 Ganesh Chaturthi is a Hindu festival celebrated as the birthday of Lord Ganesha.  It usually falls between August 20 and September 15 each year and celebrations can last for 10 days.  The festival involves decorating statues of Ganesha and performing religious ceremonies and rituals to honor the deity, known as the remover of obstacles.  There are many stories associated with Lord Ganesha, including how he got his elephant head and broken tusk.

1. By suraj.d
Chennai
surajswapna1977@gmail.com

3.  Ganesh Chaturthi • How did Lord Ganesha get a broken tusk?
> Main Article > Story 1
> Story 2
> History
> Origins • Ganesha and the Moon
 Stories • Ganesha goes around the world
 The Birth of Ganesha • Gajasura
• Ganesha and his mouse
> Part 1
> Part 2
> Part 3

4. Gajananam Bhootha Ganadhi sevitham Aindhu karathanai aanai mugaththanai
Kavitha jamboo palasara bakshitham indhi ilampirai polum aeyitranai
Umasutham shoka vinayasha karana nandi magandanai nyana kozhndhinai
pundhiyil vaithu adi potrugindrome
Namami vigneshwara pada pankajam
paalum theli thenum paagum paruppum
Mooshika vahana modhaka hastha ivai naangum kalandhunakku naan tharuvein
Shyamala karna vilambitha soothra kolam sei thunga karimugathu thoomaniye
nee enakku sangathamizh moondrum thaa
Vaamana roopa maheshwara putra
vigna vinayaka pada namasthe Theeyiyum veyyon punalinum thaniyon
aayinum eesan arul arivar illai
Agajanana padmarkam gajananam akarnisham seyinum nallon aniya nall anbarkku
aneka dantham bhaktanam eka dantam upasmahe thayinum nallon thazh sadayone
Vakra thunda mahakaya suryakoti samaprabha Thiruvaarkkum sei karumam kai koottum - senjol
peruvarkkum peedum perukkum uruvakkum adhalal
nirvigram kurme deva sarva karyashu sarvatha vaanorum aanai mugathonai kaadhalal
kooppuvar tham kai.
shuklam baratharam vishnum
shashi varnam chatur bhujam
prasanna vadanam dhyayet
sarva vigna upashanthaye

5.  Ganesha Chaturthi is the day that we
celebrate Lord Ganesha.
 It is celebrated on the birthday of Lord
Ganesha.
 This celebration normally lasts 10 days.
 Ganesha is the god of wisdom and the
remover of all obstacles.
 There are many stories associated with
Lord Ganesha.
 I will show some of them in the stories
section of this presentation.
 Back to Contents

6.  Ganesha Chaturthi is one of India’s most celebrated
holidays.
 It usually starts on the forth day of the waxing moon
period (usually between August 20 and September
15).
 The festival usually lasts 10 days.
 Almost all families in India celebrate this holiday.
 They decorate statues of Ganesha lavishly and do
poojas dedicated to him.
 People make sweets to offer to Lord Ganesha.
 The sweets normally consist of ladoos, rice pudding,
and different foods depending on where you live.
 Temples normally make statues to be released into a
nearby river.
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7.  The first public Ganesh Chaturthi was
first celebrated in 1989 in Pune, India.
 This celebration was put together by Bal
Gangadhar Tilak.
 Before that the Ganesh Chaturthi was
celebrated by everybody in their own
homes.
 Back to Contents

