Story of Dhundhi Ganapati of Varanasi

This is the story if Dhundi Ganapati of Kashi.

Lord Vishwanatha was the ruler of Kashi.

The Lord and Kashi were inseparable.

That is why Kashi is called Avimukta.

There was no sin in Kashi.

Kashi under Vishwanatha was perfect in every respect.

Both Vishwanatha and Kashi became proud about this, proud to the extent of arrogance.

Lord Ganesha will not tolerate arrogance in anyone.

The Lord decided to deal with the arrogance of Vishwanatha and Kashi.

For 60 years, there was no rain.

The whole earth dried up.

At that time, a king called Divodasa was observing ugra tapas.

He wanted moksha.

Brahma went to Divodasa and said: take over the rulership of Kashi.

I am giving Kashi to you.

No, but what I want is moksha.

I have already abandoned my status as a king.

The world needs you, people need you, only if you rule over Kashi there will be rains.

But Divodasa put one condition.

Presently, Shambhu is ruling over Kashi.

Devas are supposed to rule over Swarga.

Earth should be ruled by human kings.

There can not be two rulers in Kashi.

I will take over Kashi as its exclusive ruler and consider Vishwanatha, Mahadeva as a God and worship him.

He should not interfere in the administrative matters.

With Lord Vishwanatha being present there, this was not going to be possible.

He has so much attachment to Kashi.

He will definitely interfere.

So Brahma thought that he has to somehow take Lord Shiva out of Kashi.

Brahma went and told Shiva: Marichi Maharshi is observing tapas in Mandara Parvata.

Please go there and give him what he wants or else he will die.

Karunamurthy Lord Shiva decided to leave Kashi for the first time ever.

He went to Mandara and gave Marichi Shiva-sayujya.

In the mean time, Brahma made Divodasa take over Kashi.

It started raining and Kashi came back to normalcy.

When Lord Shiva wanted to go back to Kashi, Brahma said: why don't you stay here itself, Kashi is doing well under Divodasa, flourishing.

Vishwanatha's ego was hurt.

Let me see for how long Kashi can do without me.

Decades went by, nothing happened, Kashi was still doing great.

Mahadeva could not bear his separation from Kashi.

But he can go back as the ruler of Kashi only if Divodasa fails, adharma spreads.

That didn't seem to be happening.

Lord Shiva started thinking; how did this happen with me?

Is it becasue of my arrogance that I am Vishwantha, the ruler of the entire universe?

I am the ruler of nowhere now.

I am shattered now, stuck in this mountain, with nothing to do, away from my beloved Kashi.

This obstacle must have come in my life because of my own ego and arrogance that nothing can go wrong with me.

Lord Shiva started doing tapas in Mandara, meditating upon Lord Ganesha.

There, Kashi also realized that her separation from Vishwanatha happended because of her arrogance, she also started observing tapas to please Ganesha.

Divodasa adminsitered Kashi very well.

Still not a single offence or sin happened in Kashi.

Devas thought, when Mahadeva was there, it was deva-rajya on earth.

Now that he is out of Kashi, it is manushya-rajya.

We have lost control.

Let us somehow try to oust Divodasa from Kashi.

This can happen only if he fails.

Devendra told Agnideva: you pull out of Kashi, let's see how people survive without fire.

When Agni went out of Kashi, Divodasa took over Agni's role with his own tapashakti.

He provided fire and heat with his own tapashakti. Like this Vayu went out.

Divodasa took over Vayu's role.

Clouds, rains- they all went out one by one.

Divodasa took over everything.

Still not a single adharmik act in Kashi.

Finally, Brahma told devas: you all go and ask him to give back your positions, he will do so.

Devas did so and Divodasa obliged.

Here Vishwanatha had become just bones and skin.
due to his viraha dukha; when am I going to see my Kashi? When am igoing to see my Kashi? Will I ever see her again?

Devarshis consoled him: we will go to Kashi and instigate people there to commit sins.

They did so and failed, miserably.

Devas went.

Yoginis went.

Brahama himself went.

They all tried and failed.

Not a single inhabitant of Kashi did anything wrong, anything adharmik.

Shankara realized his helplessness.

He strengthened his tapas keeping his mind fully focused at the feet of Ganehsa for one year.

Lord Ganesha realized that Mahadeva had become completely pure, devoid of all pride and arrogance.

Lord Ganehsa appeared before Mahadeva and said: don't worry I will take care of this.

A Brahmin astrologer came out of Lord Ganesha's body.

He was very charismatic.

Lord Ganesha told him: your name is Dhundi, go and confuse people of Kashi.

After that, Lord Ganesha told Vishnu: Dhundhi is already there confusing people.

It is time for you take your Buddhavatara and go to Kashi.

People started abandoning the Vedic dharma.

They stopped worshiping Devas.

They were alrady confused by Dhundhi.

And then, there was this new religion.

They stopped yajnas.

Naturally, in some time Mahadeva, Vishwanatha got what he wanted.

Kashi slipped from the status of the sinless kingdom under Divodasa and became like any other ordinary country.

Divodasa failed.

Vishwantha could return to Kashi.

Everyone expressed their grtitude to Ganesha who came to Kashi in the form of Dhundhi Vinayaka, Dhundhi Ganesha.

Lord Vishwanatha himself built the temple of Dhundhi Ganesha and said that anyone wishing to have his darshan should first visit Dhundhi Ganesha temple.

Vishwantha said: I went in search of Vedic parmartha, the ultimate truth and this is where I reached, Lord Ganesha.

Some points to understand here:

How can Vishwanatha, Mahadeva have arrogance?

Isn't he beyond all these?

Devatas have got two aspects: nirguna and saguna.

In nirguna, they are beyond all these.

In saguna, all the three gunas- satwa, rajas and tamogunas are there.

Not in the same proportion as we have.

Different.

Like Mahadeva has more of tamoguna.

Brahma has more of rajoguna.

Vishnu has more of satwaguna.

But whereever gunas are present, their characteristics also will be present.

Emotions also wil be present.

See how Lord Rama cried when separated from Seetha Matha.

In Shareere-Devatas, Saguna-Devatas, these emotions are present.

This has another purpose.

To show us, demonstrate to us how to get rid of these unwanted emotions and vasanas.

First, they will have them, then they will show us how to get rid of them.

In the next episode, this is exactly what we are goign to see.

Sage Yajnavalkya teaching Vishwamitra how to get rid of bad vasanas.

In Sanatana dharma, we consider Buddha as an avatara Vishnu.

Some people ask: how can Buddha be Vishnu's avatara?

Buddha was against Vedas.

You can't say Buddha was against Vedas.

Buddha was against certain ways in which Vedic principles were practised.

Sanatana dharma is the mother of all dharmas.

Even Asura dharma has Vedic dharma at its root.

Instead of recognizing Indra as the king, they started recognizing Varuna.

That was how Asura dharma started.

Still, the origin was Vedas.

The reason and logic behind an avatara may not be as we think it is.

Bhagavan cheated Jalandhara's wife and destroyed her pativratya ultimately to have him killed.

Bhagavan killed Bhrigu's wife and got himself cursed so that he could take avatara as Rama.

So these are basic childish questions.

One more thing; I am not hinting that Buddhism is adharma, Buddhism is not Vedic dharma.

When Buddhism spread in Kashi, Vedic dharma suffered which is what ultimately Lord Shiva, Devas, and Rishis wanted; to prove that even Divodasa can fail.

And this was done to restore Vishwanatha to Kashi.