The Legend of the moon's curse
There is a popular legend that warns against sighting the moon
on the night of Ganesh chathurti. The story goes like this…Ganesha,
it hardly needs to be mentioned, had a huge appetite. During
one of his birthdays, he was invited for a feast. Ganesha stuffed
himself with too many laddoos and finally set forth for his
home, on his mouse. Suddenly the mouse fell down, he had seen
his mortal enemy, a snake, on the path and had become petrified.
As a result Ganesha fell off, his stomach burst open and all
the laddoos rolled out. Unperturbed, the elephant-headed God
got up, stuffed the laddoos back in and girded his belly with
that snake. Seeing all this, the moon could not contain itself
and laughed aloud. Ganesha was really infuriated. He cursed
the moon, causing it to disappear from the heaven. Alas, poor
earth, she wilted without moonlight pouring over her at night.
So the gods appealed to Ganesha to reconsider his curse, and
a penitant moon apologised. So, Ganesha finally gave in. He
modified his curse making the moon invisible only one one day
of the month and causing ill-luck to befall anyone who sees
the moon on his feast-day. Well, the curse shattered the moons
pride.
To this day, it is said that who ever looks at the moon on
Chaturthi nights invites false charges on himself. But then
it also believed that those who are subjected to false accusations
will be saved and will regain their good name if they listen
to the story of Samantaka Gem found in the Puranas.
The legend of Samantaka gem
It is believed that king Satrajit, was gifted Samantakamani,
a precious gem, by Surya. According to the legend, Krishna the
Lord of Dvaraka, had asked the king to give it to him for safe
keeping. But the king denied. Later, Prasena, the brother of
Satrajit, who went out hunting wearing the jewel, was killed
by a lion. Jambavan of the Ramayana fame killed the lion and
gave the jewel to his son to play with. When Prasena did not
return, Satrajit falsely accused Krishna of killing Prasena
for the sake of the jewel. Krishna, in order to remove the stain
on his reputation, set out in search of the jewel and found
it in Jambavan's cave. Jambavan attacked Krishna thinking him
to be an intruder who had come to take away the jewel. They
fought each other for 28 days, when Jambavan, finally recognised
Krishna as Lord Rama. In repentance, Jambavan gave Krishna the
jewel and also his daughter Jambavati's hand in marriage. Krishna
returned to Dvaraka with Jambavati and the jewel, and returned
it to Satrajit. Satrajit too repented for his false accusation.
He offered to give Krishna the jewel and his daughter Satyabhama
in marriage. Krishna accepted Satyabhama as his wife but did
not accept the jewel.
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