Even Vyasa faced obstacles for not worshipping Ganesha

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We know that Lord Ganesha himself blessed us by undertaking the task of writing down the Puranas with his broken tusk as Vyasa Maharshi kept on dictating. 

Vyasa had a little bit of arrogance in him. Whenever you write a book, you are supposed to start with a mangala shloka praising Lord Ganesha. This is equivalent to performing Vighneswara Puja. This is the prayer for Lord Ganesha’s blessing for successful completion of the task ahead. 

But when he started writing the Puranas, Vyasa did not start it with a mangalacharana shloka praising Lord Ganesha. Everything started going haywire. His daily routine got affected. Even his nitya karma, such as Sandhya Vandana, got affected. He started forgetting mantras; he started chanting the wrong mantras.

Mind you, Vyasa Maharshi is the one who divided the Vedic corpus itself into four parts as Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda, and Atharvaveda—such an authority on mantras. He forgot mantras; he chanted wrong mantras. Even in the Puranas, all the incidents got mixed up in his head; he wrote that Rama was born in Hastinapura and Radha was Krishna’s sister. Everything got mixed up; he couldn’t remember anything.

Vyasa went to Brahmadeva and said, 'Why is this happening to me? I have set upon a noble task. Vedas are very difficult to understand for the common man. I want to write the Puranas so that the common man can easily understand the lofty principles of the Vedas. In Kaliyuga, this is the only way to preserve dharma. The intellectual level of people will go down, interest in spirituality will go down. But see what is happening to me—I am completely lost.'

Brahma asked, 'Did you pay respect to Lord Ganesha before starting?'

'No.'

'You thought you are a great scholar, you know everything, you don’t need anybody’s support. This is what happens when you neglect Lord Ganesha.'

Vyasa realized his mistake. 

'Now, what to do?'

Brahma gave Vyasa Maharshi upadesha of the Ganesha mantra. With that, Vyasa Maharshi started worshipping Lord Ganesha. He kept on chanting the mantra, and Lord Ganesha was pleased. Vyasa’s mind cleared, and he started seeing all the incidents of the past clearly, scene by scene. The Lord himself became ready to write down the Puranas for Vyasa. That is his mercy. When Lord Ganesha becomes pleased with someone, they will no longer face any obstacle in life.

Ramaswamy Sastry and Vighnesh Ghanapaathi