Shri Lakshmi Vs. Maya
Namaste all,
Bhakta follower12 mentioned there being two forms of Sri Lakshmi, and it is true. Posting verbatim:
"I heard that there are two forms of Laxmi (not devi herself but the material laxmi). One is paap (ashuddh Laxmi & ashubh Laxmi) & other is Shubh Laxmi. Shuddh Laxmi is Goddess Laxmi herself.
The form of laxmi that is mostly available in kaliyug is Ashudh and ashubh laxmi. Money earned by wrong means is ashudh laxmi while that earned by undergoing worries, tension & depression results in accumulation of ashubh laxmi. Rarely one gets Shubh laxmi. When Ashubh or Ashuddh Laxmi is donated FOR AUSPICIOUS WORK, it automatically converts into Shubh Laxmi. So, money inside temples should be preserved & used only at the right time, in time of real needs."
I completely agree with this and want to elaborate on this some more. My aim in this post is to describe the two facets of the goddess of money & wealth. I am not a scholar when it comes to Hindu scriptures, but I want to post however much I do understand.
Sri Lakshmi, who all Hindus are familiar with, has two facets to her. There is her kind benevolent facet- Shubh Lakshmi, and the wrathful, dangerous facet- ashuddh Lakshmi, or ashubh Lakshmi, or simply Maya. ('ashuddh' means impure and 'ashubh' means wrathful, harmful.)
As readers might already know, people in India often refer to money as 'maya'. Maya means illusion and in the context of money/wealth this means that Maya looks exactly like Sri Lakshmi. (Laxmi and Maya are actually one and the same power, and this same power is present in our wallets (and stock-portfolios, bank accounts, land titles, etc) as either Lakshmi or Maya.) So if they both look the same, how do we tell them apart? Keep reading.... this post will tell you how!
There are two puranic stories that I know of that teach how ashubh Maya is, and how she can completely annihilate those who possess her. One story is the raakshas king Bali. Bali was both an examplery king and a very good person who respected all the seers and Gods. Have you ever wondered why he had his everything taken away by Vaman Avtaar? What wrong did he do? The correct answer is that it was not Vaman Avtaar who was truly responsible for Bali's destruction, but Lakshmi...err... Maya! Bali had gone to Vishnu-lok and had insisted that Sri Lakshmi should live in his palace for the benefit of people in his kingdom. Sri Lakshmi refused and stated that she is a free spirit who goes wherever she wants. So Bali started sob-stories about how poor his populace was and induced guilt feelings in the Goddess. Bali's pressure on Laxmi worked and even though she was very hesistant, she agreed to come and reside in his kingdom.
Bali was very happy at this achievement but little did he know that Vishnu's power had come to his palace as Maya, not Lakshmi. We know full well what happened to him after that.
The second story is from Ramayana. Ravan abducted Sita (SriLaksmi's Avatar) and later got annihilated! People think that it was Sri Ram who destroyed Ravan, but true responsibility for his destruction actually lies with Sita. When Sita came back from Lanka, she went through this ritual that seemed like agni-pariksha to everyone. However, that ritual was simply an artistic hint to people that the one who went to Ravan was Maya whereas the one who had come back to Sri Ram was Sita (Sri Lakshmi's Avatar).
Maya destroys those to whom she does not belong! If people were wise, they would not want Maya even get close to them. And if they alreay had her in their wallets (and bank accounts etc) they would quickly get rid of her.
But when she is with Sri Vishnu or with Sri Ram, she is not Maya but the good Sri Lakshmi. So the question arises that what is so special about Sri Ram or Sri Vishnu? Answer: Shri Ram led his life by dharma and Sita was with him by dharma. Similarly, Vishnu represents the one who upholds dharma. Hence, dharma is the key that reveals whether the one present in our wallets is ashubh Maya or Shubh Lakshmi. If we are crorepatis but we earned her through adharmic means (or at the cost of ignoring dharma), then she is Maya, and will sooner or later cause us, and our loved ones, serious harm. OTOH even if we only have a little, but it is earned by dharma, then even that little amount is Lakshmi!
One of my neighbours a few houses over were quite wealthy. They only had one child, a son, and they would get him everything he wanted. The boy committed suicide in his early 20s over some minor reason. I later learnt that the parents spent too little time with the boy, and did not teach him important things regarding life, including how to handle life problems, or teaching him that one does not always get what s/he wants.
These parents clearly ignored dharma. Today, they may have all the money in the world but you will find them unhappy and crying. Needless to say, their money and wealth was all Maya, not Lakshmi!
Bottomline: We should live our life by dharma, earn money/wealth by dharma, and even spend money by dharma, only then the wealth present in our life is Shubh Lakshmi, and it does not matter if it is small or large in amount. It also does not matter whether we are Hindu or non-Hindu, nor does it matter if we are Atheists. The lesson applies to us all equally.
Important note: Living by dharma does not guarantee that the dharmic person will certainly possess Lakshmi. Lakshmi is 'chancal' (dynamic), and comes and goes whenever she wants. There is even a story where Sri Lakshmi once got upset with Sri Vishnu and left him.
Living by dharma however guarantees that it will be Shubh Lakshmi (and not Maya) whenever the dharmic person does possess money and wealth. In the puranic story, even though she got upset with Sri Vishnu, she was still Lakshmi, not Maya, for the simple reason that Shri Vishnu did everything by dharma!
I hope this post was informative regarding Goddess Sri Lakshmi, and that it will inspire people to live by dharma.
Pranaam.
What is the one thing that no beings can do, except humans? Answer: Arts!
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