Mudgalapurana 4.13: phālgunaśuklacaturthīcaritravarṇanaṃ nāma trayodaśo'dhyāyaḥ

Homage to the glorious Gaṇeśa.

Daśaratha said: / Now tell me, O brāhmaṇa, the holy greatness arising from the bright fourth lunar day / belonging to Phālguna; I am not satiated by the nectar of your narrative.

Vasiṣṭha said: / The fourth lunar day that occurs in the bright half of Phālguna is a bestower of boons; / I shall tell you its ancient greatness in brief.

In Mālava there was a famous city endowed with all splendor, / named Bhāraka; filled with people who knew all dharmas, it shone brightly.

There King Hemāṅgada ruled an excellent kingdom; / having conquered the entire circle of the earth, he was skilled in weapons and missiles, and wise.

He was honored by all ministers and kings, approved by all, / accompanied by radiant sons, and fond of twice-born, gods, and guests.

Then suddenly that royal sage was afflicted with colic; / as if struck in the belly by blows of weapons, he wept aloud.

All kinds of efforts were made by everyone with care to destroy the colic; / yet through mantras and medicines, the colic tormented the king even more exceedingly.

He also served sacred bathing places, deities, and the like, together with brāhmaṇas who had mastered the Vedas; / nevertheless, his colic became ferocious.

Then, excessively tormented by the cruel colic, / the king set his mind especially on abandoning his body by poisons and the like.

Then suddenly the great yogin Parvata arrived without delay / at his house; filled with sorrow, the king bowed to him.

Along with brāhmaṇas, he especially worshipped that omniscient one; / filled with pain, restraining the anguish of his colic, he spoke.

Hemāṅgada said: / Blessed is my birth, my charity and the like, my father, mother, and family, / my own dharma, sons, and wives, from seeing your pair of feet.

Then, overwhelmed with severe pain, he fell onto the surface of the earth; / the king wept bitterly, and seeing that, the twice-born was astonished.

The brāhmaṇa Parvata, the best of sages, asked the ministers: / “What is this fierce suffering that has befallen the king? Tell me.”

The ministers said: / “A fierce colic has come upon him, incurable by medicines and the like, / by the application of sacred places and mantras, or by various efforts, O great sage.”

Having heard their distressing words, Parvata entered into meditation; / having discerned the king's sin, the great yogin spoke to everyone.

Parvata said:
Listen, O king, to the extremely terrible sin that exists in your kingdom; / because of that, you are now filled with sharp colic pain.

In your kingdom, the foremost observance of Caturthī especially has perished; / through that mass of fault, you together with your people have become exceedingly miserable.

Hearing the words of Parvata, the king, delighted, said to him— / making cupped hands, O protector of the earth, bowing down with modesty, [spoke these] words:

Hemāṅgada said:
Of what kind is that observance, O master? By whom was it performed of old? / Whose worship indeed is there? Tell me everything clearly.

Parvata said:
The supreme observance of Gaṇeśa bestows all perfections, O king; / it is the means to achieve the four aims of human life, approved by all.

Then he related at length the greatness of Caturthī; / greatly delighted by it, the king, having heard him, spoke again:

Of what kind is this Gaṇādhīśa? Tell me his true nature; / having known that Lord of the gods of gods, I shall worship him especially.

Parvata said:
What ancient life-story of Gaṇeśa was heard by me of old, / that very supreme, all-bestowing [story] from Nidāgha I shall tell [you].

Standing in ascetic penance, devoted to various efforts, / […

Khaṇḍa 4, Adhyāya 13, page 40] everything was pervaded by my ascetic penance, O great-minded one!

Indra, extremely agitated, filled with pride, sent Kāma / together with an Apsaras to cause obstacles to my ascetic penance.

Then even he, Kāma, agitated by fear and possessed of burning heat / through the splendor of my ascetic penance, truly fled along with his soldiers.

Then, endowed with ascetic penance, I became inwardly focused, O king; / abandoning ascetic penance, O mighty-armed one, devoted to calmness and self-restraint,

devoted to various spiritual stages I became; then, out of the weight of great good fortune, / Nidāgha, knower of the path of the avadhūta, suddenly arrived there.

Having seen that perfect yogi, I bowed down especially; / I worshipped him according to the injunctions, and then I spoke to him:

‘Blessed are my father and mother, blessed is my ascetic penance and my birth, / from the sight of the lotus feet of one who bestows the state of Brahman!’

‘Now tell me, O master, the yoga that bestows peace, / by which, O sage, through spiritual practice I may become worthy of praise by yogis.’

Vasiṣṭha said:
Thus questioned, the greatly splendid Nidāgha spoke to him, / to Parvata purified by ascetic penance, with a delighted inner self:

Nidāgha said:
Listen to my ancient story; I shall tell it to you, / through which, by the practice of yoga, I became worthy of praise by the best of yogis.

Engaged intensely in the stages of yoga for the sake of yoga, / I accomplished the supreme great yoga that causes the state of Brahman.

