Ganesh Chaturthi 2026

Well, what do you know! Ganapati Bappa is back in town.

It’s Ganesh Chaturthi.

Sept 14th begins this year’s Ganesh puja. As is my custom, I try to recall some story regarding Ganesh that I had heard as a child. We Hindus, Buddhists and Jains grow up listening to stories about our devas and devis.

Ganesh is definitely my favorite deva. He is described as “the one with the curved trunk and an immense body, whose splendour is equal to that of a million suns.” He is invoked before any other gods. There’s a story about that. Before starting any venture, he is asked to “remove all obstacles from my tasks, always and in all undertakings.”

In previous posts, I have related the story of how he got a broken tusk, how he very cleverly circumnavigated the entire cosmos three times in a minute, and other things. This time I will relate the story of Kubera’s feast. Continue reading “Ganesh Chaturthi 2026”

Ganesh Chaturthi

It’s Ganesh Chaturthi season again. Therefore it is time for the annual post. Of the 330 million devas of the Hindu dharma, Ganesha is my favorite for a variety of reasons, chief among them being that my interests closely mirror his.

He likes food; he likes reading and writing; he loves music; likes traveling; he is lazy and is easily bribed, and so on. Ganesha is always depicted with food. After the sage Vyasa composed the Mahabharata, he dictated the massive 100,000 verses to Ganesha as the scribe. Continue reading “Ganesh Chaturthi”

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi

Greetings on Ganesh Chatruthi.

May Vigneshwara (the remover of obstacles), Ekadanta (the One with the one Tusk), Mahakaya (One with the Huge Body), etc., remove the obstacles to your ventures. I am sure that he will remove the writer’s block that I have. I have made the appropriate invocations to him. Here’s a wonderful prayer to Nadapratithishta, the One who Appreciates and Loves Music.

Below the fold you will find another pretty good song to Ganapati and a list of his 108 names.
Continue reading “Happy Ganesh Chaturthi”