Thus Spake the Divine - Bhakti is the Best Wealth and Lakshmi

Thus Spake the Divine

Bhakti is the Best Wealth and Lakshmi

We need not pray Goddess Lakshmi seeking various facilities for us. She knows pretty well what we deserve. In reality, however, our minds are not mature enough to leave things to God. Thus, we end up praying for something or the other.

I do not think such human attitude can be deemed completely wrong. We can arrive at this conclusion if we look at how Lord Krishna classified devotees in Gita. In the first category of devotees are practitioners of Bhakti, who strive for Moksha. The second category comprises Sages and Saints who have actually attained Moksha.

In the third category are devotees, who pray for alleviation of their sorrows because of diseases and ailments. The fourth category consists of those who seek wealth and other material substances. Therefore, when Lord Krishna Himself accepts the last two categories of devotees, we have no authority to raise any objection.

Basically, any spiritual script or manuscript, be it Gita or anything else, says that the objective of prayer and worship should be to seek Moksha. In that case, by entertaining prayers for wealth or freedom from ailments, is not God contradicting His own stand? Not exactly!

One cannot disown worldly possessions at the beginning stage itself. But even at this stage, instead of being egoistic by saying, “I am capable to doing anything; I can be the King of my own kingdom and get things done as I want”, one can be humble in his prayer. He can say, “There is a Supreme Power above us that is filled with compassion. Hence, if we pray with humility, we will definitely be granted boons and blessings.”

Doesn’t this sound better? Isn’t it better for one to pray seeking money, wealth, possessions and so on, while keeping absolute faith in Supreme Power and dissolving his ego with Bhakti? Are not such prayers better than being an atheist? Initially, we go to God seeking only material possessions; we do pooja, we recite Shlokas, we go to temples and so on. Then, we gradually immerse ourselves into these activities and our passion towards worldly substances gets steadily diluted. Ultimately, our prayers focus only on Bhakti towards God without seeking anything in return. This is the reason why God accepts as His devotees even those who pray to Him for worldly wealth and possessions.

There is no limit to our desires, especially so in terms of accumulating wealth. We end up in sorrows only because of this. There will hardly be people who pray only for virtuous qualities or wisdom from God! Likewise, there could be no one devotee who does not seek wealth! The question here is, even after becoming a millionaire, is no person still satisfied?

More the attachment and obsession towards material things, remoter are thoughts towards wisdom. There is generally an age old adage, which says, “Sarasvati does not wish to stay where Lakshmi resides!” We all know that daughter-in-law and mother- in-law are not compatible and comfortable enough staying together. Let us connect this syndrome with Lakshmi and Sarasvati. Maha Vishnu is the Father of Brahma. This leads to the logical sequence of Maha Lakshmi and Sarasvati as Mother-in-Law and Daughter-in-Law respectively. That is where the old adage stands good! But we can look at this from a better perspective. Sarasvati, being the Daughter-in-Law, keeps a low profile (as She indeed does) just to show Her respect towards Lakshmi, who is Her Mother-in-law!

Of course, what I am saying is in lighter vein. In reality, there exists only one Para Shakti. It is She who manifests into Maha Lakshmi and Sarasvati, as warranted, to bestow wishes on devotees. So, let us espouse Bhakti in some manner or other towards some form or other. Only Bhakti is our greatest wealth. Only this Bhakti is Lakshmi!

This article is a snippet from the Book Thus Spake the Divine, is available online at www.giri.in and across Giri Trading Agency Private Limited, A chain of Speciality Stores dealing in all kinds of products needed in Indian Culture and Tradition.