Karna, the Courageous

Karna is perhaps the most skilled and valiant warrior in the Kurukshetra war fought between the Kauravas and the Pandavas. Having said that, Karna was also undoubtedly the most ill fated or unluckiest character in the epic Mahabharata.

Bad luck struck him right from the time of his birth. Karna was in fact the eldest of Kunti's (Mother of Pandavas) sons. The story of his birth goes like this - When Kunti was young and still unmarried, the sage Durvasav happened to visit her father's palace. She served the sage with utmost care throughout his stay at the palace for an entire year. Pleased at her hospitality and foreseeing her future that she wouldn't have children after her marriage to Pandu, Durvasav granted her a boon to call upon any God of her choice and beget a child. The sage advised her to use the boon only after her marriage. But out of curiosity and the enthusiasm of her young age she invoked the mantra and called the Sun God. And thus Karna was born. Being the son of the Sun God, Karna was born with a magical armour and  pair of ear rings attached to him, which could shield him against the deadliest of the weapons ever made. Though Kunti retained her virginity, she was not confident to face the world as an unwed mother. And so with the help of one of her maids, she placed Karna in a basket and set him aloft on the holy River Ganges in the hope that her child would be taken in by another family.

But as fate would have it, the child in the basket was found by a charioteer of King Dritharastra, father of the Kauravas. Though fostered by a charioteer, Karna showed interest in learning the art of weapons. Watching Drona training the Pandavas and the Kauravas, Karna once approached the master and requested him to take him as his disciple. Being the teacher employed by the royal house exclusively to train the princes, he refused to take Karna for a student. But this didn't tamper with Karna's desire to train in arms and he, with the help of his brother Shona, started to train himself. Since, according to the tradition, every student needed to have a Guru (Teacher), Karna considered the Sun God (Karna didn't know about his parentage yet) as his Guru. Within no time, he trained himself to be a great archer and a wielder of sword. He soon reached a point where the need of a real Guru was inevitable to further polish his skills. And so he went to Parashurama, who was the Guru of Drona. But Parashurama had vowed to train only Brahmins (Higher castes) and had taken an oath of vengeance towards all existing Kshatriyas (royal family members). Now, that's a different story...

And so, Karna pretended to be a Brahmin boy and took lessons under Parashurama. No sooner, Karna became an exemplary archer and a great warrior. Towards the end of his stay with Parashurama, bad luck or ill fate, which kept following Karna all through his life struck another blow. Once when the both of them where loitering in a nearby jungle, Parashurama said he felt tired and wanted to rest. Karna offered his lap as a pillow for his Guru. Soon as the Guru slipped into a deep sleep, there came a giant bee and stung Karna's thigh. As he didn't want to disturb his Guru's sleep, Karna bore with all the pain and sat still. The bee further bored into his thigh and the wound began to bleed. Parashurama soon woke up and coming to know about this, deduced that Karna was not a Brahmin, for only Kshatriyas were capable of bearing with such agonising pain. Without waiting for any further explanations, Parashurama cursed Karna that he'd forget all that he learned and acquired when he most needed them. Karna defended himself by telling his Guru the truth, as he knew it (you shold note that Karna was still not aware of his real parentage), that he was not a Kshatriya but a member of a lower caste and that it's only his genuine and immense desire to learn the art of weapons that made him lie. Calming down, Prashurama took pity on Karna. But the curse cannot be taken back and so to compensate that he gifted Karna with a celestial weapon called the Bhargavastra and his own personal bow called Vijaya and blessed him that in the end, Karna would achieve what he wanted the most - everlasting glory and immortal fame.

On another occasion, while practicing Shabdavedi Vidya (Hitting a target by just observing the sound), Karna mistook a cow for a wild animal and killed it. The owner of the cow was a poor Brahmin and the cow was his dear possession. In a fit of anger and agony, the Brahmin cursed Karna that he too will be killed in the same way when he was most helpless and vulnerable.

Bad luck struck Karna yet another time when he was charioting past a country side. He came across a little girl crying over a pot of spilt ghee. She said her step mother would get mad at her for her carelessness. Being generous, Karna said he'd send her a fresh pot of ghee but the girl refused. She said she will only take the ghee spilt on the soil. And so Karna took the soil in his fist and squeezed the ghee out of it with his utmost might. Suddenly he heard the agonized voice of a woman and upon opening his fist, he realized that the voice was that of Bhoomidevi - Goddess Earth. She got furious at Karna for hurting her for the sake of pleasing a child and cursed him that during a major battle in his life she'd trap the wheel of his chariot thereby making him vulnerable to the enemy.

