Lord Ganesha Enabling Brahma to Create

Shree Ganesha Atharva Sheersha clearly states that Lord Ganesha himself is Parabrahma, Paramatma.

The task of creation was entrusted to Brahma by Lord Ganesha himself.

Brahma Deva asked Lord Ganesha, ‘You have told me to create, but create what? I don’t know anything. I don’t know what to create. There is no model based on which I can start creating.’

The Lord said, ‘I will show you.’

And Brahma could see the whole universe inside the Lord’s belly—the whole universe. Devas, asuras, rishis, humans, mountains, rivers, seas, trees, plants, animals, reptiles, stars, planets, sun, moon—everything inside Lord Ganesha's belly.

‘This is what you have to create.’

And Brahma started creating.

When he started creating, he faced a lot of obstacles. A large number of weird, ferocious beings surrounded Brahma. They were all very fierce. Some had three eyes, some had five hands, some had ten legs, some had mouths that looked like wells, and some had five or six lips. Thousands and thousands of them.

Some started beating Brahma, some started punching him, some started pushing him, some were screaming at him, and some started pulling Brahma's beard. Some were abusing him.

Brahma started praying to Lord Ganesha.

Suddenly, a voice was heard—‘Start observing tapas, start observing tapas.’

Brahma started wondering—what is tapas? Brahma didn’t know what tapas was.

The voice was heard again—‘Look for an ashwatha tree, look for an ashwatha tree.’ Ashwatha is the peepal tree.

Brahma saw water all around him. In that water, he found an ashwatha tree. On one of the leaves of that tree, a child was lying down. That child had the face of an elephant, four hands, was as brilliant as a billion suns, and had beautiful gem-studded ornaments all over his body.

That child started spraying water upon Brahma with his trunk. Then the child got up from the leaf and sat on Brahma's lap and said,

‘You are behaving like a child. You are as impulsive as a child. Just told that—start creating—and you jumped into it with no preparation.

‘You don’t even know how to do tapas, and you set out to start creating the universe. Isn’t this so childish?

‘And you think you are great. No knowledge and no preparation. And a task as stupendous as the creation of the universe. No wonder you are meeting with so many obstacles.

‘First, I will teach you how to do tapas.’

And then Lord Ganesha gave deeksha of his ekakshara mantra to Brahma.

‘You start doing tapas with this mantra. Do purascharana of this mantra.

‘Purascharana means chanting the mantra a huge number of times followed by homa, tarpana, abhisheka, and brahmana bhojana. This itself is tapas.

‘Those who have taken mantra deeksha and are performing purascharana, understand this—what you are doing itself is what is called tapas. It is a form of tapas.

‘You do purascharana of the ekakshara mantra, and once you complete it, I will appear in front of you again.’

As Brahma kept on chanting the mantra, flames started coming out of his mouth. Those flames burned away all those ferocious beings that were troubling him.

At the end of his tapas, Lord Ganesha appeared before him and said, ‘Ask for whatever you want.’

Brahma asked for three boons:

1. I should always have complete, unmovable faith in you.
2. I should be able to accomplish whatever you have asked me to do.
3. In the future, if at all I face any obstacle, it should go away simply if I remember you.

Lord Ganesha granted him all three boons.

This is how Brahma was able to create the universe. Nothing can start in this world without Lord Ganesha’s blessing.

We say srishti, sthiti, and samhara are cyclical; they just keep on happening. It is like a wheel that never stops. But without Lord Ganesha’s blessing, even that would come to a halt.

It is very important that Lord Ganesha is worshipped at the beginning of everything.

Ramaswamy Sastry and Vighnesh Ghanapaathi