Celebrations Varalakshmi Vratham

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Varalakshmi Vratham -- Celebrations

For the celebration of this pooja there is no restriction of caste

and creed. Everyone can perform this pooja and get the blessings of

Goddess Lakshmi.

 

The previous evening of the festival, the house is cleaned and a

bronze or silver kalasam is filled with rice or water, coins,

turmeric, a whole lime, betel leaf and nut. The kalasam is decorated

with sandal paste and kumkum, a coconut smeared with turmeric is kept

on it and mango leaves placed around. The face of Goddess Lakshmi

decorated with jewels is placed against the coconut. Arati is taken

at night after the Goddess is offered white Pongal for neivedhyam.

 

The next morning the Goddess is welcomed to the specially erected

pandal by singing the song "Varalakshmi Raave ma intikki". The

kalasam is placed on a bed of raw rice spread over a plantain leaf.

Pooja is begun with an invocation to Lord Ganesha. During the Pooja

the Lakshmi Sahasranamam and other slokas are chanted.

 

After doing the pooja that would include the Lakshmi Ashtothram and

Sahasranamam a yellow thread called 'saradu' is tied by the women on

their right wrists. The women who do the Nonbu fast that day eating

only certain foods that have been offered to the Goddess first.

 

The evening women visit one another for exchange of thamboolam. The

next day after doing the punar pooja, the holy water is sprinkled

through out the house or the rice is added to the storage.

 

Special temples dedicated to Maha Lakshmi exist in Doddagaddavalli

in Mysore as well as in Kolhapur in Maharashtra. Lakshmi is said to

have worshipped Lord Siva in the temples of Tiruvadi near Tanjore, in

Tiruninriyur near Vaithiswarankoil, in Tiruthengur near Tiruvarur and

Tiruppathur in the Ramnad district, and consequently these places are

considered to be specially important for the observance of Vara

Lakshmi Vrata and other Vratas invoking the blessings of Lakshmi.