“Suklambaradaram Vishnum Sasivarnam Chatrubhujam
Prasanna Vadanam, Dhyaee Sarva Vignopa Santaye”Without this praying God Lord Vigneswarara, no auscipicious function takes place.

Lord Vigneswara is the only God who could ward off any obstacles that may arise during the auscipicious functions.

This is the first of the Indian festivals that comes throughout the year. Vijayaka Pooja starts will be performed on Bhadraprada Sukla Chavti according to Varaha Purana.

If we perform Vigneswara, all obstacles will go away and no obtcles will come nearer to any one. This pooja is being performed through out the world.

Long time ago Gaja raju prays to shiva & asks boon that he shd stay in his heart all the time. Shiva enters his heart. All other gods & parvathi starts looking for him. Finally they finds truth, enters kingdom as Gangireddu singers. As everyone starts talking about them, king calls them to perform. Having pleased, asks them to ask a boon. When they ask for shiva, he finds who they r but to keep his word, agrees. King prays to shiva & asks 2boons that Shiva shd wear his skin & that his head shd be worshipped by all. Shiva agrees & comes out splitting the heart. He starts going to heaven. Hearing that her husband is coming home, Parvathi goes to take bath. With nalugupindi, shapes a boy, gives life, asks him to guard as no guards were there. He promises that he would not let even sm ant come inside. She gives eatables(kudumulu). She is very pleased hearing sweet words of boy. When shiva tries to enter his house, boy stops him. Shiva tries to frighten the boy, but boys stubbornnes make him cut his head off. Parvati comes running on hearing the cry of boy. When she sees the corpse, becomes adishakti & the whole heaven shakes. All gods plead her, but she says that she wants her son alive. Shiva orders soldiers to look for any animal sleeping towards N side. But they couldnt find. So they rest under a tree, when they hear an animal moaning shivas name. It is an elephant lying towards N side, so they cut its head with which boy comes alive. All gods like the boy & give him name ganapati as adhipati for all ganas. Shiva announces him as his son & performs puja. As part of that, he has to wear a jandhyam. But no matter how hard they tried to put it, it didn’t work. Parents feel sad. A naga sarpam says it want to try, & it becomes his jandhyam. A mushika keeps troubling ganapati. He starts chasing her, but nothing works. So he angrily bites his teeth & throws tooth at mishika. When the tooth starts coming towards him, mushika runs to his mom who pleads parvati. Parvati throws her bangle to stop the tooth. When Ganapati asks why she did that, Parvathi says that b’cos mushikas mom is her devotee. But she gives boon that mushika stays under him as vahana. Now he is called ekadanta. One day gods come to shiva & asks who is adhipathi among his 2sons. Shiva asks his sons & they both fight for it. So shiva puts test & says whoever comes 1st after taking holy dips in 3rivers in 3lokams will win. Kumaraswami imm’tly on his peacock vehicle flies into heaven. Ganapati cant fly, so thinks what he shd do. He knows so much about vedas, so knows that praying parents is more powerful than dips. So he takes bath in holy ganga, makes 7rounds around parents & take their blessings. Now he starts appearing in all 3rivers & kumaraswami sees him when he reaches there. He feels surprised & finds out his mistake, accepts that his brother has to get the throne. Then g.pathi tries to make sastanga n.skaram to parents, but his stomach doesn’t let him do properly. The moon on shivas head laughs at him seeing this. Parvathi rises with anger & says to moon “u think u’re the most beautiful. I want u out of here”. All gods come running & asks her to take it back or else heaven is going to vanish. Then she gets cooled & says, “whoever sees u on bhadrapada sudda chaviti day 1st, is going to get neelapanindalu”. From that day, on land everyone celebrates g.chaturthi as navaratri, pray to him 1st. Feeds him k.mulu, un.rallu, sweets & asks him to take care of their family. 

Kanipakam varasiddi vinayaka in chittor dst- Long time back 3dumb, deaf, blind persons reach there, get pakam land, cultivate & made good living. But later it dries up as no h20 & they starts to dig for it. But a stone flies out & suddenly h20 starts bursting out. The h2o turns them blindless, deafless, dumbless. All people came to see & saw god who appeared. Whoever takes dip in h2o, prays with heart will be blessed. He even settles disputes, punishes culprits.

Vinayaka is the first to be worshipped whenever we start anything. He is solves all the problems. The uniqueness of this puja is that besides flowers even leaves and grass is offered. Chaturthi should set in to begin the puja.

PREPARATION OF THE PUJA: Clean the puja mandap with a wet cloth then place a wooden plank and smear it with turmeric paste. Then place a white cloth or a plantain leaf on it and spread rice on it. Place the Ganesha idol on it in such a way that it faces north. Place books next to the idol. Make a pasupu vighneswara(with turmeric paste and water) and put kumkum on it. Place it on a betel leaf near the idol. Every puja begins with this form of ganesha(which is considered the purest form). Prepare some Akshintalu(turmeric+rice). In some parts of Andhra pradesh a pali is placed on the mandap and fruits are tied to it(in such a way that they all hang around the mandap). Keep a coconut, flowers, leaves, grass, agarbathi, karporam, panchapatra & udharina, deepam, Prasadam and other puja samagri ready. Now start the puja.

