So superpowerful yet he couldn't find / reattach his own sons head? or more powerful yet - grow a new one? And such a powerful god with such a wild temperament? not exactly the fairest of gods i'm assuming unless his wifes always been around to make him correct his misjudgements - and we know from the story she hasn't. Skepticism rocks!
In that case, a 'true believer' is something like an ostrich that buries its head in the sand. Spiritual awakening does not demand that we become stupid or give up all sense of discrimination, or believe in the litertal truth of symbolic myths. In fact, if you take such storiies as historic facts, you will miss the entire point.
No, you are missing the point. The whole story has a moral reason and has many meanings from which one of these meanings is: Lokakalyanam= For the welfare of all in the world. You see, Ganesh had followed his mother's orders. He was following his dharma and even though God himself told him to defy his dharma, he did not, but he got ready to fight. It shows that one's dharma saves oneself even when God tells you to oppose it, you don't. There is also more to this story, the elephant head is symbolic of discriminative power or "viveka", intelligence or "buddhi" and Wisdom. God had granted these things to Lord Ganesha because he follows his dharma. There is also another hidden meaning in this story and that is, even if you fight God, only good will come out of it. God is all divine, you will have a favorable solution even when you fight God.
Good words Jedi. The bad thing is when we have no engagement with the divine - however we concieve of it. Even enemies of Krishna like Kamsa were given liberation in the end - even though they were thinking of Him as their enemy. Also in the Bible there's the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel. To develop, to change, it's usually the case that some struggle is necessary. Just to add that these ancient myths can't really be understood by the intellect alone, which wants to have everything in black and white terms. Rather, they engage a deeper part of our being.
Maybe they were designed to challenge the intellect, to make it realise it can't understand everything, that in fact it can understand very little. Whats left over?, no one seems to have any understanding of it.
Sons of an intellectual age, we scan And weigh the hearts findings with our mental measure Surmising never once that no mind can Win even a clue to the soul's resplendent treasure. The more we probe the more must thought mislead Till even the meaning of our spirit's birth Is buried in the din of words that plead For the reign of trifling truths of temporal worth................. Dilip Kumar Roy.
When i was told this story it was that Shiva was away so much that Parvati got lonely on her own and so made Ganesha out of clay thus Shiva didn't know who Ganesha was and instead saw a young man whom he didn't know stopping him seeing his wife. Then Parvati came out and saw Ganesha headless and then after Shiva realised his mistake he saw an elephant and used its head.
