Shri Siddh Ganesh
The Lord Ganesha’s idol installed in the temple of Katyayani Devi at Vrindavan has an ancient, interesting and unique story.
One Englishman, Mr. W.R Yule, used to work as Eastern Secretary with M/s Atlas Insurance Co Ltd., situated at 4, Clive Road in Calcutta. In 1911-1912, his wife was going abroad and took with her a statue of Lord Ganesh, purchased from Jaipur. She went to her home in London and placed the statue on the cornice in the living room.
One evening there was a party organized in their house which was attended by her friends. They asked her about the unique statue. Mrs. Yule told them that this was a “Hindu God with an elephant trunk”. Her friends then placed the statue on the centre table and started making fun of the statue. One person even placed a spoon near The Lords Ganesha’s mouth and asked where the mouth was.
That night after dinner, Mrs. Yule’s daughter ran a high fever and started shouting that the toy with the elephant trunk was coming to gobble her. The doctors thought that she was disoriented and hence talking like that. But she kept repeating this and was frightened throughout the night. Mrs. Yule wrote everything about this incident to her husband in Calcutta. Her daughter did not respond to any medicine or treatment.
One day Mrs. Yule, saw in her dreams that she was sitting in her garden guest house. The sun was setting down in the evening. Suddenly, a gentle and kind person having curly hair, flaring red eyes, carrying a lancet in his hand, riding a bull was coming towards her from the darkness. He was saying “Send my son, the God with the elephant trunk, to India immediately; otherwise I will destroy your family”. She woke up terrified next morning, immediately made a parcel of the toy (Lord Ganesh’s idol) and sent it by post to her husband in India.
In India, the idol of Lord Ganesh remained in the office of Garden Henderson for a few days. Soon men and women from Calcutta started flocking to the office for having a darshan of the Lord Siddh Ganesh. All office work stopped because of the rush of people. Mr. Yule asked his subordinate Insurance agent, Shri Kedar Babu, what should be done about the idol. Shri Kedar Babu then took the idol to his house at 7, Abhay Charan Mitra Street and started worshiping him. The devotees then started coming to Kedar Babu’s house for having a glimpse of Lord Ganesh.
At Vrindavan, during those days, Swami Keshavanand ji Maharaj was in the process of getting idols made of five primary deities of the Hindu Sanatan Dharma in accordance with the “Panchaytan” principles of worship. Sri Katyayani Devi’s “ashtdhaatu” (8 metal mix) idol was being made in Calcutta and Sri Bhairav Chandrashekhar’s (Lord Shiva) idol was being made in Jaipur. While Swami Keshavanand ji Maharaj was contemplating where to get the idol of Lord Ganesh should be made, Mother Goddess Katyayani Devi told Him that one idol of Lord Ganesh was with Shri Kedar Babu at his house. The Mother said that when you bring me from Calcutta you also bring my son along.
When Swami Keshavanand ji went to Calcutta to bring the idol of Katyayani Devi, Kedar Babu went to see Him and said “Gurudev, I am in a fix. I was planning to come to Vrindavan to meet you. I have an idol of Lord Ganesh. Every night in my dreams He tells me that when Shri Katyayani Devi’s idol goes to Vrindavan, you send me with her.” Kedar Babu requested Swami Keshavanand ji to take the idol of Lord Ganesh from him. “All right, you bring the idol to the railway station, I will take the ‘Toofan Express’ to Vrindavan. When Mother goes, Her Son will also go”
Thus, the idol of Shri Siddh Ganesh (Lord Ganesh) was installed by the great Yogi Swami Keshavanand ji Maharaj in the temple of Sri Katyayani Devi at Radha Bagh at Vrindavan.
