A grocer named Kalyan and
his wife Indumati. lived in a village named Palli.They had a son named
Ballal.One day Ballal with his friends went in a jungle to play and saw
one big stone. Ballal was very happy to see the stone and told his firends
that they will all play a game of worshipping Ganesha.with the stone.
The boys applied red colour to the stone by
painting a trunk on it and offered various flowers to it.Then they all
started chanting the Ganesh Mantra,'Aum Gan Ganapataye Namaha'.and also
the shlok 'Vakratunda Mahakaya'.
Since the children did not return for a
long time,the worried parents rushed to Kalyan and started blaming him
that Ballal is creating all this problems.They all rushed to the
jungle.The children saw parents coming and immediately ran to them and
went home.
Ballal was engrossed in meditation hence
he did not notice his father.The angry father started hitting him with
lashes and tied him up to a tree as a punishment and went home.
Ballal went on chanting the mantras and
to his surprise,he saw a halo(bright circle) and soon a graceful brahmin
appeared before him and automatically Ballal was released from the tree
and all the wounds were healed.The brahmin embraced ballal and carrassed
him.
Balla recognised him as Omkar Ganesh and
fell on his feet.He also insisted that Ganesha should actually appear
before him in his original form.Pleased with his devotion,Ganesha appeared
and asked for his wish.
Ballal requested him to stay there
forever and protect all.Ganesha immediately reacted
positively,saying,'Tathastu'(I promise to do it) and he got merged in to
the stone.
In the morning the villagers were
astonished to see Ballal released with no wounds and praying the stone
which was miraculously transformed in to a Ganesha Idol.The Villagers were
ashamed of their act and named the Ganesha as Ballaleshwar.
This shrine is in Sudhagarh district in
Maharashtra.
