Ganesha, the scribe for Mahabharata

[Guest guest]

Ganesha, the scribe for Mahabharata

 

The most interesting story concerning Ganesha is the belief that he

was the scribe who wrote the Mahabharata. Sage Vyasa, the author of

this epic, was advised by Brahma, on whom he meditated, to ask

Ganesha to be the scribe to whom he could dictate the epic in verse

form.

 

Ganapati appeared before Brahma and agreed to write, but on one

condition, and that was that Vyasa would dictate continuously without

pause. Vyasa agreed but he had his own condition, and that was that

Ganesha should understand every word and thought and its implications

before writing it down.

 

Whenever Vyasa found Ganesha had completed writing a verse, he would

dictate a verse with very complex meanings so that Ganesha had to

stop and think it over.

 

This gave Vyasa time to compose a few stanza mentally and dictate

them when Ganesha was ready.

Ganesha used his broken tusk to write the Mahabharata, the longest

epic the world has ever known. Is it surprising then that with Vyasa

as the poet, Ganesha as the scribe and Krishna as the main hero, this

epic has few equals in the world.

 

This story also has a lesson for mankind, that the Mahabharata should

not be hurriedly read. It should be understood and digested, heard

patiently and ruminated upon. In fact there is a superstition that

the Mahabharata should never be read, only listened to, one small

part at a time. Only then can one understand the depth of the

meanings underlying the events in the epic.

[Guest guest]

Hi,

I just wanted to add a little something to this.

As stated in the story, Ganesha broke one of his tusks to write the

Mahabharatha. It is because of this that statues (idols) of Ganesha

have only one tusk.

Jennifer

 

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