Tuesday, October 27, 2015

8. Ganesha Writes Mahabharata

Once the Great Sage Vyasa was meditating in the deep forests of Himalayas, when Lord Brahma appeared before him. Lord Brahma advised Sage Vyasa, "O Great Sage, you are immensely knowledgeable. The mortals are apparently loosing their ethical standings as the wheel of time moves forward. They will need guidance and enlightenment in time to come. Therefore, I have come to ask you to put your knowledge together and script the story of Great Bharata (the Mahabharata) for the merit of future generations".

Sage Vyasa agreed with Lord Brahma's reasons. However he expressed his inability to script the voluminous work alone. He argued, "O Great Brahma, the creator of this universe. You are a great benefactorary thinker. I am blessed to have the knowledge to write the epic. However, I cannot write it all alone. It is a massive task and I should need some help to compose it".

Lord Brahma suggested, "Sage Vyasa, you should pray to Lord Ganesha, asking him to help you in this work".

Thus Sage Vyasa meditated upon the name of God Ganesha. Pleased with his selfless desire to write an epic for the benefit of humankind, Ganesha appeared before the sage. He agreed to write the epic, however took a condition on his side, "I shall transcribe only on the condition that you shall continue to dictate without interruption".

Sage Vyasa knew it was a difficult condition to fulfil. So he conditioned it further, "Before you write the verse which I dictate, you should understand it wholly". Ganesha agreed.

Thus on the auspicious day of Akshaya Trithi, Ganesha and Sage Vyasa began composing the Mahabharata. Ganesha penned the verses as Vyasa spoke them. When Vyasa felt  Ganesha was outpacing his flow of verses, he dictated a difficult verse. While Ganesha would decipher the meaning, Vyasa would compile further verses.

Ganesha has a broken tooth. In some versions, it is said that Ganesha broke his right tusk and used it for transcribing the epic story of Mahabharata. 

It is contained that Sage Vyasa complied as many as 8,800 granthams, which were difficult to decipher for Ganesha.

The great epic Mahabharata comprises of as many as six million granthams. It is considered as the fifth Vedas. In other words, it is a master scripture which comprises the Kandapuranam, Ramayanam, Savithri Puranam, Nala Puranam and many other scriptures.

Ganesha wrote Mahabharata on Mount Meru using his tusk. Of 6 million verses, 3 million  are supposed to be in the Deva Logam, 1.5 milliob in Yatcha Logam and 1.4 million in Asura Logam.  Only 1 million granthams are  assumed to be on the earth.

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