8. Stories About
Lord Ganesha

9. The Legend is that Lord Ganesha
was created by Parvati using turmaric
powder. Parvati wanted a son that
would be loyal to her. So she shaped
the powder into the shape of her
wanting, strong and beautiful, and then
brought him to life. Later when Parvati
was going to bathe she gives Ganesha a
staff and tells him to not let anybody in
without permission. After a while
Shiva comes and wonders who the
mysterious boy was, as he tries to enter
Parvati’s living quarters Ganesha stops
him. Shiva tries to explain him that
Parvati is his wife but Ganesha ignores
him and refused to let Shiva into his
home. Shiva becomes furious and tries
to battle him, Shiva realizes that he was
no ordinary boy so he sends his
followers to try to defeat the boy, but
instead they were defeated by Ganesha.
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10. Shiva asks the boy who he was and he
replies by saying that “I am the son of
Parvati and says no one can enter here
without my mothers permission”. Shiva
then grow furious and sends his entire army
to fight the little boy and yet Ganesha
prevails with the help of Kali and Durga.
After that Shiva asks Vishnu to come and
help him. In the battle Shiva goes furious
that he throws his trident as Ganesha and
beheads him. Parvati grieves for Ganesha’s
death and she decides to destroy the world
but Brahma asks for mercy and to not
destroy the world. Parvati agrees but only
under two conditions, that her son comes
back to life and that he is worshipped
before any other god. Shiva apologizes and
the sends Brahma to go North and bring
him the head of the first animal they
encounter. Brahma soon returns with the
head of an elephant.(The head of Gajasura)
 Back to Contents

11. Brahma fitted the head of the elephant
to the boy and sprinkled water on him.
Ganesha awake with the head of an
elephant on his shoulders. Parvati goes
and embraces her son. Shiva then
confronts Parvati and announces that from
then on the boy shall be named Ganesha,
the chief of Shiva’s Ganas, and
Vigneshwar, the remover of all obstacles.
Shiva also says that Ganesha will be
worshipped before any god.
 Back to Contents

12. While Shiva went to go and rest in his
room, he told Ganesh to keep guard. After a
while Purshuram a pupil and a devotee of
Lord Shiva came and asked entrance so he
may speak with Lord Shiva. Lord Ganesh
obeying his father did not let Purshuram in.
They started to fight using words as their
weapons, but finally Purshuram had
enough and he throws his ax at Ganesh.
Ganesha did not want to fight back on the
respect of knowing that the ax was a gift
that Purshuram had gotten from his father.
The ax hit Ganesha on one of his tusks and
broke it off. In the commotion Shiva and
Parvati come out and see what Purshuram
did. Purshuram asks for mercy and
forgiveness. After Ganesha is revived by his
father he forgives Purshuram.
 Back to Contents

13. When Sage Ved Vyasa comes
up with the idea of Mahabharat he
looks around to find someone
who would write the story down
as he recited them. He decides to
ask Ganesha to do it for him.
Ganesha agrees to do it. To write
the script Ganesha breaks off a tip
of his tusk.
 Back to Contents

14. Lord Ganesha loved to eat sweets,
especially pudding and ladoos. On one of
his birthdays he goes around getting as
many sweets as he could. After he ate to
his full Ganesha set off to his house on
his loyal companion, his mouse. On the
way home the mouse sees a snake and
gets frightened. Because of this Lord
Ganesha slips off of the mouse and falls.
Because of the fall Lord Ganesha’s
stomach bursts open allowing all of the
pudding and ladoos to fall out. Lord
Ganesha puts all the sweets back into his
belly and ties the snake that had scared
the mouse around his belly. The moon
who had seen all of this happen laughed.
Lord Ganesha got mad at the moon and
hurled one of his tusks at the moon. He
then put a curse on the moon, saying that
whoever looked at the moon on Chaturthi
day, Ganesha’s birthday, would get bad
luck.
 Back to Contents

15. One day Kumaraswami, Ganesha’s
brother, comes to Shiva and gives him a
fruit and tells him to give it to his favorite
son. Shiva decides to give them a test to
decide who was his favorite son. He tells
them both to go around the world as fast
as they can. Kumaraswami instantly hops
onto his steed, a peacock, and sets off.
When he comes back he finds that
Ganesh had already finished the task.
Kumaraswami knew that Ganesha was
slow and asked him how he had finished
before him. Ganesha replied by saying
“My mother and father are my world,
they are my universe, I just went around
them”.
 Back to Contents