Though Karna was, in fact the eldest of the Pandavas, he had to take the side of the evil Duryodhana, the eldest of the Kauravas. And the reason for this goes like this - Once when all of them were still in their youth, Drona conducted a competition to award the best archer. The feat was to hit the eye of a parrot hung on the bark of a tree. Arjuna, undoubtedly achieved this with ease. But then came Karna who surpassed Arjuna and went on to challenge him for a duel. But according to the rules and tradition only a prince can duel another prince and so Karna was disqualified. Further, the Pandavas made fun of him and cajoled him for showing the audacity to challenge a prince when he was just the son of a charioteer. Shamed and humiliated, Karna stood with his heads down. But Duryodhana, seeing that Karna is the strongest chance he can have against the more powerful Pandavas, came to Karna's rescue. Duryodhana immediately offered Karna, the throne of Anga kingdom, thereby making him a king and hence eligible to duel Arjuna anytime in future.

One another event worth mentioning is the Swayamvar (A process of letting the girl choose her bride from a group of assembled young suitors who will be asked to perform certain heroic deeds) of Draupadhi. Karna was in fact an unmatched suitor for Draupadhi. He easily accomplished the task to win the princess. But Draupadhi insulted him by calling him a "sooth-putra" (son of a charioteer). And later Arjuna accomplished the same task and won the hands of Draupadhi. All these events in Mahabharata marked the rivalry between Karna and the Pandavas as a whole and Karna pledged his complete allegiance to Duryodhana.

Karna, as soon as he was crowned the King of Anga, took an oath that anyone who approached him with a request at midday, when he offered his prayers to the Sun, would not go empty-handed. This practice contributed to Karna's fame as well as his downfall. Just before the beginning of the Kurukshetra war, Lord Indra took the form of a beggar and approached Karna on a midday and asked for his Kavacha (body armour) and Kundala (earring), which were fixed to his body from the time of his birth and acted as his shield against any powerful weapons. The generous Karna gave away both the things without a second thought, little knowing that it was a trick to make him more vulnerable on the battle field.


Though Karna was a loyal comrade of Duryodhana, he at times advised Duryodhana against any cunning or unfair means to do away with the Pandavas. He even called Duryodhana a coward when the later tried to mass murder the Pandavas in a castle of lac. So righteous, brave and courageous was Karna and it was only his ill fate that he had to fight on the wrong side.

It was during the time of battle that Karna came to know about his real parentage through Lord Krishna. Krishna tried to lure him to the side of Pandavas by telling him that he was the eldest of the Pandavas and upon winning the battle, the righteous Yudhishtira, the eldest of the Pandavas (supposedly) would only be happy to crown Karna as the King of the Indraprastha dynasty. The knowledge of Pandavas being his younger brothers, though wiped out all the enmity that he had towards them, Karna still refused to abandon Duryodhana. To Karna, his genetic ties to the Pandavas was not enough to eclipse his loyalty to Duryodhana. Besides, he told Krishna that if he were to take the side of Pandavas, the side of Truth and Dharma, Pandavas would certainly win the battle. Besides Yudhistira being a very righteous man would most certainly give away his throne to Karna, which he will have to give away to Duryodhana because of his loyalty to him. And this, according to Karna was unfair because Duryodhana, though Karna was fighting on his side, did not deserve the throne of Indraprastha because of his evil deeds and villainy. This reflects a very essential side of Karna - a man who stood for moral courage and Dharma.

During the battle of Kurukshetra, Karna was indeed the toughest opponent that the Pandavas had to fight. But all his curses came into play which ensured that Karna fell a prey to Arjuna's deadly arrows. Firstly, his  chariot wheel got trapped in the ground and when he was trying to pull it out, Krishna ordered Arjuna to kill Karna. It was actually against the rules of war to attack an unarmed opponent. But knowing that, even without his magical armour and earring, Karna would be a tough match for Arjuna once he's back in his chariot and armed, Krishna had no other choice than to ask Arjuna to take the life of the greatest warrior the world has ever seen, when he was not on his guard!

*****************************************************************

On a personal note, I wonder why God's always got things through unfair means. The justification anyone has for this is that God knew better and besides in Krishna'a own words, "End justifies the means". The defeat of Kauravas was undoubtedly the right thing to've happened, I agree. But why slay off greatest of the greatest warriors like Karna and Bhishma (That's be my next edition) and that too by unfair means!

