Goddess Lakshmi

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While the great goddess as a cosmic force may be a deity of

compelling dynamism and fearsome power, it is in the guise of the

gentle and beneficent giver of the devotees' desires, that the female

divinities of India first appeared. This role of the goddess as one

who fulfills wishes has remained one of enduring strength and

consequence. In the ancient collection of sacred hymns known as the

Veda, this aspect of the goddess already becomes manifest. The two

most shining examples in this context are The Great Goddesses Lakshmi

and Saraswati.

 

LAKSHMI

 

Goddess Lakshmi, also known as Shri, is personified not only

as the Goddess of fortune and wealth, but also as an embodiment of

loveliness, grace and charm. She is worshipped as a Goddess who

grants both worldly prosperity as well as liberation from the cycle

of life and death.

 

Lore has it that Lakshmi arose out of the sea of milk, the

primordial cosmic ocean, bearing a red lotus in her hand. Each member

of the divine triad- Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva (creator, preserver and

destroyer respectively)- wanted to have Her for himself. Shiva's

claim was refused for He had already claimed the Moon, Brahma had

Saraswati, so Vishnu claimed Her and She was born and reborn as His

consort during all of his ten incarnations.

 

Though retained by Vishnu as his consort, Lakshmi remained an

avid devotee of Lord Shiva. An interesting legend surrounds Her

devotion to this God:

 

Every day Lakshmi had a thousand flowers plucked by Her

handmaidens and She offered them to the idol of Shiva in the evening.

One day, counting the flowers as She offered them, She found that

there were two less than a thousand. It was too late to pluck any

more for evening had come and the lotuses had closed their petals for

the night.

 

Lakshmi thought it inauspicious to offer less than a thousand.

Suddenly She remembered that Vishnu had once described her breasts as

blooming lotuses. She decided to offer them as the two missing

flowers.

 

Lakshmi cut off one breast and placed it with the flowers on

the altar. Before She could cut off the other, Shiva, who was

extremely moved by Her devotion, appeared before Her and asked Her to

stop. He then turned her cut breast into round, sacred Bael fruit

(Aegle marmelos) and sent it to Earth with his blessings, to flourish

near His temples.

 

A few texts say that Lakshmi is the wife of Dharma. She and

several other Goddesses, all of whom are personifications of certain

auspicious qualities, are said to have been given to Dharma in

marriage. This association seems primarily to represent a thinly

disguised "wedding" of Dharma (virtuous conduct) with Lakshmi

(prosperity and well-being). The point of the association seems to be

to teach that by performing Dharma one obtains prosperity.

 

Tradition also associates Lakshmi with Kubera, the ugly lord

of the Yakshas. The Yakshas were a race of supernatural creatures who

lived outside the pale of civilization. Their connection with Lakshmi

perhaps springs from the fact that they were notable for a propensity

for collecting, guarding and distributing wealth. Association with

Kubera deepens the aura of mystery and underworld connections that

attaches itself to Lakshmi. Yakshas are also symbolic of fertility.

The Yakshinis (female Yakshas) depicted often in temple sculpture are

full-breasted and big-hipped women with wide generous mouths, leaning

seductively against trees. The identification of Shri, the Goddess

who embodies the potent power of growth, with the Yakshas is natural.

She, like them, involves, and reveals Herself in the irrepressible

fecundity of plant life, as exemplified in the legend of Shiva and

the Bael fruit narrated above, and also in Her association with the

lotus, to be described later.

 

An interesting and fully developed association is between

Lakshmi and Indra. Indra is traditionally known as the king of the

Gods, the foremost of the Gods, and He is typically described as a

heavenly king. It is therefore appropriate for Shri-Lakshmi to be

associated with Him as His wife or consort. In these myths She

appears as the embodiment of royal authority, as a being whose

presence is essential for the effective wielding of royal power and

the creation of royal prosperity.

