Nandi Offers Durva to Lord Ganesh.

How Durva (Green Grass Blade) came to be offered to Lord Ganesha ......

Nandi is the name of the bull which serves as the mount / vehicle (Sanskrit: Vahana) of Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati are known to be a couple very much in love. There are many stories about the game of dice between Shiva-Parvati. A very famous legend is associated that gives a picture of how Nandi got cursed and how Lord Ganesha freed him from it and also how Durva came to be offered to Lord Ganesha.

One day Goddess Parvati urged Lord Shiva into playing a game of dice with her. Nandi was made as the umpire of the game and was asked to sit and keep a close watch over the game. The game started and the couple played in turns. At first Shiva beats Parvati, which annoys her very much. The more Parvati gets annoyed the more her beauty appeals to Lord Shiva and his mind gets diverted leading him to lose the dice game. Shiva accepts the defeat but Nandi the umpire is not at all happy. Not able to see his master losing the battle he declares Shiva as the winner, even though he had lost the game. 

Parvati gets angry on Nandi for being partial and curses him saying he would die of an incurable disease. Nandi humbly replies that he was just helping and respecting his master Shiva. He then adds on and convinces Parvati that it would be very humiliating for him to declare his master as the loser. He asks Parvati to forgive him and requests her to free him from the curse saying it was not the right thing to be done over such a petty matter. 

By now Parvati had mellowed down and was regretting cursing Nandi who was very loyal to her and Lord Shiva. She tells him to go to the hills, start meditating and worshiping her son Lord Ganesha on his birthday and offer him the thing that is most pleasant to Nandi. She assures him doing so would free him from the curse. 

Nandi followed the instructions given by Parvati with great faith and worshiped Lord Ganesha on Chaturdashi of the Bhadrapada month and offered him green grass that was his most favourite Item. By performing the aforementioned actions, Nandi was freed from Parvati’s curse. The tradition of offering Gods the thing that is the most favourite of oneself thus came into existence. So also the tradition of offering Durva / Dibrankar / Green Grass Blades to Lord Ganesha.

This Ganesh Chaturdashi do offer Durva / Green Grass Blades to Lord Ganesha along with Modak and other goodies that Lord Ganesh loves the most and Stay Blessed. 

|| Vakratunda Mahakaya Suryakoti Samaprabha

Nirvighnam Kuru Me’ Deva Sarva-Kaaryeshu Sarvada ||

Disclaimer : Picture And Story Courtesy : Compiled by Me from Various Sources, Friends and also from the Net ....