MANKANA – ARDENT DEVOTEE OF LORD GANESA

INTRODUCTION
According to Hindu Legend, Several thousands of years back, there lived a pious person in Varanasi whose name was Mankana, and he was a barber by profession, and he was a great devotee of Lord Ganesa. Once, Kasi was ruled by the King Divodasa. Since the king Divodasa doesn’t worship Lord Shiva, and since he disliked the Brahmins performing the Vedic rituals, Lord Shiva got angry with him and wanted to destroy the city of Kasi with the help of his son Lord Ganesa.
Lord Ganesa came to Kasi and gave his divine darshan to his ardent devotee Sri Mankana, and asked him to construct a temple on the outskirts of Kasi. Mankana constructed the holy temple and Lord Ganesa in the temple was called as Nikumbhamandira. Lot of Devotees visited the divine shrine of Ganesa and got their prayers fulfilled. But even after praying to the god, the King was not blessed to have a son. Due to that, he got very angry with Lord Ganesa, and he destroyed the temple. Lord Ganesa could not bear the act of the king and cursed that the city of Kasi would become in a dilapidated state. Thus the great Lord Shiva’s wish was fulfilled.
From this story we can understand, that if god makes a plan and acts accordingly, he would definitely succeed it through his great spiritual powers, since everything is created by the god, and he is the ultimate master and the creator of the entire universe, and we are all his slaves and servants.
Let us always bow our head before the great god Lord Shiva and be blessed.
“OM SRI MANKANA PRABHUVE NAMAHA”
“OM SRI VINAYAKAYA NAMAHA”
“OM NAMAH SHIVAYA”
WRITTEN BY
R.HARISHANKAR