WHY TULSIâ€™S LOVE FOR LORD GANESHA MADE HIM TO CURSE HER!

saloni gupta 09-Sep-2016 Image Source

One sided love stories are perhaps different from where love is mutual, for in the former, love can’t be shared and one of the partners suffers. But there was a love story in Indian Mythology that disappointed both the partners because the love couldn’t be reciprocated.

Indian mythology is an epitome of boundless love be it between lord Ram- Sita, Krishna- Radha or Shiva- Parvati . However, unlike these legendary love stories, there were some which remained incomplete and led to disastrous chain of events.

That one sided love story was between holy Tulsi and Lord Ganesha. Lord Ganesha revered as God of obstacles couldn’t accept holy Tulsi’s indomitable love for him which made her curse Lord Ganesha in her fury of anger.

This in turn made Lord Ganesha to lose his calm and he too decided to teach her a lesson. Not only did he curse her for life but even refuted her use in all the rituals of the worshipping related to him .

But what was Holy Tulsi’s vicious curse? What was the story?

It so happened that, Holy Tulsi an ardent devotee of Lord Vishu used to visit the bank of Ganges and worship in a temple devoted to Lord Vishnu. One day as she was performing her rituals she saw a handsome youth mediating at the bank of the river, he was Lord Ganesh. She couldnâ€™t resist herself from confessing her undying love for him and proposed him to marry her. As she confessed her feelings Lord Ganesha refused to reciprocate his love for her, given that he was on his path of celibacy. He rejected the proposal saying that he couldnâ€™t only marry a match like that of his parents.

Image Source

The refusal left Tulsi in awe provoking her to curse Lord Ganesha as an revenge for her insult. She cursed him that one day he will have to marry against his wishes. Seeing Tulsi fuming with wrath, Lord Ganesha couldnâ€™t suppress his wrath and he too cursed her that she will have to marry a demon a day ( Asur). Alarmed by the consequence of his curse, she immediately realised her mistake and pleaded mercy from Lord Ganesha. After repenting so much and insisting him to take back his curse, Lord Ganesha complied. He did take back his curse and twisted it into a blessing of Lord Vishnu which said shell take an avatar of a holy plant( Tulsi) but did not assent for her use in the holy rituals revering him, thus reminding her that she will always remain distant from him. Later as an impact of the curse Tulsi had to marry a demon â€˜Shankhchudaâ€™, known as Jalandhara. His atrocities led his assassination by Lord Shiva.