lakhsmi shobana

February 16, 2010

hare srinivasa. a small article about lakshmi shobana. if any mistakes are there, please suggest and advice me. Sri

Vadiraja Theertharu goes on describing Sri Mahalakshmi as she

appeared out of the ocean . In the Srimad Bhagavatham it is described

in all glory. She was welcomed by all the devas ,daityas and humans

alike and was offered a golden throne by Indra to sit on. Her

exquisite beauty, her bodily features, her youth, complexion,

radiance and unsurpassed glory agitated the minds of most of the demi

gods, the demons and humans present. The reason for this is that she

is the source of all opulence and all those who favour

opulence,wealth and importance with even a fraction of thier mental

faculties succumbed to the desire for more. All those who percieved

her as the consort of the Lord were spared as they were not after the

material wealth and power but after pleasing the Lord only. Knowing

that her mind was always tuned towards the Lord as mentioned in the

Bhagavatha sloka 8.8.8 ensured that these high level devotees like

Brahma and Vayu did not fall into the trap of hankering after

material enjoyments of which she is the symbol being the goddess of

fortune.

tataH chAvirbhUt sAkshAtsrI

ramA bhagavat parAH

raMjayaMti kAMtyA

vidyut

soudhAmanI yathA ||8.8.8||

"There

manifested Sri RamA devi who is always engaged in the service of the

Lord, she herself manifested there in the ksheerasAgara and her

lustre illuminated all directions just as a lightening streak

illuminates a building which shines as if it were made of shining

marble on a dark night. "

Here the word 'bhagavat parA' is extremely important as it shows that Sri

RamA devi had appeared there for the purpose of serving the Lord and

no other. She is always engaged in the seva of the Lord and this too

is one such seva of the Lord.

rannada molegaTTu chinnadAbharaNagaLa

chenne mahalakShumi dharisidaLe

chenne mahalakShumi dharisidaLAdevi

tanna maneya vadhU-varara salahali ||7||

kuMbhakuMchada mele iMbiTTa hAragaLu tuMbiguruLa

mukhakamala tuMbiguruLa mukhakamalada mahalakShumi

jaga daMbe vadhU-varara salahali ||8||

She has beautiful silken costumes as her upper garments. She is the

giver of nourishment to the entire hordes of living beings. An infant

or child which has total faith in the mother and is totally dependent

on the mother ,finds bliss, comfort and enduring happiness in the

bossom of the mother. In a similar way, a devotee who accepts the

supremacy of the Lord and becomes His dasa willingly, is considered as

her child by the mother Lakshmi. She then takes those deovtees into her

fold and nourishes them with the required knowledge to make them ready

to be bestowed eternal bliss according to their eligibility.

She is the triguna abimAni and oversees the combinations of the guNas which cause the creation and destruction of matter . She is thus the source of energy for the growth of food which is a combination of the earth,water and heat. She who looks bewitchingly beautiful and is dressed in fine silken robes and adorn's exquisite jewellery . She wears golden jewellery. Here gold is an indication of purity. It is a special metal which can be moulded to form different adornments. Similarly knowledge is the purest among the purest that can exist in the minds of a jiva and is very subtle unlike gold. SrimahAlakshmi wears the jewels of the knowledge about the Lord's roopas and guNas which are very rare to discern.

JAgannatha dasaru says in HKAS 1.2

jagadudarana ativimalaguNagalanAlOchanadi bharata nigamatatigalatikramisi kriyA vishEshagala bagebageya nUtanava kAnuta mige harushadim pogali

higguva triguNamANi mahAlakumi saMtaisalanudinavu||

"

She thinks and contemplates and becomes aware of some of the Lord's

exquisite forms and attributes, those that cannot be discerned by other

people from any of the agAmas like bhArata etc and these are the golden

jewels that decorate her.

One may ask why should we think of jewels as the knowledge about God?

She is descirbed as "satiM" ( extremely chaste and entirely devoted to her consort) in the Bhagavatham verse 8.8.14 .

Here in the next line Vadirajaru refers to Mahalakshmi as "chenne" . cha denotes purity/chasity. And there is nothing more pure than the knowledge about God as already told by Sri Krishna in the BG. "na hi jNANena sadrisham pavitram iha vidyate...."

