The Masters of Wisdom - Sublime Beings - 84 : Lakshmi - 3

🌹 The Masters of Wisdom - Sublime Beings - 84 🌹

🌴 Lakshmi - 3 🌴

✍️ Master E. Krishnamacharya

📖. Prasad Bharadwaj

🌻 The Births of Lakshmi 🌻

The Puranic scriptures describe the births of Lakshmi. One birth happened during the churning of the Milky Ocean through the Devas of Light and the Devas of Darkness, a poetic description of the formation of the subtle worlds: 

From out of the ocean emanated the Divine Lotus and from its midst Lakshmi appeared. 

She carried two lotuses in her hands and was surrounded by radiant sheen. Elephants bathed her with the pure waters and decorated her. Then Lakshmi, as the Mother of Love, took her abode in the heart of Lord Vishnu. 

From there she looked upon the rows of the Devas, and the Devas were filled with bliss. Some Devas looked at Lakshmi so intensively that they forgot the presence of the Lord. 

The Goddess withdrew her blessing from these Devas, and subsequently they experienced a fall: those who let themselves be blinded by richness and thus forgets the Lord experiences a fall. 

When we see the Divine, we realise the unity, and the diversity of creation appears in splendour and beauty. If, however, we forget the unity we encounter problems everywhere.

While entering the body we forget our identity. This forgetting belongs to the divine illusion; it enables the creation and allows us to make our experiences in it. 

By recollecting that all these experiences are created by the veils of the Mother and are part of the divine play, we come to know the Mother. Through her light we learn to live in the world without being affected by it and the veil slowly withdraws.

On the path of Bhakti the worshipper aspires to merge with the Divine through devotion. To merge in the divine Love is an experience of the highest bliss which can be experienced through the heart centre. 

It cannot be understood by reason, and reading about it does not convey the experience. Those who turn their minds inward and act with full devotion can live the splendour and beauty. 

The outer should not be neglected; from out of the connection with the Divine we should do everything with loving attention.

A symbol for the expression of purest love is the description that Lakshmi is the consort of Lord Vishnu and always lives in his heart. 

From time to time, Vishnu comes down as an avatar and each time Lakshmi accompanies him. When he takes to a Deva form, she appears in a Deva body. 

When he comes as a human being, she takes to a human form. During his incarnation as Rama she came as Sita. 

When he was born as Krishna, she was Rukmini, the first of the eight wives of Krishna, and she is considered the highest. She was the only one equivalent to him in all aspects and she gave herself to him with total devotion.

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Sources: Master K.P. Kumar: Mantrams / Sri Suktam / notes from seminars. Master E. Krishnamacharya: Vishnu Purana.

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