Fwd: THE CONCEPT of LAKSHMI !!

[Guest guest]

Interesting concept of our culture. devas and asuras are both good. Let us

welcome lakshmi along with saraswathi and ganesha to live happily always.

Jaya Guru datta

 

 

 

 

*Lakshmi revealed*

*As the goddess of wealth assumes centrestage once again this Deepavali,

Devdutt pattanaik tells her story to understand how ancient Indians viewed

wealth and prosperity.* *

**A bowl of rice will provide equal satisfaction to a rich man and a poor

man, to a saint and a sinner. A bowl of rice does not judge the person who

consumes it. The same applies to a piece of cloth. A piece of cloth will

provide comfort to whosoever drapes it, man

or woman, irrespective of caste, creed or religion. And a house will provide

the same quality of shelter to all, without any discrimination. We may judge

a bowl of rice, a piece of cloth or a house, but the rice, the cloth and the

house will never judge us. For rice, cloth and house are forms of Lakshmi,

the goddess of wealth.

 

It annoys us to find Lakshmi with people we don’t like, people who deem to

be criminals and sinners. We believe that Lakshmi should abandon amoral and

perverse people. But there she is, with them, and we find it exasperating,

irritating and so unfair. In mythology, all villains seem to be rich. Ravan

lived in the city of gold and Duryodhan lived like a king till the day he

died. Contrast this with Ram who had to live, for no fault of his, in the

forest for 14 years and the Pandavas who were born in the forest and had to

live in the forest, in abject poverty, for most of their lives. Why is it

so? Does Lakshmi like bad people? Or is she just indifferent to the notions

of ethics and morals and propriety and virtue that matter so much to us?

 

Ancient Indian seers spent a lot of time contemplating on the nature of

wealth. And they compiled this knowledge through the stories, symbols and

rituals of Lakshmi. Lakshmi embodies the principles of artha, economic and

political activity. She is one of the four goals of life, said the seers,

the other three goals being: Dharma, social order; kama, pleasurable

pursuits; and moksha, spiritual practice.

 

Some scriptures say that Lakshmi follows Vishnu who is the upholder of

dharma and her son is Kamadeva, the god of pleasure. Is that wishful

thinking? After all, Lakshmi is often seen in the company of Vishnu’s

enemies — the demonic Asuras who’s city located under the earth was called

Hiranyapura, the city of gold, that precious metal so closely associated

with Lakshmi. And everyone knows that Lakshmi’s arrival need not always be

pleasurable. Her arrival is followed by quarrels and strife. So what is this

mystery?

 

To understand Lakshmi, we have to understand where wealth comes from. Wealth

in its most primal form comes from under the ground. Plants come from under

the ground. Minerals come from under the ground. Water comes from under the

ground. Even petrol comes from under the ground. Lakshmi is therefore called

Patala-nivasini, she who resides in the subterranean realm. Patala is also

the realm inhabited by the Asuras.

The king of the Asuras is called Puloman, and his guru is Shukra of the

Bhargava clan. And this brings us to two names of Lakshmi — Pulomi and

Bhargavi, which means daughter of Puloman, and daughter of Bhrigu, daughter

of the demons and/or their guru! It makes sense, since wealth comes from

under the ground, she owes her origin to those who rule the realm under

(tala) our feet (pa).

 

Two sides of same coin

 

In some scriptures, Lakshmi is called Varuna’s daughter, Varuna being the

god of the sea. Varuna, incidentally, is also addressed as Asura in Vedic

texts. Asura applied to all forces that locked wealth. The sea locks wealth,

the subterranean realm lock wealth, trees lock wealth — until it is

harnessed and released. Those who release this wealth were called Devas. And

Devas lived above the ground as fire (Agni), wind (Vayu), sun (Surya), moon

(Chandra) and rain (Indra).

 

Children’s books often translate the word Asura as demons. And the word

demon has a moral judgment. But this moral judgment is missing in Indian

literature. Asuras are the children of Brahma, just like Devas. The two sets

of beings have different mothers. Diti is the mother of Asuras and Aditi is

the mother of Devas. The former live under the ground and the latter live

above the ground. The former create wealth while the latter yank her out.

This makes Lakshmi, Asura-putri (daughter of Asuras) and Deva-patni (wife of

the Devas). Indra’s consort, Sachi, is a form of Lakshmi.

 

 

Equating Asuras with demons is a legacy of early European scholars, blindly

adopted by later Indian academicians. Since Asuras were enemies of Devas,

and since Devas were worshipped and hence considered gods, Asuras became

demons, a natural conclusion for people who were obsessed with force fitting

everything into the binary framework of good and evil.

 

The reason why Devas were worshipped was not moral, it was material; they

released wealth and made it available to all — they released rain from

clouds, trees from seeds, water from earth, metals from rocks. Asuras were

not worshipped because they hoarded wealth, locked it away from humans.

They had to be killed if Lakshmi had to be released. The sun god’s sunlight,

wind god’s air and the rain god’s water makes the plants come out. The fire

god’s heat released metal from rocks.

 

Without violence, wealth could not be secured: Field has to be ploughed,

crops had to be cut, grains had to be threshed, rocks had be broken and

smelted…in other words, ‘war’ had to be declared on Asuras and their

daughter had to be taken forcibly.

