, physical and mental strength to the worshippers and would make his sincere devotees to blossom in their life.
5. Shakti Ganapati
Shakti Ganapati gives his helping hands to all of his devotees. He gives great power and intelligence in order to discharge our duties in a proper manner.
6. Dvija Ganapati
Dvija Ganapati gives wealth and good knowledge. By worshipping him, we would get good grasping power, and our body would function in a proper manner.
7. Siddhi Ganapati
Siddhi Ganapati finishes our tasks successfully, provided if we worship him properly, by chanting his various names, and we should regularly do puja in our home during every Chathurthi day.
8. Lakshmi Ganapati
This form of Lord Vinayaka would bless us with all kinds of riches and bring great prosperities in our life. By worshipping him, we would be able to buy a house without much difficulty and can live happily in that place, and problems from enemies would not arise.
9. Maha Ganapati
This is the common form of Lord Vinayaka. By worshipping Maha Ganapati we would be protected from evil forces, and severe dreaded diseases, problems from black magic, mental diseases would disappear immediately from our body.
10. Vijaya Ganapati
He gives great victory to us, and worshipped by the students to secure good marks in their exams, and by the youngsters to get a proper job, good marriage life, and to shine in their life.
11. Nritya Ganapati
This type of Ganapati is the dancing ganapati, who joyfully dances, and blossoms our life like a lotus flower, and he would make us also to joyfully dance, by giving all sorts of goodness in our life.
12. Varada Ganapati
This form of Ganapati fulfills the devotees’ wishes. And grant various boons to them, and finally he would give salvation to his sincere devotees.
13. Ekadanta Ganapati
This form of Ganapati contains only one tusk. And we can offer sweets and mothakam as holy Prasad to him. By worshipping him, we would get a sense of satisfaction, and a great pleasure, which we would never get anywhere else.
14. Srishti Ganapati
This form is the happiest form of Vinayagar. By worshipping this Vinayaka, all of our mind related problems would vanish, and we would get good health, wealth and spiritual energy.
15. Yoga Ganapati
This form of Lord Vinayaga looks in a meditative state and blesses his devotees. He likes those devotees who meditates and prays to him.
16. Sankatahara Ganapati
Sankatahara Ganapati eliminates all of our miseries and sorrows. Unncessary fear, tensions and angriness would be eliminated by worshipping this form of Lord Vinayaka.
17. Gajanana
This avatar was taken in order to defeat Demon Lobhasur. Knowing about Lord Ganesa’s power, the demon surrendered to lord Ganesa without commencing a war.
18. Sindoora Ganapathy
Since Lord Vinayaka had destroyed the evil demon Sindoorasur, he came to be known as “SINDOORA GANAPATHY”.

SIGNIFICANCE OF ARUKAMPUL

Arukampul also known as scutch grass in English is a divine grass which is used to decorate Lord Vinayaka. This special kind of grass was mentioned in ancient puranas, and also it contains lot of medicinal properties. It is a favourite grass of Lord Vinayaka, and those who adorn this grass and perform puja to Vinayaka, would receive all kinds of prosperities in the earth and also would get SALVATION after the end of their life.

According to ancient legend, once there lived a demon with the name “ANALASURAN” and he had created lot of troubles to all the living beings in the earth and in the heaven. Due to that, all the demi gods and gods gathered in front of Lord Vinayaka and prayed to him to save from the demon. Lord Vinayaka had accepted their prayers, and swallowed the demon. Due to that, Lord Vinyaka’s stomach began to burn, and after adorning Arukampul to him by the sages and the gods, he got relieved from his problem, and given a boon that whoever worships him with Arukampul would receive his immense blessings and would be relieved from all sorts of problems in their life, and can live happily for ever. Due to that, all the demi gods and sages were become very happy and praised his glories.

From then onwards, people in the earth as well in the heaven, began to worship the “FIRST GOD LORD VINAYAKA USING ARUKAMPUL”.

CONCLUSION

Lord Vinayaka is the first god in the Hindu tradition. Every Hindu worship Lord Vinayaka as the obstacle remover and people will worship him daily before doing their daily routines.

Lord Vinayaka is the symbol of Wisdom and Faith. He is regarded as the god of gods. Lord Ganesh Temple is situated in almost all parts of India. Even under a tree, he will be available.
It is mentioned in our puranas, that even divine gods worship lord Vinayaga before doing any new activity. Such a kind of importance is given for Lord Ganapathi. Since he emerged from Goddess Parvathi, he contains the Shakti element. That is, protecting and safeguarding the people and removing the evil elements in their life.
Hence let us worship Lord Vinayaka as a regular activity, in order to get his blessings forever in our life.

“OM SRI VINAYAKA MOORTHY NAMAHA”
WRITTEN BY
R.HARISHANKAR