By: Sagar Pandya

The 1.7 kilometers long queue outside Shree Siddhivinayak temple compelled me to think whether the mob …oh I am sorry the ‘Devotees’ waiting for hours together in the queue have slightest of hint that why is there such a long queue for Darshan in this temple while other small Ganesh temple remain unattended. What could be the chronicle behind this temple? I mean when you find so much of rush at a place you just stop to think what could be possible the reason behind it, in any case as MBA finance you tend to hunt for fundamentals behind everything. Not a great Devotee myself nor so much of a frequent visitor, I do sometimes go to the Siddhivinayak temple. But it seems no one knows the tale of Shree Siddhivinayak, the truth, the legend behind Siddhivinayak temple. Not even many ‘Devotees’ or the regular visitors know the facts about Shree Siddhivinayak temple. This unexplored region captivated me since very long as I always wanted to know about Siddhivinayak temple in detail.

Once I think Lord Ganesh was really merciful on me (considering that he isn’t that gracious always trust me kind of experience I had with success and friendship and relationships and family and studies and everything else I can say that),  I came to know some fascinating facts about Shree Siddhivinayak temple and the legend behind it.
Once upon a time…what? it’s a legend and a legend has to start this way, so where were we yep  Once upon a time when lord Vishnu was resting on his divine Snake bed two demons embodied from his ears named ‘Madhu’ and ‘Kaytap’ (That makes ‘Madhu’ a unisex name isn’t it?). They as any demon considering their normal instinct would do, started terrorizing the entire creation and even the assigned creator lord Bramha. Lord Bramha requested Lord Vishnu to clash with those demons. But unfortunately even Lord Vishnu could not initially stop those demons. So on  lord Shiv’s  suggestion Lord Vishnu went to perform ‘Tap’ on the banks of River Bhima chanting six verse mantra of lord Ganesh to win over ‘Madhu’ and ‘Kaytap’, where he established the Idol of Lord ganesh with trunk on right side and his wives Riddhi  and siddhi  on his either side with  black stone. This temple was then known as and is still know as Shree Siddhivinayak, it is at Siddhtek and is one of the Astavinyak. The Prabhadevi (Mumbai) Siddhivinayak temple is replica of the original temple at Siddhitek.
In all this did I mention Lord Vishnu obviously won the war with lord Siddhivinayak’s blessing. To know more you can read Mudgal Puran 2nd khand  5th Chapter known as ‘Ganesh Vijay Leela’ …ya…ya as if you are going to actually sit and read it, hah!
I do respect devotees and their craze for the temple but their feelings would be even more respected if they bother to find out the importance of the place and the legend behind it rather than just creating fad about the place. As it happens this entire story is encrypted on the walls of same Siddhivinayak temple where devotees end up queuing every Tuesday but fail to catch even the glimpse of it.