Once, there lived a king in Hemvati, called Abhinandan. His ambition was to become the king of heaven. So he started performing a great sacrifice to achieve his goal. When Indra came to know of this, he became scared of losing his throne. He summoned Kaal (time) and asked him to create obstacles in the sacrifice. Kaal assumed the form of demon Vighna (obstacle), and destroyed the sacrifice. However, he then went a step further and started destroying all virtuous and good deeds on earth. There was utter chaos everywhere. Brahma advised the frightened gods to worship Ganesha in order to get rid of the demon. Ganesha took birth as Sage Parshva’s son. He then started fighting against Vighnasur. The demon tried to create many illusions (maya) like cyclone, flood and fire among others. But Ganesha destroyed all of them. Finally, Vighnasur surrendered before Ganesha. He also requested his name to be added with Ganesha’s name. This is how Ganesha came to be known as Vighneshwar (the destroyer of obstacles).
Ganesha as Vighneshwar
