Lord Ganesha is associated with auspiciousness. By worshipping Lord Ganesha, one can bring good health, knowledge, wealth, peace, and prosperity to his/her life. Lord Ganesha is the chief deity to be worshipped. There are many Prayers, Mantras & Aarti in our ancient scriptures to appease Lord Ganesha.
Traditional belief suggests that Lord Ganesha came into being on the Chaturthi Tithi (fourth day), Shukla Paksha (during the bright phase of the Lunar cycle) in the Hindu month of Bhadrapada, which usually falls in August or September as per the Gregorian calendar. Devotees perform puja to pay obeisance to Lord Ganesha, often hailed as the remover of obstacles.
As per many traditions, Lord Ganesha is worshipped first before beginning any puja or anything auspicious in homes or places of business.
According to Indian mythology, there are two stories which are considered as the reasons why many Hindu rituals begin first with worshipping of Lord Ganesha.
The first one is where Goddess Parvati orders her son Lord Ganesha to guard her chambers. Following the orders, little Ganesha stops Lord Shiva from entering the chambers, which infuriated the god, and he ends up cutting the head of Ganesha. This made Goddess Parvati furious and she asked Lord Shiva to make her son alive again or she will destroy the whole universe. Lord Shiva then replaced Lord Ganesha’s head with that of a baby elephant, blessing him to be worshipped before anyone.
As per the second mythological tale, there was a race between Lord Ganesha and his elder brother Lord Karthikeya. Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati asked both the brothers to go around the world and whoever comes first will be be the winner. While Lord Karthikeya begins his race thinking Ganesha is slow and will never be able to come first, Ganesha went around his parents, stating that they indeed meant the world to him. Impressed by his love for the parents and intelligence in winning the race, Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati blessed Lord Ganesh with the fruit of knowledge along with that of immortality.
This is the reason why we seek blessing from Lord Ganesha before beginning anything new.