Ganesha Chaturthi

Today in our centre Springen we celebrated Ganesha Chaturthi, which is the appearance day of Lord Ganesha, the Son of Shiva and Parvati.
Ganesha is known as the God, who removes obstacles on the spiritual path and He is also the patron of arts and sciences.
Here is a Story that Swami Vishwananda told about Shiva and Paravati:
Shiva is a Saddhu, a Fakir, a renouncant, who bothers about anything, because He is always in the Supreme Consciousness. Parvati wanted so much to have Shiva as husband, so she prayed. She did so much penance, so much tapasya that finally Shiva was pleased with her. Shiva said “Yes, okay. I shall marry you.” On the day they got married Parvati made a promise and said “Lord, you are my everything, I surrender myself completely to You. And I will always sit at Your feet. I will always sit by Your side and look at You. Whenever You will sit in meditation, I will be there, always.” So time passed. Up in the Himalayas, where it's very cold Shiva would be always in meditation. Parvati will sit there for years and years and years. She will sit and watch Shiva. After some time it gets boring.You know how it is.When something becomes to familiar to You, You forget about the necessity. You forget about the joy and the purpose of it. So Parvati one day said to Shiva “My Lord, I have been here, quite so long now. I have the urge to go and see Your Devotees down in the World. Please grant me this.” Shiva looked at Her, smiled, but didn’t answer anything. So one month passed. She became very restless. After another month passed Parvati approached Shiva again. She said “My Lord, You have so many Bhaktas down there, maybe they are calling me. They pray to You and I would like so much to be with them, to grace them.” Shiva smiled and said: “Okay, go, but don’t forget your promise.” Parvati was very happy. The moment Shiva said “Go”, She disappeared. Probably without saying ‘Goodbye’. Shiva climbed down the Himalayas, came down and when the Devotees saw Parvati coming, they were so happy. They welcomed her and made a big festival, Uttsav. So She travelled around throughout India. Wherever She will go, there will be great festivities like that. Finally She reached a point in the South of India. To celebrate the arrival of Parvati, they build a huge temple dedicated to Her. So with all this grandness years and years passed. When She entered the temple, She felt a great sadness inside of Her. She had this yearning for Her Lord again. She had the desire to be with Her Beloved again. But with all the years which have passed, all the places She have been, She forget the way. She could not find the way back. Then She cried and cried, saying “My Lord, through all this I have been attracted to this world with all this glamour and all these festivities I forgot my way back to You. But it’s only through Your grace that I can come back. Please come to my rescue. Save me.” She cried for days. You know it’s very easy to please Shiva. He was touched. He came to rescue Parvati to take her back to the Himalayas. And there Parvati made another promise “Lord, I will never do that again.”Understand the meaning of the story. There are a lot into it. The story that I just told is actually Your own story, it’s Your own self. Parvati is the Prakriti-Shakti, the one which manifest. And that- the manifestation of the Divine, is each one of You. All of us. Our souls are calling to the Divine, calling to the Higher Spirit, calling to the Higher Consciousness, Supreme Consciousness. So it’s a chance. It’s not about coming and coming again and again. Just know You can achieve everything.