Then, in the end, I became equanimous in the eternal bliss of Svānanda; / standing there, O king, the form of bliss was seen [by me].

Everything was pervaded everywhere by dualities, and in duality that consists of yoga; / because of that, my peace was lost; then I went to Viṣṇu.

Having bowed to that great soul, I said: ‘Tell me the yoga / that gives peace, O Viṣṇu, O great yogi, by which I may become peaceful.’

Viṣṇu said:
Know Gaṇeśa to be the bestower of the peace of yoga, my dear, O respect-giver; / having known him, all of us yogis have attained peace.

Know the syllable 'ga' to be consisting of mind and speech, and beyond the two; / know that syllable 'ṇa' to be devoid of mind and speech, approved by yogis.

The master of those two is Gaṇādhīśa; worship him according to the injunctions; / then, O highly fortunate one, you will obtain peace—there is no doubt about this.

Having spoken thus, Mahāviṣṇu himself then fell silent; / having bowed to him and gone to the forest, I became devoted to the practice of yoga.

Gajānana became pleased with the single-syllable mantra; / when ten years had passed with repetition [of the mantra], he suddenly arrived.

Beholding me situated in meditation, he said: ‘Choose what is desired’; / then, having bowed to him indeed and worshipped him, I began to praise him.

Hearing the hymn of praise spoken in the Sāmaveda, he attained satisfaction; / having granted me the peace of yoga, Lord Gaṇeśa departed.

From that time on, I became a Gāṇapatya and truly worship him; / therefore, you also worship Gaṇarāja, the supreme bestower of peace.

Having spoken thus, Nidāgha gave him the great mantra / of one syllable according to the injunctions; then he vanished.

Parvata said:
Then I constantly worshipped the lord of the gaṇas with respect; / by the procedure spoken by him, O king, I attained peace especially.

Endowed with ascetic penance, I worshipped the lord of the gaṇas constantly; / then the Lord revealed to me his form made of yoga.

Praised and thoroughly worshipped by me, he, having given devotion, O great-minded one, / went to Svānanda, O king, increasing the bliss of devotees.

Khaṇḍa 4, Adhyāya 13, page 41] Having spoken thus, Parvata gave him the ten-syllable mantra / of Gaṇeśa, O great king; and then he vanished.

The king with all the people, rejoiced, performed the observance at first, / named the foremost Caturthī situated in the bright [fortnight] of Phālguna, O king.

Then a proclamation was made everywhere by the king to the people, O king: / ‘Let the observance of the bright and dark [fortnights] be performed on earth by those endowed with faith.’

Then the best of kings became free from the pain of colic; / through the power of the observance, all the people became free from sorrow.

Endowed with sons, grandsons, and so forth, free from diseases and the like, / all rejoiced on the circle of the earth with wealth, grain, and other [blessings].

Then King Hemāṅgada, having worshipped Vighneśa with devotion / through excellent services, served [him] constantly with respect.

Having placed his son on the throne, he, together with his wife, endowed with peace, / [worshipped] Gaṇeśa with all devotion, and in the end attained absorption into him.

Gradually, those men situated on the earth went to Svānanda, / having experienced pleasures especially through the power of the merit of the observance.

Now hear also another greatness connected with the observance: / in the city of Bhākara, there lived a brahmin who brought disgrace upon his caste.

From childhood onward, actions causing great sorrow were done by him, / accompanied by violence and the like, O king, theft that increased afflictions.

Constantly lusting after other men's wives, extremely terrible in his youth, / by force indeed he caused devoted wives to fall from their vows.

Bearing weapons, he would go into the forest and constantly slaughter animals / and, greedy for wealth, he killed humans, including twice-born men, O lover of men.

Thus engaged in sinful conduct, one day while staying in the forest, / he saw a Vaiśya, and fond of slaughter, he ran forward to kill him.

As the son of the Vaiśya fled, he raised a great shout; / hearing it, four men who were standing on the road arrived.

Seizing him, those royal messengers severely beat him; / then the people showed the captured thief bound to the king.

Ordered by the king, they beat that lowest of twice-born men there; / not knowing him to be a brāhmaṇa, O King, they threw the twice-born man into chains.

Then the fourth lunar day falling in the bright fortnight of the month of Phālguna arrived; / bound there, that lowest of men remained without food.

Knowing that he had died on the fifth day, messengers of Gaṇeśa arrived / to take the twice-born man there by the power of the merit of the vow.

He was taken to the city of Svānanda by the Gāṇapatyas, O son of a king; / seeing Vighneśvara there, he became one with Brahman.

In this way many different people have become one with Brahman; / it is not possible to recount all of their stories to you.

If someone hears the story of Varadā in the month of Phālguna / or reads it, Vighneśa indeed grants him all desires.

Om Tat Sat. Thus, in the glorious final Upaniṣad of the Purāṇas, in the glorious and great Maudgala Purāṇa, in the fourth section, in the exploits of Gajānana, the thirteenth chapter, entitled 'The Description of the Story of the Fourth Lunar Day of the Bright Fortnight of Phālguna.'

Section 4, Chapter 14, Page 42