posted 12-10-2001 06:45 AM               

He is the Lord of power and wisdom. The eldest son of Lord Shiva and the elder brother of Skanda or Kartikeya, he is the energy of Lord Shiva and so he is called the son of Shankar and Umadevi. By worshipping Lord Ganesha mothers hope to earn for their sons the sterling virtues of Ganesha.

The following story is told throughout India concerning His birth and how He came to have the head of an elephant:

While bathing once upon a time, the Goddess Gauri, consort of Shiva, created Ganesha as a pure white being out of the mud of her body and placed him at the entrance of the house. She told him not to allow anyone to enter while she went inside for a bath. So when Shiva was returning home (quite thirsty, too), he was stopped by Ganesha at the gate. The Great God became angry and cut off Ganesha's head, thinking Ganesha was an outsider.

When Gauri came to know of this she was sorely grieved. To console her grief, Shiva ordered his servants to cut off and bring to him the head of any creature that might be sleeping with its head facing north. The servants went on their mission and found only an elephant in that position. The sacrifice was thus made and the elephant's head was brought before Shiva, who then joined the elephant's head onto the body of Ganesha.

Shiva made his son worthy of worship at the beginning of all undertakings, marriages, expeditions, studies, etc. He ordained that the annual worship of Ganesha should take place on the 4th day of the bright half of Bhadnpada.

Following are some of the common names of Lord Ganesha: Dhoomraketu, Sumukha, Ekadantha, Gajakarnaka, Lambodara, Vignaraja, Ganadhyaksha, Phalachandra, Gajanana, Vinayaka, Vakratunda, Siddhivinayaka, Surpakarna, Heramba, Skandapurvaja, Kapila and Vignesh wara. He is also known by many as Maha-Ganapathi.

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As a postscript: Kali (not Shiva, as is commonly believed) has eight arms (the statues, I believe, have ten). Like I said, a minor mistake on Core's part...unless, what with the theme of extra appendages that runs throughout TR3, they meant for Kali to have two more arms. After all, look what happened to Dr. Willard...