Mahashivratri

Shivratri or Maha Shivratri is a festival celebrated every year on the 13th night of the new moon, during the month of Maagha (as per Shalivahana or Gujarati Vikrama) or Phalguna (as per Vikrama) in the Hindu Calendar (that is, the night before and day of the new moon). The festival is principally celebrated by offerings of Bael (Bilva) leaves to Lord Shiva, all day fasting and an all night long vigil. Ganga is traditionally used as an offering for Lord Shiva and his followers.

Per scriptural and discipleship traditions, the penances are performed in order to gain boons in the practice of Yoga and meditation, in order to reach the goal more swiftly and avoid rebirth.

Now, coming to the story part of it - Once the Devas (dwellers of heaven) came to know about Mrutha Sangivani, which when consumed would give them immortality and strength that would enable them to over power the Asuras (Demons of the underworld) forever. But this magical potion had to be churned out of Palazhi (Sea of milk) in heaven which seemed like a Herculean task for them. They finally decided to seek the help of Asuras in meeting this task and agreed to offer them a part of the magical potion as a reward.

And so they got together and started churning the Palazhi. The story goes that a big mountain and Vasuki, the ten-headed snake of Lord Vishnu were used to churn the Ocean of Milk. During this process, haalaa-hala, a poison, came out of the ocean. It was so toxic, it could have wiped out the entire creation. At this juncture, on the advice of Lord Vishnu, the gods approached Lord Shiva and prayed to him to protect their lives by consuming this poison. Pleased with their prayers, and out of compassion for living beings, Lord Shiva drank the poison but it was so intense that something was required to cool its effects as his throat became blue. Help was taken from Chandra (Moon God) and finally a snake was placed around his neck which cooled the effect of the poison and the throat became blue. Thus Lord Shiva is also known as Neelakantha (Blue Necked).

This was the version of the story told and retold to me a hundred times by my dad. He was an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva and this was one of his favourite stories from the Hindu mythology.

Abhimanyu, caught in Chakravyooha...

Abhimanyu is a tragic hero in the Hindu epic Mahabharatha. Born to Arjuna, the best archer and one amoung the Pandavas, and Subhadra, the half sister of Lord Krishna, Abhimanyu is said to be the partial incarnation of the Moon. Legend has it that he, if he had lived enough, would have eclipsed his father as an archer. However, the young lad met with one of the most tragic deaths in the battle of Kurukshethra between the Pandavas and the Kauravas.

As an unborn child in his mother's womb, Abhimanyu learned the technique of entering the deadly and virtually impenetrable Chakravyooha from his uncle, Lord Krishna. It is said so that he overheard Lord Krishna discussing this with Subhadra from the womb. Lord Krishna explains to Subhadra in detail, the technique of attacking and escaping from various vyoohs (an array of army formation) such as Makaravyoha, Kurmavyooha, Sarpavyuha etc. After explaining all the vyoohs, he explains about the technique of cracking Chakravyooha, which is the most deadliest of all and the knowledge of escaping and cracking it is known only to the masters of war strategies like Krishna, Arjuna, Drona and Bhishma. Krishna tells how to enter the Chakryavyooha. When he was about to explain how to exit from it, he realised that Subadra had fallen asleep and stops explaining about it any further. As a result, the baby Abhimanyu in the womb did not get a chance to learn how to come out of it.

Abhimanyu spent his childhood in Dwaraka, his mother's city. He was trained by Pradyumna, the son of Lord Krishna, and by his great warrior father Arjuna, and brought up under the guidance of Krishna. His father arranged his marriage to Uttara, daughter of King Virata to seal an alliance between the Pandavas and the royal family of Virata, in light of the forthcoming Kurukshetra battle. The Pandavas had been hiding in-cognito to live through the final year of their exile without being discovered, in the Virata kingdom.

Being the grandson of Lord Indra, god of mystical weapons and wars, Abhimanyu was a courageous and dashing warrior. Considered an equal to his father owing to his prodigious feats, Abhimanyu was able to hold at bay great heroes like Drona, Karna, Duryodhana and Dushasana. He was praised for his audacious bravery and absolute loyalty to his father, his uncles and to their cause. Abhimanyu took part in the battle of Kurukshethra and killed important and powerful people such as Lakshman, the son of Duryodhana and Brihadbala, the king of Kosala of the Ikshwaku dynasty.

