I am thankful to Chinmay tour for the legendary importance of each temple. Each of the this temple have its own history and significance as distinct from each other. All the murtis are known as "Swayambhu" means they are created by its own accord.
In this post, you get the information and religious story about each of this distinct murtis.
The list of temples from Mumbai are :
Ballaleshwar temple - Pali
Varadvinayak temple - Mahad
Mahaganpati temple - Ranjangaon
Moreshwar temple - Morgaon
Siddhivinayak temple - Siddhatek
Chintamani temple - Theur
Girijatmaj temple - Lenyadri
Vighnahar temple - Ozar
This listed temples are visited according to shastra, starts from Moreshwar (Morgaon), Siddhivinayak (Siddhatek), Ballaleshwar (Pali), Varadvinayak (Mahad), Chintamani (Theur), Girijatmaj (Lenyadri), Vighnahar (Ozar), Mahaganpati (Ranjangaon) and then again Moreshwar (Morgaon), which ends and complete your Ashtavinayak tour.
The most interesting part of this tour is about the stories of each temples
Moreshwar :
It is the most important temple of this tour. This temple is built from black stone and situated in the centre of the village. The village derives its name from the name of the bird "Peacock" in marathi. The original murti is smaller in size and enclosed in a copper sheet by the Pandavas and placed behind the currently worshiped murti.
This temple is built by Peshwa's. legend say that lord brahma with the blessing of lord ganesh was busy in creating the world. while this was going on, lord vishnu felt asleep and the two demons emerged from vishu's ears. they started troubling all Gods, Goddesses and Sages. on realizing only Lord vishnu could kill the demons. on the request of all Gods to kill them, lord vishnu fought for about 5000 years and failed in defeating the demons. on the advice of Lord Shiva , vishnu worshipped lord ganesha and was successful to kill the demons. hence. the place where vishnu performed the prayer(Penance) and gained siddhi, is known as siddhatek and the lord ganesh who conferred siddhi is known as siddhivinayaka.
Ballaleshwar :
This temple is named after Ballal who used to worship Lord Ganesha. He was blessed by Lord Ganesha to be superior devotee with larger life span. It was noticed that a speciality of this temple is to offer besan ladoo instead of modak.
He is the known as giver of wealth & success. On my way to the temple, I came across the fact, that the murti was found in adjoining lake in an immersed position. One day, the subhedar of the village found the idol and built the Varada Vinayak temple and establish the village named "Mahad". The dome of this temple has depicted to the shape of cobra and a constant lighted oil lamp is always observe burning continuously since 1892.
The temple is located in the village of Theur. The idol of this temple is believed to have a precious Chintamani Jewel. One day, sage Kapila put this jewel in Ganesha's neck and thus named as Chintamani Vinayak. This happened under the Kadamb tree, therefore Theur is known as Kadanbanagar in old times and the lake situated behind the temple is called Kadambteertha.
The story of this temple is based on Parvati's son Atmaj. It was known Parvati as Girija and son as Atmaj. And further named Girijatmaj as Lord Ganesh. It is believed that Parvati (Girija) performed a prayer to bring her son Atmaj (Ganesha) in this world. This temple stands amidst a cave complex of 18 caves of buddhist origin. This temple is in the 8th cave called as Ganesh-leni. To reach this temple , 307 stairs are carved from single stone and the temple features a wide hall with no supporting pillars. I enjoyed this temple most as located on hill with a very good view from hill.
The story of this temple surround with the known name Vighnasur, who was a demon created by Dev Indra to destroy the prayer organised by King Abhinandan. However, the demon went a step further and destroyed all vedic, religious acts and so on. But Lord Ganesha defeat him and the demon begged and pleaded with Ganesha to show mercy. Lord Ganesha granted his plea on the condition that demon should not go to the place where that demon should not go to the place where ganesha worshipping is going on. In return the demon asked a favour that his name should be taken before Ganesha's name, thus the name of Ganesha's became Vighnahar or Vigneshwar. The Lord Ganesha of this temple is called Shri Vighneshwar Vinayak.
The story of Mahaganpati is emphasize on Lord Shiva, who believed to have worshipped Lord Ganesha before fighting the demon Tripurasura. This temple was built by Lord Shiva, where he worshipped Ganesha and the town enclosed by this temple was known as Manipur and now known as Ranjangaon. This temple is constructed in such a way that the rays of the sun fall directly on the idol.
After Ashtavinayak darshan, the most inspiring part was the narration of each stories. The tour was splendid and help me lot to understand more about the epic of each Lord Ganesha.
This post does not hold on the food, accommodation or voyage,but about the noted facts which are rarely known or understand by us. Coming to an end by saying ...Ganpati Bappa Morya !!!!!