Sri

Vadirajaru says, "May SrimahAlakshmi the purest of the pure who is

decked with ornaments and silken robes, bless the wedded couple and

bestow peace on them."

tumbi - flower of a gourd or bee,

honey ,gurulu - hair,

mukhakamala - the lotus faced ,

ambe -mother iMbiTTa - occupied the place because imbu means resting place, comfortable place,delight etc, itta -placed

Sri Vadirajaru

describes the ethereal beauty of mother Lakshmi using his poetic

splendour. He says ," The mother who is has a well sculpted female

figure, has wonderful garlands made of exotic flowers resting on her

chest. She has a lovely hair which is braided down like the flower of a

gourd - thick at the top and meanders as it moves downwards. Lest

anyone succumbs to any demeaning thoughts about this description of

mother Lakshmi, Sri Vadirajaru immediately addresses her as 'jagadambe'

- The mother of the entire creation.

This puts in

motion a series of divine thoughts about the mother who is giver of

comfort, who is most noble of the noble, who is revered as the person

who should be revered foremost - 'mAtrudEvo bhavah' .

He emphasises

the word again and entreats mother Lakshmi to take care of the bride

and groom. Any physical description of mother Lakshmi is an indication

of the special guNa of that part. The softness, roundness of the

mother's bossom is to indicate that the weary jiva will be become

relieved of misery and find lasting bliss when he/she seeks her grace .

The description of the garlands are to indicate the special sadhana

that Srimahalakshmi does in ennumerating the Lord's guNas timeless and

endlessly. The decoration of the mother is to indicate the reverence

she has for the Lord as she goes towards Him. It is also a form of

devoted surrender to the Lord. One's dress and demeanour indicates the

intention and depth of respect that one has for the person one is

meeting.

Here Vadirajaru

wants to hint that every word can give a different set of thoughts to

different people according to their yogyatha. It is just what happened

during the samudra matha. All the daityas were eyeing SriMahalakshmi

without realising Her position of being the mother of the entire

universe and the consort of Sriman Narayana. Such glaring mistakes can

occur even with devas is surprising and it is explicitly mentioned in

the bhagavatham in order to warn sajjanas of being complacent of them

being above this error or that blunder. The root cause of all these

blunders was because of 'desire'.

When one sees

something then one wants to touch it, or smell it or eat it depending

on the sense to which it appeals. If the desire is not satisfied then

it becomes even more acute and continues to plague the mind increasing

in its ability to tune the mind to do something to fulfill it. The mind

is advised by the intellect to abandon sinful desires but when the

emotional desires take thier hold on the mind through the indriyas ,

the voice of the intellect becomes feeble and is often not heeded.

The mind moves

on its way taking the jiva in a downward plunge. Sri Krishna has

clearly highlighted this in the Bhagavad Gita 3.42saying , It is said

that the senses are superior to the body and its presiding dieties.

Higher than the senses is the mind and its presiding diety. Still

higher is the intellect and far greater than the intellect are mahat

tatva and sritatva and its presiding dieties 'Brahma" and 'Mahalakshmi"

but the Supreme Brahman surpasses all of them."

Here the main point to be noted that buddhi should be used to overcome the lowly desires which have sprung in the mind. While we pray to Srimahalakshmi who is the foremost diety of the intellect to guide us and to Sri Saraswathi who is also the diety of the intellect to shows us the means to collect and retain knowledge, we should remember her extreme compassion on her devotees which is similar to the love that an ordinary mother has for her child but has no limitations like that of the ordinary mother. In the world the mother can provide only what she has and what is within her power of earning or status, but the mother Lakshmi being the mother of the entire universe has unending resources to aid her bhaktas on thier oneward march toward the Lord. All prayer should not be undertaken with just an idea to have an immediate relief from any immediate physical anxiety/misery/fear/pain but should be undertaken to please the Lord . When the Lord is pleased then what is not possible? (kimalabhyam bhagavati prasAdena shrinikEtane?)

Vadirajaru says

,"Let the mother of all protect the bride and groom of the house."

Protection is besseched and prayed for not any other material gain or

physical releif. The mother knows what is best and will aid the devotee

along that path which is best for the onward march on the long journey

to eternal bliss.bharatiramana mukhyapranatargata shree krishnarpanamastu

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