Saturn Removes Gaṇeśas Head
Learn the story behind the famous elephant-headed god and how Saturn was involved
In the Brahma Vaivarta Purana*, there is a story of the birth of the elephant-headed Hindu god Gaṇeśa to his parents Lord Śiva and Goddess Pārvatī.
Gaṇeśa was originally born as a normal baby with a normal human head. His parents were overjoyed and threw a big festivity, with all celestial beings coming to give their blessings.
Saturn also came to bless the child. The whole time, he was looking downward and wouldn’t look at the child. But Pārvatī wanted him to look at the child! So Saturn told her why he wouldn’t look at the child.
When he was young, he was a great devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa and always doing tapas. But his father married him off, and one day, as he was doing tapas, his wife wanted to be pleasured. She bathed and dressed beautifully, went to Saturn and asked him to look at her. But he was so focused on his tapas, he ignored her. She got super upset and cursed him that whatever he looks at will be destroyed! He explained to Pārvatī that because of this curse, he will not look at her baby.
But Pārvatī laughed it off, thinking that she had divine will with her in her festivities, and insisted that Saturn look at Gaṇeśa. Saturn looked and immediately Gaṇeśa’s head fell off! All the gods stood in shock. However, Lord Viṣṇu mounted his vehicle, Garuḍa, and flew around until he found an elephant enjoying himself. He cut off the elephant’s head and brought it back to Pārvatī, where he joined the head onto Gaṇeśa’s body and brought him back to life, now a baby with an elephant head!
After rejoicing, Pārvatī cursed Saturn to be lame. Saturn’s father, the Sun, and brother, Yama got upset since Saturn clearly warned Pārvatī of what would happen and only looked at her child at her own insistence. Pārvatī couldn’t reverse her curse, made in the heat of the moment, but she added several blessings to Saturn:
“O Saturn, with my blessing you will function as the lord of the planets, beloved of the lord, have a long life and become Indra among the yogis. The devotees of lord Hari do not have to face any miseries from today onwards from you. You will have uninterrupted and deep devotion in the lord”. (Nagar, Brahmavaivarta Purana n.d., 566)
This story provides a lot of deep aspects of Saturn:
Saturn as an Ascetic
This story tells a lot about the personification of Saturn. First, it shows how much of an ascetic / renunciate Saturn is. Even though he had an eager wife willing to make love to him, he didn’t even notice her as he was so focused on doing his tapas!
Saturn as a Karma Karaka
Saturn made sure to cast his glance downward and only looked at the baby at Pārvatī’s insistence after she was fully aware of his curse. This shows Saturn’s awareness of his powers and that he doesn’t specifically want to go hurting anyone.
While explaining why he couldn’t look at the baby, Saturn made sure to discuss Dharma with Pārvatī:
“All the people have to face the result of their deeds. Whatever good or bad deeds are done, they cannot be washed away even after completion of crores of kalpas. The Jīva is born as Brahmā, Indra and Sūrya because of his deeds and also is reborn as an animal because of his deeds.” (Nagar, Brahmavaivarta Purana n.d., 560)
This shows Saturn’s role as a Karma Karaka. He doesn’t just go around terrorizing anyone in sight and randomly causing difficulties. He causes difficulties based on each person’s karma! That is why, it is considered that for some, the Saturn period might be extremely difficult while others might even get positive results.
Saturn as the Remover of Ego
The cutting off of Gaṇeśa’s head seems very violent and unjust. But it can be seen as the removal of ego. That is what Saturn does – he removes the ego! This is a very violent process and requires a death and a rebirth, as we can see from this story of Gaṇeśa dying and being reborn with a new head.
The Power of Saturn
After Saturn cut off Gaṇeśa’s head “all the gods were surprised and were flabbergasted. They stood there like puppets. All the gods, the goddesses, the mountains, Gandharvas and all dwellers of Kailasa behaved similarly” (Nagar, Brahmavaivarta Purana n.d., 562). This shows the true power of Saturn. None of the gods and divine beings accept Viṣṇu were able to do anything after Saturn’s gaze!
Pārvatī herself laughed off Saturn’s story thinking there was no way that someone as powerful as her or her divine son could be touched by Saturn, but even her ego was removed as she learned the hard way that even gods were impacted by Saturn’s gaze!
This story is taken from:
*Nagar, Shanti Lal. n.d. Brahmavaivarta Purana. Vol. 1. Delhi: Parimal Publications. p 559-566
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