However on the 13th day of the battle Kauravas tried to threaten away the Pandavas with the Chakravyooha. Unfortunately Arjuna and Krishna were dragged into slaughtering the Kaurava army on another front and the Pandavas were left with no choice but to attempt to use the young and brave Abhimanyu, who had the knowledge on how to break into the formation but none whatsoever regarding how to break out of it. To make sure that Abhimanyu did not get trapped in this endeavour, the remaining Pandava brothers decided that they and their allies would also break into the formation along with Abhimanyu and assist the boy in breaking out of it. It is important to note that the plan hatched well after Arjuna and Krishna had been distracted away from the scene.

Using his knowledge of the Chakravyoovha, Abhimanyu successfully broke into the formation. The Pandava brothers and allies attempted to follow him inside the formation, but they were effectively cut off by Jayadratha, the Sindhu king, who made use of a boon from Lord Shiva that enabled him to hold off all Pandavas except Arjuna for a day. Abhimanyu was left to fend for himself against the entire Kaurava army.

Abhimanyu commanded his charioteer to lead his chariot towards Drona (the arms and artillery teacher to both the Pandavas and the Kauravas). The charioteer, thinking it was not wise to do so, raised objections and requested the sixteen-year-old to take time to think about it before he began the battle. He pointed out that Abhimanyu had grown up amidst great love and comforts and he was not a master of the battle arts as Drona was. Laughing aloud, Abhimanyu said to his charioteer: “What is this Drona or even the entire world of kshatriyas to me? I can fight Indra himself, mounted on his Airavata, along with all the gods! Why, I can fight in a battle even Lord Rudra himself, to whom the entire world of beings pays homage! This battle that I am going to wage today does not bewilder me in the least. This entire army of enemies is not equal to one sixteenth of my power".

With no great joy in his mind, the charioteer took his master forward and Abhimanyu broke into the Chkravyooha . In a mighty battle that followed, he slaughtered ordinary enemy warriors and mighty heroes alike. Abhimanyu fought valiantly, single-handedly slaying several warriors who came in his way including Duryodhana's son Laxman. Among the others who were killed were Ashmaka’s son, Shalya's younger brother, Shalya’s son Rukmaratha, Drighalochana, Kundavedhi, Sushena, Vasatiya, Kratha and numerous other great warriors. He wounded Karna and made him flee, making Dushshasana faint in the battlefield such that he had to be carried off by others. Upon witnessing the death of his beloved son, Duryodhana was incensed and ordered the entire Kaurava force to attack Abhimanyu. Continually frustrated in attempts to pierce Abhimanyu's armor, Karna on Dronacharya's advice shattered Abhimanyu's bow by firing arrows from behind him. His chariot broke shortly after, the charioteer and horses were killed, and all his weapons were laid to waste. He attempted then to fight off the bow wielding warriors sitting on horses and elephants with a sword and using a chariot wheel as a shield. Dushasana's son engaged in fierce hand to hand combat with Abhimanyu. Ignoring all rules of war, the Kauravas army fought simultaneously with him. He held his own until his sword broke and the remaining chariot wheel shattered into pieces. Abhimanyu was killed shortly thereafter when Dushasana's son crushed his skull with a mace. However, Abhimanyu killed him with his own mace before dying.

It is also said that he was killed by Karna by stabbing him with his sword from the back which is another violation of the rules of conduct of the Mahabharata war. It is this act of Karna which Krishna narrated to Arjuna when Karna had requested Arjuna to stand by while he removed the wheels of his chariot which was stuck in mud during the battle. And shortly after this Arjuna beheaded Karna.

It is said that it is Abhimanyu's death that marked the end of adherence to the rules of war. Krishna cited the despicable manner in which Abhimanyu was killed to incite Arjuna to kill Karna who was Kaurava's best commander on field.

Abhimanyu is believed to be the reincarnation of Varchas, the son of the Moon God. When the Moon God was asked to let his son incarnate himself on earth by the other devas, he made a pact that his son will only remain on earth for 16 years as he could not bear to be separated from him. Abhimanyu was 16 years old when he died in the battle.

His son, Parikshit, born after his death, remains the sole survivor of the Kuru clan at the conclusion of the the great Kurukshethra battle, and carried on the Pandava lineage. Abhimanyu is often thought of as a very brave warrior on the Pandava side, willingly giving up his life in the battle at a very young age.

Eklavya

Let me start this story in the good old fashion...

