The child grew up to be rather intelligent and strong. Gana was an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva, the Destroyer, who was very pleased by the devotion of Gana. Thus Lord Shiva granted him several boons. But as a result of this, the ego of Gana increased to a great extent. Once Gana went to visit the ashram of Sage Kapila, who possessed a precious gem called Chintamani. The gem contained wish fulfilling powers and had the ability to present food for numerous people. After Gana found the stone, he became greedy and wanted to own the gem; but Sage Kapila refused to give it to him. This made Gana upset and he took the Chintamani gem by force from Kapila. The sage prayed to Lord Ganesha, the remover of obstacles, to help him. Ganesha manifested in the dream of Gana and decapitated him. After he woke up, Gana became angry, instead of repenting his sinful deed. Gana gathered his army of Bhutaganas to annihilate Sage Kapila. King Abhijit, his father, tried to prevent him and requested him to return the Chintamani gem back to sage Kapila. But Gana remained adamant and went away with his army. After Gana and his troop of Bhutaganas reached the ashram of Sage Kapila, he discovered that Lord Ganesha was present there along with his own divine army. A fierce battle ensued between Gana and Ganesha and their forces. In the battle, Ganesha destroyed Gana and eventually returned the Chintamani gem back to Sage Kapila. But the sage returned it back to Lord Ganesha, also known as Ganapati, stating that such a powerful gem would create various problems through out the world. Sage Kapila asked the elephant faced deity to stay in his ashram (presently in Theur near Pune) and thus it was known as Chintamani Vinayaka. |