 

Several myths of this genre describe Shri-Lakshmi as leaving

one ruler for another. She is said, for example, to dwell even with a

demon named Bali. The concerned legend makes clear the union between

Lakshmi and victorious kings. According to this legend Bali defeats

Indra. Lakshmi is attracted to Bali's winning ways and bravery and

joins him along with Her attendant auspicious virtues. In association

with the propitious Goddess, Bali rules the three worlds (earth,

heavens and the nether-worlds) with virtue, and under his rule there

is prosperity all around. Only when the dethroned Gods managed to

trick Bali into surrendering does Shri-Lakshmi depart from Bali,

leaving him lusterless and powerless. Along with Lakshmi, the

following qualities depart from Bali: good conduct, virtuous

behavior, truth, activity and strength.

 

Lakshmi's association with so many different male deities and

with the notorious fleetingness of good fortune earned her a

reputation for fickleness and inconstancy. In one text She is said to

be so unsteady that even in a picture she moves and that if She

sticks with Vishnu it is only because She is attracted to His many

different forms (avataras)! She is thus also known as `Chanchala', or

the restless one.

 

Her notorious fickleness has convinced Her devotees that she

may desert them at the slightest pretext. They have thus devised

numerous ingenious strategies to retain Lakshmi, and thus prosperity

in their establishments. One such sect is known to offer only the

worst netlike fabric as vastra (clothing) to Lakshmi; for they say,

`It is much easier for Goddess Lakshmi to abandon our houses clad in

ample folds of cloth rather than scantily dressed in the minimum

fabric we offer to her as garment'!

 

In a mythological sense Her fickleness and adventurous nature

slowly begin to change once She is identified totally with Vishnu,

and finally becomes still. She then becomes the steadfast, obedient

and loyal wife who vows to reunite with Her husband in all his next

lives. As the cook at the Jagannatha temple in Puri, She prepares

food for Her lord and his devotees. In the famous paintings on the

walls of the Badami caves in central India, she sits on the ground

near where her lord reclines upon a throne, leaning on him; a model

of social decorum and correctitude.

 

Physically Goddess Lakshmi is described as a fair lady, with

four arms, seated on a lotus, dressed in fine garments and precious

jewels. She has a benign countenance, is in her full youth and yet

has a motherly appearance.

 

The most striking feature of the iconography of Lakshmi is Her

persistent association with the lotus. The meaning of the lotus in

relation to Shri-Lakshmi refers to purity and spiritual power. Rooted

in the mud but blossoming above the water, completely uncontaminated

by the mud, the lotus represents spiritual perfection and authority.

Furthermore, the lotus seat is a common motif in Hindu and Buddhist

iconography. The Gods and Goddesses, the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas,

typically sit or stand upon a lotus, which suggests their spiritual

authority. To be seated upon or to be otherwise associated with the

lotus suggests that the being in question: God, Buddha, or human

being-has transcended the limitations of the finite world (the mud of

existence, as it were) and floats freely in a sphere of purity and

spirituality. Shri-Lakshmi thus suggests more than the fertilizing

powers of moist soil and the mysterious powers of growth. She

suggests a perfection or state of refinement that transcends the

material world. She is associated not only with the royal authority

but with also spiritual authority, and She combines royal and

priestly powers in Her presence. The lotus, and the Goddess Lakshmi

by association, represents the fully developed blossoming of organic

life.

 

No description of Goddess Lakshmi can be complete without a

mention of Her traditionally accepted vehicle, the owl. Now, the owl

(Ulooka in Sanskrit), is a bird that sleeps through the day and

prowls through the night. In a humorous vein it is said that owing to

its lethargic and dull nature the Goddess takes it for a ride! She is

the handmaiden of those who know how to control it; how to make best

use of Her resources, like the Lord Vishnu. But those who blindly

worship Her are verily the owls or `Ulookas'. The choice is ours:

whether we wish to be Lord Vishnu or the `Ulooka' in our association

with Lakshmi.