Once up on a time, in the gurukul (a school where a selected number of students stay with their teacher throughout their training period) of Dronacharya, the royal teacher, the Pandavas and Kauravas were practicing archery.

Pandavas are the 5 sons of King Pandu and Kauravas, the 100 sons of King Dhridharashtra. And Arjuna amoung the Pandavas was Drona's most favoured disciple. Arjuna was an excellent marksman and has performed many awe inspiring feats with his bow & arrow, even as a student in the gurukul. Once Drona tied a toy parrot on a tree and marked it's right eye. He then called all his students and gave a bow & arrow to each one of them and asked them to hit the marked eye of the parrot. No one but Arjuna could do it and ever since then, Drona always gave special attention to Arjuna and did everything to foster him as an ace archer. Drona also promised Arjuna to teach him the many tricks and trades of archery and make him the best marksman the world has ever witnessed.

And suddenly one day, there walked into the gurukul, a dark shabby looking boy. He went straight to Drona and prostrated himself in front of the master of archery and said:

"Most respected sir, I'm Eklavya, the young prince of Nishada tribe. I seek to learn archery under your guidance and I'd be most obliged to serve as one of your disciples. Please grand me my wish, oh noble one."

Now, this was a time when people from lower caste were not even allowed to enter a temple, let alone a gurkul and take lessons under the royal guru. Tribal and other lower casts were considered untouchables and education of any form were denied to them.

The Pandavas and the Kauravas who gathered around, laughed at the tribal boy. They ridiculed him and even bullied him for his audacity. Drona too send the boy back telling him that he was not "eligible" to seek training under him.

But the young Eklavya was determined. His ambition to become the best archer in the world was an overriding passion in him. He was not someone to accept defeat so easily and so he went back to the forest, built a statue of guru Drona in clay and began practising archery all by himself. He trained himself day in and day out and started to learn many tricks all by himself.

One day, Drona took his disciples out to the jungle for hunting. They moved deep into the woods and had a dog with them too. Suddenly the dog sniffed something and darted and disappeared into a bushy wilderness, all barking wild. The barking of the dog suddenly ceased and the silence of the woods engulfed them. Drona and his disciples became on their guard and they took aim with their bows to shoot at whatever that came out of the bushes. And out came their dog, it's mouth stuffed with arrows. But not a drop of blood was shed and the dog was the least hurt except that it couldn't bark any more 'coz its mouth was stuffed by arrows. Everyone was aghast at this sight.

"Who could've done such a feat?", exclaimed Arjuna.

Soon they found a tribal boy practising archery in a clearing beyond the bush and in front of a statue of Drona. It didn't take them much time to recognize Eklavya. Drona was much pleased with this and he blessed the boy. But Arjuna had an issue here. He approached his guru and said:

"Oh faithful one, you promised to make me the best archer in the world and now you're blessing a tribal boy who already proved to be of superior skill than I'm. I beg you, you should not let this happen. I'm supposed to be the best archer and not some tribal boy!"

Drona thought about this for a moment and came up with a most cruel idea to fulfil his promise to Arjuna. He approached Eklavya and said:

"I'm very pleased at the skill you have attained. You're already way ahead of my best student Arjuna and you practised archery in front of my statue."

"Of course I did guruji. I consider you my teacher, in my mind and if it was not for your blessings I could've never progressed much in archery."

"Fair enough. But since you have considered me your guru, you're liable to give me my guru-dakshina (fees)."

"I'd be most obliged to give you anything as your guru-dakshina. Please ask me for anything that I can give you."

And to this, Drona smiled and said, "All right. I usually get gold and other riches as my dakhina. Now, since you're in no position to give me that, all I'd ask for is your right thump".

History has never witnessed a teacher asking something like this to a disciple who did complete justice to his lessons. Personally it still confuses me so much that a man as noble and righteous as Drona ever did a deed like that.

According to some, Drona wanted to hamper Ekalavya's archery skills because he feared that Ekalavya would use them against Drona's employer, the King of Hastinapur (Ekalavya's father worked for Jarasandh, who was an adversary of the Hastinapur kingdom).

Others have alleged that Ekalavya learned all the archery skills by secretly observing the training sessions of Dronacharya. When Dronacharaya found out, he visited Ekalavya to verify his suspicions. Although Drona could have demanded an even greater punishment under the laws in effect at that time, he asked only for Ekalavya's right thumb, thus making the archery skills which he had learned secretly useless.

Any ways, speculations apart, Eklavya didn't stop to think twice before he took his knife out and cut his right thump and place it at the feet of his guru with utmost reverence. And thus Arjuna's claim as the best archer in the world was restored.

