Skandapurana 14.32

Pulastya said: / Then one should go to Mahāvināyaka, O best of kings, / upon seeing whom freedom from obstacles immediately arises for men.

Yayāti said: / How did Vināyaka formerly attain greatness there? / At what time, O best of the twice-born? Tell me everything in detail.

Pulastya said: / Formerly, O king, Pārvatī took the paste born of her fragrant body-ointment / and, for diversion, made a delicate boy.

For lack of paste, he was headless, having all the other limbs and members, O king. / Having fashioned him as described, she then spoke to Skanda:

“Bring paste quickly for a head, Skanda, may good fortune be yours, / so that he may be my little son, and your brother, invincible to enemies!”

Then, by Gaurī's command, unable to find paste, O best of kings, / seeing an elephant in rut, he brought its head.

He affixed it onto that body born of the paste: / “Indeed, this head will be huge, my son! Why did you bring it?”

Even while Pārvatī was crying, “No, no!” again and again, / the head was joined to that body by the power of destiny, O ruler of men.

And preeminence arose especially from those limbs; / he looked like a boy, lovely, endowed with all auspicious marks,

with three deep, four hands, seven red, O king, / six elevated, five long, five subtle, exceedingly beautiful,

and three expansive, O great king. Seeing him, Gaurī was utterly astonished; / she, the embodiment of power, brought him to life by her own power.

Brought to life by the goddess, he stood up that very instant / and requested a command, bending his neck in modesty.

Seeing him of wondrous form, calling him her son again and again, / she brought him before Śambhu with a heart overflowing with joy.

Then she said, “O God, to my son, born from the paste of my own body, / give boons, O God, so that he may attain greatness.”

The Lord said: / “Because the head on the body is principal, O daughter of the mountain, / and this head you Skanda joined is said to be huge (mahat),

and because preeminence (nāyakatva) resides particularly in his body, / therefore he shall be named Mahāvināyaka.

Moreover, lordship over all the attendants (gaṇas), O daughter of the mountain, / has been given to him by me, wherefore he shall be the Lord of Attendants (Gaṇādhipa).

Those mortals who remember this Gaṇādhipa first in all undertakings / shall never suffer failure in their deeds.”

Then Skanda gave him an axe to play with, / and that very weapon was indeed always exceedingly dear to him.

Then Gaurī gave him a vessel of food filled with sweetmeats; / out of affection for his mother, having received it, he then danced joyfully.

Drawn by the scent of that sweetmeat, a mouse came out from its hole; / and from eating it, he became immortal and became his vehicle.

Pulastya said: / Thus indeed Mahāvināyaka was born there, O lord of the earth. / Hear with a single mind the merit obtained upon seeing him:

Whatever sin a man commits in childhood, / in old age, or in youth, O king, he is freed from that sin.

Fasting on the fourth day of the bright fortnight in the month of Māgha, / he who sees him becomes eloquent and omniscient. / In front of him is a very large pool filled with clear water;

having bathed there, the man who gazes upon Vināyaka with devotion— / in his lineage too, O king, men are born omniscient.

Having made three circumambulations with the mantra beginning “gaṇānāṃ tvā...”, / he who sees him, O king of kings, sees no misfortune.

Therefore, with every effort, one should behold that Vināyaka, / if one desires all objects of desire in this world and the next.

Even a householder who remembers him with devotion when a task is at hand— / all that [task] goes to fulfillment without obstacles.

The mortal who, rising in the morning, remembers the god Vināyaka— / the deeds born of that day indeed reach success for him.

In marriage, dispute, battle, setting forth, agricultural work, / and entering [a new house], he who remembers Vināyaka with devotion / attains all that he desires through his grace.

He who performs the pacification rite of Mahāvināyaka with a concentrated mind / is not afflicted by ghosts, planetary spirits, diseases, or obstructing spirits.

Yayāti said: / Tell me, O best of sages, about the pacification rite of Mahāvināyaka: / what are the mantras, and what is the procedure? For my curiosity is great.

Pulastya said: / In the bright fortnight, on an auspicious weekday, under a lunar mansion free of defects, / when the power of the moon is supreme, one should perform the pacification rite of Gaṇeśa.

Having made an altar and a pavilion on level ground in the northeast, / and in the center an eight-petaled lotus, one should apply the domestic ritual manual;

and the world-guardians, Indra and the others, in all directions, O king, / as well as the Mothers, especially with Gaṇeśa at their head,

with scents, flowers, offerings, and extensive oblations as prescribed, / [and] a water-filled pot covered with a pair of white cloths,

in the eastern quarter of that very [altar], accompanied by gold and fruit.

With the mantra beginning 'gaṇānāṃ tvā' one should recite [it] eight thousand times, / and likewise, O best of kings, the beautiful five limbs [of the mantra]. .. 35 ..

Dedicaing it to Vināyaka, in a fire-pit in front measuring one cubit, / four-cornered, furnished with a vulva-shaped hearth, and adorned with rims, .. 39 ..

with oblations of honey, dūrvā grass, and unbroken rice, after the oblation to the planets, / likewise a rite of ten thousand [oblations] with the mantra beginning 'gaṇānāṃ tvā' .. 7.3.32.40 ..

must indeed be performed, O best of rulers, and performed by twice-born ones facing north, / four skillful [brahmins], O king, wearing yellow garments and yellow ointments, .. 41 ..

clad in yellow robes and wearing gold rings on their fingers. / Then, at the end of the oblation, O best of kings, the patron of the sacrifice, .. 42 ..

seated upon a deer skin, according to the rule with these mantras, / calm, veiled in white cloth, facing east, one should bathe. .. 43 ..

[Reciting] 'imaṃ me gaṅge yamune', the Five Rivers, the Supuṣkara hymn, / the Pāvamāna hymn of Viṣṇu accompanied by the Śrīsūkta, and the Vṛṣākapi hymn, .. 44 ..

properly reciting [them], one attains the destruction of obstacles. / The planets become benevolent, and ghosts perish in that very moment. ..45..

Mental agonies, physical ailments, dreadful and malignant diseases such as fevers / quickly all perish, as do very dire portents. .. 46 ..

All this has been told to you that you asked of me: / the greatness of Vināyaka, his majesty, and the pacifying rite. ..47..

And whoever, deeply concentrated, properly recites or hears [this] / on the fourth lunar day, O best of kings, for him there shall always be freedom from obstacles. .. 48 ..

Whatever desire one contemplates when one performs this sacrifice with concentration, / that very desire one surely attains through the grace of the Lord of Gaṇas. .. 49 ..

Thus ends the thirty-second chapter, titled 'Description of the Greatness of Vināyaka', in the Arbuda Section of the third part, within the seventh book, the Prabhāsa Section, of the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, a compendium of eighty-one thousand [verses]. .. 32 .. ..