(Use a large Ganesha picture to tell this story)
Have you ever seen Ganesha's stomach? It is big isnt it? Have you ever seen a Ganesha who had a thin stomach? (That usually gets a laugh and the children relax. Once they relax, they will start moving. To get the class under control again, raise your voice just a little bit, mantain eye contact with the most restless kids and a big smile. Big hand gestures early in the story usually gets their attention. Decrease voice level by the end of the Kubera intro. Lowering voice makes the children quiet down because they want to listen to the story)
This happened long long ago. Kubera was a very rich God of money. He had a big house and a lot of money and lots of horses and lots of elephants and lots of everything. He was very proud of all his money and all the stuff he had. He would wear all sorts of fancy clothes and walk around showing-off all the time. Shiva was different. He lived a very simple life. He did not have any stuff, he did not care about stuff.
Kubera one day had a big fancy party and invited Shiva to come for dinner to his house. Shiva thought " Hmnn maybe this is a good time to help Kubera learn that money is not important. It is much more important that the person is good on the inside". So Shiva asked his little son to go to the party instead of him.
Who was his son? Do you know?
Ganesha said "Sure Dad, I will go" and he walked over to Kubera's house. There was a lot of food on all the tables and all over the palace. Ganesha started eating -- Laddu's? Yum yum.. Roti-dal? Yum Yum. What else do you think there was? (Let the children say what was on the table and do the sound effects) ___ yum yum, chocolate milk? glug glug. He ate and he ate and ate.
Kubera's cooks saw what was happening and ran back to the kitchen to cook more food. And they cooked more food. and Ganesha ate it up, so the cooks cooked some more and Ganesha ate it up Finally there was no food left in the house. So Ganesha looked around. "Wow, nice plate". He bit it "Yum, crunchy!" and he ate it up like it was potato chips. Then he ate up the table and he ate up the chair. What was left? So he ate it up. He looked around ago. what did he find? (Let the children say what else was in the room) He ate it up (Do the sound effects).
Kubera by this time learnt what Shiva was trying the teach him. Even if you have a ton of money, it could just go away some day. But if your heart is good, nobody can take it from you. You will always be happy on the inside. Shiva saw the Kubera had learnt his lesson.
But Ganesha was still hungry! So Parvathi gave Ganesha just a little puffed rice. Do you know what puffed rice is? Ganesha took some in his hand, ate it and felt perfectly satisfied. Parvathi had given something small but with a lot of love! That was why Ganesha felt full. All of Kubera's fancy food did not stop making him hungry but a little food given with love was all that he needed. So Kubera learnt his lesson and became good ever after.
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A shorter version for the younger kids:
We should never take undue pride in our material or spiritual accomplishments. The old saying "Pride always leads to a fall." is proved true in the following story.
Kubera (the God of wealth) invited Shiva and Parvati to dinner wishing to show off his riches. But, the couple denied Kubera's request and said that he could feed Ganesha instead. Kubera laughed and said 'I can feed thousands of children like this."
Ganesha went to his palace and sat down to eat. He started eating all the food placed in front of him. As was the custom, more and more food was served to him, as he did not say that he had enough. Soon there was no more food in the palace and so Kubera ordered his troops to get more food from the surrounding villages. But Ganesha continued eating and there was no more food to be found. Still very hungry, Ganesha started eating all the furniture.
Kubera became very frightened. Ganesha told him, " You promised my parents you will feed me. Now, I have to eat you up as I am still very hungry ". Kubera ran away and pleaded with Shiva to save him from Ganesha. Shiva asked Kubera to give up his pride and serve Ganesha a handful of rice. Kubera went back to his palace. By this time, Ganesha's stomach had become very huge but the child was still hungry. When Kubera served a cup of rice with humility, Ganesha's hunger was satisfied.
