March 29, 2024

Siddhivinayak is the endearing and powerful Lord Ganesha. The way he was created and the story about his elephant head makes very interesting reading. All the stories of Ganesha have an element of magic which makes him one of the favourite gods. There are many stories of Ganesha which leaves one awestruck.

One such story is about Ganesha the scribe. Veda Vyasa who compiled the Vedas sat to write the great epic Mahabharatha. The Mahabharatha with over 1 lakh verses is the story of the good winning over the evil. It is said what is written in the Mahabharatha will be found elsewhere and what is not found in it will not be found anywhere. It is an all encompassing epic. It has the upanishadic thoughts, the rules and laws to run a country, economic policies, details of warfare and much more.

To write such an epic, Vyasa wanted an expert writer and on the advice of Brahma approached Ganesha to help him complete the task of writing the epic. Ganesha readily agreed but put forth a condition. He said Vyasa would have to dictate at a speed that Ganesha was capable of writing. Vyasa saw the catch in the situation and had to think of a solution. Vyasa agreed to the condition but in turn put one condition. Lord Ganesha was to write only after comprehending the verses. The deal was struck. So Vyasa dictated and Ganesha wrote in full speed. When Vyasa got stuck in his thought flow he created some verses that were very difficult to comprehend even for Ganesha and in that short gap formed more verses in continuation with the main story of Mahabharatha. So in Mahabharatha we find verses which are suddenly very tough compared to the rest of the verses. This is the story of Ganesha, the super scribe.