PERFORMING OF THE PUJA: You can ask someone to do the puja for you or you can play the cassette and offer flowers etc and follow the instructions as per the cassette. First put kumkum to yourself. Everyone sitting in the puja should take the akshintalu and offer it to god at the end of the puja. Then lamp the deepam and agarbathi. Then break a coconut and place in front of the god. Begin with Vinayaka stotram, followed by Sri Vinayaka Ashtotra Satanamavalli. While reading out the ashtotra, one by one place the flowers and leaves in front of the god. Then read out the story of Vinayaka vratham. End the pooja by offering the prasadam and aarthi. Married ladies can follow the Sreesuktam vidhanam puja. It is believed that moon should not be looked that day as that will bring bad luck for the whole year. There is a story that Moon was cursed by Ganesha when the former giggled at the sight of the huge Ganesha on the tiny mouse.

IMMERSION OF THE IDOL: Idol of the puja can be immersed in water on any odd day within 10 days.

PRASADAM:

1)It is believed that Vinayaka likes steamed food hence most delicacies are steam cooked food. The most famous prasadam of all is Modak or Jiludikaya or Kudumullu or kozhukkattai. It is prepared with rice flour. The rice powder for making this can be prepared the previous night after taking bath.

2)Another Prasadam is Buttalu which is stuffing and steaming of urad dal batter in cups made of Jackfruit leaves.

3)Another must on the prasadam platter is soaked and boiled black gram.

4)Chanividi (dough of rice powder and sugar) and vadapappu (mixture of soaked moong dal and sugar)is generally the naivejyam offered.

One day in heaven Lord Indra asks: who among the Iksvaku kings is most truthful? Vasista, guru of Iksvakus(Ramas dynasty which ruled Ayodhya), names his disciple Hariscandra as being absolutely committed to truth, but his rival Visvamitra disagrees. He says he would give 1/2 of his merits acquired from ascetic practices if he cant prove it. To prove, he devices various strategies to force Haris to lie. He tricks Hariscandra into performing Bahusuvarna sacrifice & asks as daksina (gift), a very high pile of gold. After collecting the gift, he leaves it with Haris for safekeeping & goes home. Then he creates wild animals, which cause immense fear among people, forcing Haris to hunt. When Haris kills a boar created by him, viswamitra gets mad & creates 2untouchable girls to entertain Haris & ask him to marry them. But he refuses b’cos he, as been born into suryavamsa would go to hell if he does that. He says he would rather give up his throne than marrying them. Imm’ly viswamitra asks for the throne & gets it. Then he demands the earlier gift of gold which Haris already returned it to him. Surprised Haris tries to explain, but sage accuses angrily of going back on his promise. Haris seeks 48days to repay the loan & goes to Kashi along with his wife chandramati, son Lohitasva, minister Satyakirti. Viswamitra sends his disciple Naksitrika to stay with them & collect gold from Haris. At Kashi, following Candramati’s suggestion, he sells her to a Brahmin. Naksitrika’s demand for allowance for days he had to spend in Haris’s company experiencing many hardships compels Haris to sell himself to an untouchable who employs him as burial ground guard to collect rent from its users. Soon thereafter, Lohitasva dies from snakebite in forest, where he was collecting firewood along with his friends. Grief stricken Candramati brings her sons body to burial ground in the night, since her masters wouldn’t’ allow her to leave before finishing her housework. Haris seeing his sons corpe 1st collapses, but wouldn’t let her cremate the body, if she is unable to give the rent. When a reluctant Candramati returns to get the rent, Visvamitra has the prince of Kashi killed & placed on her path. When she hears the cry of young prince, she delusionally thinks that her own son was calling her & walks towards the source of sound. She is captured by the soldiers & brought to the king of Kashi, who finds her guilty & sentences her to death. Haris, being Virabahuka’s slave, is asked to cut her head & he is determined to do just the same, refusing Visvamitra’s seductive offers. When Haris raises the axe, Gods, led by Siva, appear. Visvamitra praises Haris’s commitment to truth, returns kingdom to Haris, gives him merit he promised.

1. Offer a new cushion or bean bag chair, put it a distance away from the activity. Tell that this is where he or she can take a time out until frustrating feelings r gone. Then u can talk together when everyone is feeling better.
2. Do not set a time limit for time out. The purpose is regaining composure & rejoining family with proper behavior. It doesn’t matter how long it takes. 
3. While ur child is taking his or her time out, be sure to gauge whether he or she wants to be chk’d on & soothed or wants privacy.