7. Broken Tusk -Ganesha Curses the Moon

It was day of Chaurthi and month of Bhadrapada. The adode of Lord Shiva reverated with joy. Shiva's family, Nandi and the troop of Ganas residing on the Mount Kailash gathered around Ganesha wishing him the return of day of his birth.  They sang, rejoiced and danced. Ganesha was glorified. He danced and enjoyed with them too. 

Meanwhile, Ganesha's mother Goddess Parvati went around preparing for the grand feast. All deities came to celebrate the great day.

Little Ganesha loved food immensely. He is very found of sweets especially modaks, laddus and rice pudding. So Goddess Parvati prepared twenty one different kind of sweets. She laid a seat of Dhruva grass for Ganesha. The Ganas wove garlands for him, while Nandi worked on a gem studded crown to adore  him.

By mid day all preparations were over. All deities arrived. The Shiva family, the Ganas, Nandi, deities gathered to celebrate Ganesha's birthday. They all feasted after Parvati offered all delicacies to Ganesha for auspicious beginning. They glorified Ganesha and sang songs in his glory. The Kailash mountain reverberated with the chimes, drumbeats of festive merry.

After the celebrations were over, the deities returned. Lord Shiva sat on his tiger mat to meditate. Parvati and Ganas went for resting. Ganesha also fell asleep. But he was soon woken up by Kroncha, his mouse steer. They played around for sometime after which Ganesha asked his mouse to take him for a ride. The naughty mouse happily agreed.

Ganesha mounted the mouse and together they went across the mountains. They enjoyed seeing the beautiful forests around. Soon it began turning dark. But it was a beautiful moonlit night. The mouse told Ganesha that he was tired and they should return home. Ganesha agreed saying that his mother must be worried.

On their way back to home, they reached a mountain plain. They traversed the plain reaching the far end of the mountain, where the mountain had a steep slope. They began going down the mountain, when suddenly a large black snake came across. The mouse was startled and he tripped in anguish. Ganesha came rolling down from the mountain, while the mouse hid began a bush in fear. The mouse was also hurt.

Up in sky, the moon laughed loudly seeing the pot belly Ganesha rolling down. His laughter echoed across the forest. The entire existence watched in dismay. Ganesha felt very bad and humiliated. He caught the snake and killed it. He tied the snake around his waist and then broke his right tusk in anger. He hauled the tusk hard towards the moon. The moon ran fearing the wrath and hide itself behind heavy clouds.

The angry Ganesha thundered, 'O moon! You take immense pride in your looks. You are arrogant and indifferent. I curse you - you shall fade away in next eleven days. On day of by birthday celebrations (Ganesha Chaturthi) people shall ignore you and refrain from seeing you. If someone sees you, the person shall become wrongly balanced and suffer. He will be falsely accused of theft".

Hearing the curse, moon was humbled. He moon realized his mistake. He appeared from behind the clouds and asked Ganesha to forgive him. But Ganesha was too angry to forgive him. He began walking away. The moon followed Ganesha, pleaded hard to forgive him. 

After a while, Ganesha felt that the moon was truly asking for forgiveness, he took mercy on him. He said to the moon, 'I cannot take away the curse on you. But I grant a boon that if falsely accused man looks at the moon on the second day of the fortnight he would win back his good name. As for your illuminance, after fading completely on the fifteen day of the month (day of no moon), you shall regain your radiance until the day of full moon'.

The moon thanked Ganesha. Since then people have been following the custom of not seeing moon on day of Ganesh Chathurthi.