Article of the month - Vaikaasi Masam (May 15 to June 14)

  Title: Pillayar Appa  
  Written by Shiva Shankaramoorthy - Grade 6 (age 11)

When I think about Ganesha the first thing that comes to my mind is that of the smartest GOD. This is because of a story, my grandfather used to tell me when I was young. 

The story was about winning a mango from Lord Shiva. This bet was between Lord Ganesha and his brother Lord Muruga. They were asked by their father Lord Shiva to go around the earth thrice and who came first was to be the greatest and will get the mango. Lord Muruga climbed on his peacock and flew around the earth with great strength. Lord Ganesha did not want to climb on his little mouse. He knew he couldn’t win. So he cleverly thought of a plan, he went around his parents thrice, bowed before them and declared that his parents represented the whole world to him.
He won the race and the mango!!
He proved that smartness wins many races than hard strength!!!

When I go to a temple and I see the statue of Ganesha it makes me happy, to see such a majestic and intelligent god and it makes me want to be just that!

Usually when people are praying, they first start with Ganesha.
I think the reason for that is Ganesha is the smartest, all powerful, and he is the remover of all obstacles. People pray to him for their obstacles to be removed and to have a splendid day.

All poojas, all new deals and new challenges are started only after a Ganapathy pooja…

We also learnt this sloka : 

"Vakratunda Mahakaaya
Suryakoti Samaprabha
Nirvighnam Kuru Mey Deva
Sarva Kaaryeshu Sarvada"

Meaning: The Lord with the curved trunk and a mighty body, who has the luster of a million suns, I pray to thee Oh Lord, to remove the obstacles from all the actions I intend to perform.

Lord Ganesha is so very independent. He can do a lot of things all by himself. I like this very much. He is so very powerful but still, even if small kids pray, he helps.

I have prayed many times to Ganesha. My favourite prayer is :
"Jai Ganesha Jai Ganesha jai Ganesha pahimam
Jai Ganesha Jai Ganesha Jai Ganesha Rakshamam"

Did you know that Ganesha has many names,he is called Ganapathy, Ganesha, Pillayar, Vigneswara. I like to call him Pillayarappa. He likes food stuffs like kolukkatai or mothakams, and also Arukampullu (which is a grass).He is very simple but very smart GOD, so I like him very much.

Click here to read the previous article for the month of Chithrai

Would you like to submit an Article or Story based on Hinduism? 

HTYC invites children between the ages of 5 and 16 to write small stories in English, based on Hindu stories from Puranas/Ramayana/Mahabharatha etc. and submit them to the Youth Corps. One winning entry will be published in the temple Website every month, along with the child's profile and photograph. Entries must be received before the 10th of each month. Send entries by Email to youthcorps@thehindutemple.ca.

Back to Hindu Temple Youth corps Main Page                                       Quiz Competition Results