Lord Ganesha Marriage Story 2:

 

According to Hindu mythological references, there is another very interesting backstory to Lord Ganesha’s marriage. Lord Ganesha is known to be the eldest son of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati and he also had a younger brother named Karthikeya.

Karthikeyan was loved by all his devotees as he blessed them with the knowledge of Brahman. One day, Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati sat down to think about marrying off their two sons as they were old enough for marriage. When they let them know about their decision, the two brothers began bickering over who should get married first.

To put their quarrelling to an end, Shiva and Parvati came up with a plan. They called them both and asked them to settle their quarrel over a race that they had devised. The plan was that whoever returned back first after going around the entire Mother Earth shall be married off first.

                                 The Great Race

On hearing this plan, Lord Kartikeya immediately set out on his peacock to go around Mother Earth. To Lord Shiva and Parvati’s wonder, he continued to stand right in front of them without even moving an inch. Instead of preparing to leave, he requested his divine parents to take a seat in front of him.

He then prayed to them and asked them to accept his worship. Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati accepted to do what they were told only to see what Lord Ganesha’s plan was. To their surprise, Lord Ganesha began to worship them and went around them seven times.

At the end of his seventh salutation, Kartikeya came back after his journey around the entire Mother Earth only once. As he was the first one to arrive, he demanded to be married off first since Ganesha hadn’t even begun with his journey yet.

To this Lord Ganesha explained to Kartikeya and his divine parents that according to the Vedas, going around your parents while worshipping them is equivalent to going around the entire earth. And he goes around his divine parents not once but seven times means that he has gone around not only the entire mother earth but the whole universe.

Therefore, he should be married without any delay.

These intelligent and wise words of Ganesha pleased Lord Shiva and Parvati and immediately they decided to celebrate his marriage first. Riddhi and Siddhi, the two beautiful daughters of Prajapati Vishwaroop’s were selected to be Ganesha’s brides.

The entire heaven celebrated his marriage and Lord Ganesha soon had two sons and one daughter with his wives. His sons were named Shubha and Labh, while his daughter is known to be Goddess Santoshi.