16. Gajasura was an elephant demon.
Gajasura was also a great devotee of Shiva.
So one day he started to pray to Lord Shiva
to get a boon. After some years Shiva
appeared to grant a boon. Gajasura asks that
Shiva reside inside his stomach, and Shiva
accepted. Later Parvati started to get worried
because she did not see Shiva anywhere.
Parvati went and asked Lord Vishnu to go
and search for Shiva. Vishnu disguised
himself as a street player and took Nandi,
Shiva’s steed, to go and search. After a long
time they finally found Gajasura and asked
him to release Shiva. Gajasura accepted but
only if Vishnu gave him one more boon. He
asked Vishnu to make him immortal, and
Vishnu agreed. Later when Ganesha lost his
head Shiva sent them to get the head of the
first animal they encounter knowing that it
would be Gajasura the elephant. When
Gajasura’s head was attached to Ganesha
became immortal granting the boon he had
asked for.
 Back to Contents

17.  Story 1
Gajamukha, a demon, did prayer to Lord
Shiva and got a boon that would make him
invincible. Gajamukha started to terrorize the
heaven. The gods not knowing what to do sent
for Ganesha. Ganesha starts to do battle with
the demon by growing big. After a while
Ganesha realizes that Gajamukha couldn’t be
defeated so he turns him into a big mouse and
makes him his steed.
 Story 2
Once in the court of Indira, the king of
Devas, Krauncha insulted the sage Vaamedeva
and for that he was cursed and turned into a
mouse by the sage. Then Krauncha went and
wrecked havoc in the dwelling of the sage
Paraashara. Paraashara asked Ganesha to come
and save his house. Ganesha came and brought
the mouse under his control and made him his
steed.
 Back to Contents

30. The Remover Of Obstacles

31. Oh Ganapati! One with a
curved trunk, a large
body, and a brilliance
equal to millions of suns!
O Lord, please make all
my undertakings free
from obstacles always.

32.  One of the most revered Gods
in Hinduism
 Considered as the remover of
obstacles
 The God of domestic harmony
and success
 Always involved first in any
Hindu ceremony or festival
 Known by various names
 Ganesh
 Ganapati
 Vinayak

33. Lord Shiva is His father
Goddess Parvati His mother
Lord Kartikeyan is His brother
Mouse is His vehicle
Intelligence is His power

34.  Shiva Purana
 Parvati creates Him out of clay
 A battle with Shiva
 Loses His head and Parvati laments
 Shiva replaces the head with
elephants head
 Brahma Vaivarta Purana
 Parvati observes a fast to appease
Vishnu
 When Ganesha is born, all Gods and
Goddesses are invited
 Shani refuses to look at Ganesha
 Finally looks and thus severs
Ganesha’s head
 Vishnu fixes an elephants head

35.  Parashuram goes to visit Shiva
 Ganesha again blocks Parashuram’s
way
 Parashuram throws an axe which
breaks Ganesha’s tusk
 While scribing Mahabharat, He
broke His pen
 To coninue, He broke his tusk and
used it as pen
 While riding His mouse, He fell
and broke His tusk
 Moon laughed at Him and got
cursed

37.  Known as Omkara as His body
mirrors the embodiment of the
cosmos

38. Think Big
Listen more
Concentrate
To cut off all worldly
bondages, removes To pull you nearer
obstacles towards the goal
Talk less Retain good throw
bad, sacrifice
Blesses &
protects on Adaptability
path to
elevation
Continuous pursuit of
Peacefully digest all knowledge
good and bad of life
Keep desires and
mind under control
Discover sweetness
of Aatman

42.  The end
 Suraj.d from chennai
 surajswapna1977@gmail.com
 www.suraj.d.8k.com/lord
ganesha/surajlordganeshapage.html
 Thanks for downloading my presentation.
 Expecting your reply and views soon.