 

Indra and the Devas live a life of luxury surrounded by wine and women and

music and dance. Indra is very blessed. Unlike humans, who have to work for

a living, he can get anything he desires by simply wishing for it for in his

realm, Amravati, exists the wish-fulfilling tree, Kalpataru, wish-fulfilling

cow, Kamadhenu, and wish-fulfilling gem, Chintamani, and even the elixir of

immortality, Amrita. That is why Indra’s abode is called Swarga or paradise.

Still Indra is extremely insecure. He fears he will lose his wealth. For

unlike Asuras, he does not know how to create wealth; he can only procure

and distribute wealth. A sage’s curse can cause Lakshmi to leave his side in

an instant. And this invariably happens, no thanks to the megalomania

stirred by wealth.

 

Fertility cycle

 

Once again, Indra leads the Devas to fight and kill the Asuras and get

Lakshmi back. The Asuras can keep creating Lakshmi because they are blessed

with something the gods do no possess — Sanjivani Vidya, the secret of

regeneration. This can bring the dead back to life, in other words make the

barren land fertile. This is a gift obtained for the Asuras by their guru,

Shukra, a devotee of Shiva. So the Asuras keep generating wealth and the

Devas keep snatching wealth away from them. Which is why every year during

harvest times we narrate stories of demons being killed — in Dasara

Mahish-Asura is killed by Durga; in Diwali, Narak-Asura is killed by Krishna

and in Onam, Bali-Asura is killed by Vaman.

 

The battle of Devas and Asuras is the battle between spenders and hoarders,

distributors and creators. It begins with defeat of Devas and the loss of

Lakshmi and ends with victory of Devas and return of Lakshmi. That it is

never-ending indicates it is not a battle of good over evil. It is a

fertility cycle.

 

The funny thing is, neither the Devas nor the Asuras are happy. They try

hard to hold on Lakshmi but she slips away. In folk tradition, Lakshmi is

described as possessing a squint — one never knows where she is actually

going. She is also called Chanchala, the whimsical one, eternally restless.

They say one should never keep the image of Lakshmi standing in the house;

she will get tired and run away. One is advised to keep images of Lakshmi

comfortable seated, preferably next to Saraswati, goddess of knowledge.

 

While Lakshmi brings prosperity into a household, Saraswati brings peace.

The two goddesses are described as quarrelling sisters. Lakshmi loves to go

places where Saraswati resides. But her arrival marks the end of wisdom and

peace. With wealth comes quarrels, bickering over money-matters, annoying

Saraswati, who runs away. Which is why they say prosperity and peace rarely

coexist. The only god who can bring them together is Ganesha. In some

scriptures, he is described as their brother. In others, Lakshmi and

Saraswati are forms of Riddhi and Siddhi, wives of Ganesha.

 

Typically everyone chases Lakshmi. As for Lakshmi, she is drawn to only one

god, Vishnu, who is not a Deva, but greater than all Devas, who is actually

God (spelt with an upper case) or Bhagavan. Vishnu is the only one who got

the Devas and Asuras to cooperate and serve as the force and counterforce of

a churn that got Lakshmi and other magical treasures to rise from the ocean

of milk.

 

Vishnu is typically shown siding with the Devas. He offers them Amrita,

nectar of immortality only to the Devas and he fights alongside them in the

battles against Asuras. This seems unfair until one steps back and observes

Vishnu’s role as preserver.

 

Brahma, as creator of both Devas and Asuras sides with both of them equally.

Shiva as destroyer is indifferent to both Devas and Asuras and will give

both of them equal power. This equality does not result in movement or

dynamism; it produces a stagnant destructive statement. Vishnu creates an

imbalance that causes the forces of the cosmos to flow, for day to follow

night, summer to follow winter. He balances the Sanjivani Vidya given to

Asuras by Shiva with Amrita which is reserved only for the Asuras. So while

one group can regenerate themselves after being killed, the other group is

immortal. One group keeps dying and being reborn while the other group stays

alive forever. When the Asuras are killed, the Devas win and Lakshmi is with

them. When the Asuras are brought back to life by Shukra, the Devas lose and

Lakshmi is back with her fathers.

 

While Indra seeks Lakshmi for himself, Vishnu does not. Vishnu seeks to

create order in the cosmos by the rhythm of nature and order in society by

rules and regulations. The story goes that when the earth complained that

the kings of the earth were plundering her wealth in greed, Vishnu promised

her to take care of her by instituting the code of civilised conduct known

as dharma. The earth turned into a cow and Vishnu became her cowherd and

caretaker, Gopala. He protected her with dharma and she, in exchange, gave

artha and kama.

 

Dharma is all about balance — taking only as much as one needs, and sharing

the excess. Parashurama kills Kartaviryarjuna who steals the cows given as

gifts to sages. Ram kills Ravan who disregards the laws of marriage. Krishna

kills the Kauravas who are unable to share wealth with their own family.

This makes Vishnu a deity intent on making the world a better place. Perhaps

that is why Lakshmi sits coyly at his feet. He is Shrinivas, the eternal

abode Lakshmi.

 

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