Ganesha's Hearty Laugh

It was a warm summer morning and Baby Ganesha was out playing with his ball when he heard a loud whoosh-whoosh and all the trees swayed and bent over as a sudden strong wind came upon them. A giant eagle circled overhead and Ganesha gave a shout of happiness. His father's dear friend Lord Vishnu had come to Kailash for a visit!

Lord Vishnu is the protector of everything. His job is to make sure nothing bad hurts us and to keep us safe. Lord Shiva, Ganesha's father, is the destroyer. His job is to destroy all that is bad. He destroys asuras or demons, and people also pray to him to destroy their own bad habits and tendencies. Although it sounds like their jobs are very different, but really all they do is to help the good and try to stop the bad, even if the bad things are parts of us - like bad health, bad habits, bad thoughts, bad actions.

Lord Vishnu jumped off his eagle, Garuda. Lord Shiva and his Ganas (helpers and followers) welcomed him warmly to Kailas and they all sat down on large boulders to discuss some latest crisis/problem all the people were facing. Poor Little Ganesha stood at a distance feeling rather left out. 

He went to pet Garuda but Garuda wasn't feeling particularly friendly that morning. He just wanted a bit of a snooze and so he nipped Ganesha gently to tell him to leave him alone. Ganesha went to check on Karthikeya, but Karthikeya was doing his exercises and Ganesha found it boring. Mother Parvathi was oiling her hair and when Ganesha came to talk to her, she offered to oil his hair too. So Ganesha quickly rushed away.

Finally, he came back to where his father was. Lord Shiva and Vishnu were busy talking. Ganesha stood close to Vishnu at stared at his hands. Vishnu had 4 hands - he had a lotus flower and conch shell in his left hands and a gadha and sudarshan chakra in his right hands. Ganesha could not take his eyes off the chakra!  It was going round and round and was gleaming and sparkling in the sun.

"Lord!" Ganesha tried to interrupt softly.

Vishnu didn't hear him.

"Excuse me!" Ganesha tried again, politely.

No response.

Ganesha then tried to tug at his hand, but Vishnu was so busy talking he didn't feel it. Ganesha was a bit irritated. He stared at the chakra longingly and then there was a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

Ganesha scampered up a nearby boulder next to Vishnu and reached up for the chakra. As soon as he got it, he ran quickly back to his house. There he tried to throw it, spin it and even wear it. Finally when he was bored, he looked at it and decided it looked rather yummy. So he put it in his mouth and swallowed it.

All little kids put strange things in their mouths. Some things can really hurt them! The sudarshan chakra is really sharp and it could have really hurt Ganesha. But luckily Ganesha was a god, so it wasn't so bad.

Many hours later, Vishnu and Shiva finished talking and Vishnu was just about to leave when he felt like something was missing on his right hand. He looked and his jaw nearly dropped when he saw the sudarshan chakra was missing.

Vishnu closed his eyes and used his powers to find the truth. Oh what an awful truth it was! In his mind's eye, Vishnu saw that Ganesha had swallowed his chakra. Oh no! There is no store in the heavens where you can just buy yourself another sudarshan chakra! Vishnu needed it back!

Besides what if the sharp and rather excitable sudarshan chakra tried to get out of his stomach. It might really hurt him! Shiva and Parvathi would get really angry and might blame Vishnu for not keeping his things carefully.

So Vishnu rushed to find Ganesha. Ganesha was busy polishing off a whole platter of sweets when Vishnu came to him. Vishnu had a plan. A stupendously funny plan.

Vishnu decided to make Ganesha laugh and laugh till he feels like throwing up. Then hopefully the sudarshan chakra will also come out, too.

Vishnu tried funny faces, and Little Ganesha who was feeling so sleepy, just smiled. Then Vishnu crossed his hands and held his ears. Ganesha, whose eyes were now drooping, was curious to see what Lord Vishnu was doing. He looked really funny, so he sat up with a broad grin on his face. Vishnu felt hopeful. He began to squat up and down, sticking his tongue out and beaming. Ganesha found this hilarious. Imagine a dignified and elegant Lord - a member of the Trinity - the most superior of all the other gods - was acting like a crazy froggy.

Ganesha laughed and laughed, and his big belly wobbled like a quivering jelly, till finally Ganesha had to take a pause to catch his breath. He coughed and coughed and suddenly they heard a metallic clatter. 

The sudarshan chakra  had popped out of Little Ganesha's mouth. Vishnu quickly grabbed it, wiped it clean and put it on his right fore finger again. He waved goodbye to a rather tired Ganesha and rushed to Garuda before he had another problem to deal with. 

But now everytime someone at home or in temples holds his ears and squats. And guess what, some people realized it was a really smart thing to do. Actually, when you tug at your ears and do 10 or 15 sit ups, it not only makes Ganesha roll over with laughter, but also it gives your brain a real work out. Don't believe me? Watch this: