This is a story about how Lord Ganesha became so fond of cracking coconuts. Once, Shiva and Parvati had a bitter argument. Enraged, Shiva slashed off their son Ganesha’s head. Immediately, he was remorseful for what he had done. Shiva knew how angry Parvati was when he had cut off Ganesha’s head earlier in a fit of fury. Fearing Parvati’s wrath, Shiva instantly fixed Ganesha’s head back onto his body, with the chanting of shlokas and showering of Ganga’s water. Ganesha came back to life. After his rebirth, Ganesha vowed to cut off the head of Shiva, who had beheaded him twice. This made the entire heaven shudder. The bewildered gods kept on looking for a solution. Suddenly, an idea occurred to one of them. They got a coconut that had three marks on it. The marks looked like the three eyes of Shiva! They offered it to Ganesha. Ganesha broke apart the coconut. This symbolic killing of Lord Shiva calmed down the adamant Ganesha.
The Coconut-Cracking Ganesha