Ganesha, the courageous

No better way to start this blog. Lord Ganesha, in Hindu mythology is believed to be the God who helps you surpass the hurdles in life. He is otherwise known as Vighneshwara ('Vighn' - hurdle and 'Eshwara' - God). And every devoted Hindu offers a coconut to Vighneshwara before he starts anything new. I, for one, used to offer a coconut to Vighneshwara before I went in to write the many exams in school and in college or before I attend the first day of a new job. Whatever the believes or myths might be, I get a sense of satisfaction on doing so. Isn't it nice that you start doing things on a positive note? Anyways... As the first post in this blog, I'll tell you the most fascinating story about Ganesha which my father told me when I was a kid.

One fine day Lord Shiva went out on an errand telling his wife, Goddess Parvathy that it'd take him a while to return home. Now, these couple have made the Himalayas their home and they lived a free, in-harmony with nature life. Their home, the Kailasa was nothing but an enclosure of rocks and ferns on the ranges of the Himalayas. This is because Lord Shiva is an ascetic by nature and is the God of destruction amoung the Trinity, the other two being Lord Bhrama (God of creation) and Lord Vishnu (God of preservation). Ah! That's another story, which I'll tell you in due course.

Now, in the absence of her husband and since she was in a mood for a bit of rejuvenation, Goddess Parvathy decided to take a good oil bath at the warm spring in their abode. But there was a problem. Their watchmen were on a vacation and there was no one to guard the entrance to their home. What if a visitor just walks in unannounced? She mulled over this thought for a while and suddenly got an idea. She sculpted the figure of a very handsome boy in the sandal wood that was lying around and gave life to it. She named him Ganesha and gave him a spear and asked him to guard the entrance. She instructed him not to let anyone inside without her permission. The boy bowed in front of her and took to his first ever assignment of guarding the entrance of Kailasa very eagerly (You know, how the young boys are when they are asked to do something for their loved ones - the excitement, the eagerness to please...)

As fait would have it, Lord Shiva returned much before the anticipated time and found a young boy stopping him at the entrance of his home.

"You can't go in without my mother's permission", said the boy.

Shiva scaled the boy from head to toe and with a smile on his face tried to enter Kailasa.

"I said, you can't go in until my mother comes out after her bath", said the boy and pointed the spear at Shiva.

Now, being the Lord of destruction, Shiva is notorious for his short temper.

"Move out of my way, you little shrimp. Who are you to stop me from entering my home?", Shiva growled.

But the boy wouldn't concede and when Shiva tried to force his way in, the boy challenged him for a duel. To the surprise of Lord Shiva, he found the boy good enough an opponent for him. And at the end of a fierce fist fight that lasted for a couple of hours, Shiva finally decided to use his most lethal weapon, the Trishul, on the little boy. And with one swish of the Trishul, Shiva beheaded the boy. It was at this moment that Parvathy returned from her bath and found her dear son lying in a pool of blood and beheaded! She let out a scream in her pain and horror and it is said that it melted the ice at the peaks of Himalayas.

"What have you done, my lord? How could you do this to our son?", Parvathy wailed in agony.

"What? Our son? I didn't know that!"

And when Parvathy told him the story of Ganesha's birth, Shiva promised to resurrect their son.

But a head, once shaved off can never be re-fixed. No. Not even by Gods. But this predicament of Shiva was solved by Saint Narada who came that way. Saint Narada walks around the heaven collecting news and spreading it across the place. A secret seldom remains a secret with Narada. But he is finding solutions for problems and is also an exponent in the science of astrology. And so, he advised Shiva to fix the beheaded body of Ganesha with the head of an elephant which has just died. Shiva did just that and Ganesha was resurrected but with the head of an elephant! Also Shiva blessed the boy with immaculate strength and intelligence as a recognition for his devotedness to his mother, his courage to stand up to him and his spirit of determination to defend a cause that he believed in.

And so, Lord Ganesha stays a symbol of courage, determination and devotedness to a cause.

Every year, in India, we celebrate the birthday of Ganesha (Vinayaka Chathurthi) in a very grand way and which culminates with the immersing of massive clay statues of Ganesha in the nearby rivers or the sea.

Invariably in every home of a Hindu, you'd find a picture of Ganesha hanging on the wall. And, artists all around the country has taken a special liking and interest in depicting Ganesha in so many different ways according to their own imagination. Here are some examples: