Saturday, December 25, 2010

Lakshmi and Vishnu

Incarnations of Vishnu and Lakshmi

Lakshmi and Vishnu are counterparts who find each other in every incarnation. The god Vishnu is viewed as a savior who has been reborn on earth many times to conquer and balance evil.  The two most popular forms in which Vishnu has been reincarnated are Rama and Krishna.


Lord Sri Hari Vishnu is the master of the Universe and looks ever so peaceful while reclining on the great serpent Shesha. He is the ultimate power, as limitless as the vast sky and has the color of the dark clouds. He is the Lord of the beautiful goddess Lakshmi; the lotus eyed one.


Vishnu, the god of home and family values, represents stability and order. Vishnu is recognizable by the four symbols he often carries: the discus, conch, club, and lotus. The discus and club are both weapons, signifying his absolute might in destroying evil. The lotus represents fertility and regeneration, the nourishment of the soul that occurs through devotion to this deity. The conch shell is blown in India like a trumpet during many sacred rituals. It is considered to make the purest sound, from which creation springs. In Vishnu’s hand the conch symbolizes purity and auspiciousness. In paintings and prints, Vishnu is often shown with blue skin to accentuate his otherworldliness. A stylized representation of his footprints appears on his forehead. This V-shaped symbol of the god is also applied in sandalwood paste to the foreheads of worshipers of Vishnu during puja.


Sitting on the chest of Vishnu, Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of good fortune brings wealth, wellbeing, and prosperity. She changes from lover to wife, attending to his needs from intimacy to formality. In her beautiful form  she serves his lotus feet with her opulent charms of wealth, strength, influence, beauty, knowledge and renunciation. She is also addressed as Devi, because in the spiritual realm she supplies all opulence to Vishnu and his devotees, who enjoy their eternal natural habitat. She is also known as Sati, the supremely chaste one, because she never diverts her attention from her Vishnu to anyone else. Her beauty is reflected in the ponds of crystal water when she worships him in her private gardens.


<strong>Story of Lakshmi & Vishnu</strong>


When the gods and demons were engaged in churning the ocean of milk to extract the elixir of immortality, Lakshmi appeared on the scene like a streak of lightning. Because of her exquisite beauty, her bodily features and her youth, everyone, including the gods and demons, desired her. There attraction driven by the fact that she is the source of all opulences.


Indra, the god of heaven, offered her a seat, the sacred river Ganges and Yamuna brought pure water in golden pots, and mother earth, Bhumi, collected auspicious herbs. The cows delivered an abundance of milk, yogurt and clarified butter (ghee), and the spring season bestowed all the natural goodness of the months of April and May. The sages performed the bathing ceremony of the Goddess of Fortune, while the celestial singers, the Gandharvas, chanted auspicious Vedic mantras, and the professional priestess dancers dances and sang songs from the Vedas. The clouds formed and vibrated various types of drum beats. They also blew conch chells. The elephants carried big jugs of water to bathe Lakshmi. All throughout the ceremony she maintained her original demeanor, with a lotus flower in her hand, looking very beautiful and chaste, determined to gain Vishnu’s attention.


Having been properly consecrated, Bramha gave Lakshmi a garland of lotus flowers. She began to move about, smiling with shyness, decorated in dazzling earrings. When she walked about, her ankle bells jingled softly and she appeared like a creeper of gold. With her lotus eyes she carefully studied the various celestial beings, superhuman cosmic personalities, gods and great kings, but could not find anyone naturally gifted with the qualities she was looking for. None of them was faultless; therefore she could not abandon herself to any one of them.


She thought, “Someone who has undergone austerities may not have conquered anger. Someone who possesses knowledge may not have conquered material desires. Someone who is charismatic may not have conquered lust. How then, can one claim to be the supreme controller? If someone possesses religious knowledge, he may not be kind to all living entities. If someone, whether human or god, is renounced, he may not be eligible for liberation. If someone possesses great power, he may not be able to check the power of eternal time and therefore would not be free from the influences of material nature.”


After due reflection, Lakshmi chose Vishnu. He is independent and in want of nothing but pure love, and he possesses unlimited transcendental qualities. Approaching Vishnu, Lakshmi placed the garland of lotus flowers around his neck. Then she remained standing by his side. She thus became his eternal consort and by her favorable and merciful glance, increased the opulence of the material realm, including its inhabitants, gods and goddesses. From her position, Lakshmi sees who is naturally inclined to worship Vishnu with a favorable devotional disposition, and she blesses the devotee with spiritual opulences. The material favors she bestows are flickering, whereas the spiritual opulences are eternal.


<strong>Lakshmi’s elusive chanchala nature</strong>


In the Vaikuntha planets, the goddess of Fortune is considered faultless but she does not remain in one place. She is called chanchala, which means “one who is not steady.” This behavior is due to the demands of the worshipers of Vishnu and Lakshmi, to whom she is bound to reciprocate and bestow blessings in the form of wealth and prosperity. However, it is sometimes the case that someone may be rich one day and destitute the next. If Lakshmi is not worshiped or prayed to along with her Vishnu, she will not want to stay in a place and prosperity will cease. Lakshmi can never be worshiped alone.


Vishnu is the maintainer of all living things, not only on the surface of this planet but also throughout countless universes. All of them are provided the necessities of life for the progressive march toward self realization. But on the path of sensory indulgence, they meet Durga, Vishnu’s illusory energy. Such progress can never succeed because it is temporal. Without Vishnu, the Goddess of Fortune is like a mirage. She is desirable by everyone, including human beings, but one must understand, she is exclusive property of Vishnu. One cannot receive the blessing of Lakshmi unless one prays to both her and her Lord.


<strong>Lakshmi & Vishnu as Rama and Sita</strong>


According to the great religious Hindu epic Ramayana, goddess Sita is the wife of lord Rama. In the Treta Yuga she was born as a human to fulfill the rites of a wife as the partner of lord Rama. She is considered an incarnation of goddess Lakshmi, the supreme consort of lord Vishnu. She is one of the principal characters in the Ramayana, who is also one of the most popular goddesses of Hindu religion. She is considered as the ideal daughter, ideal wife, ideal queen and ideal mother since ages. She is known by many names, such as Janaki, Maithili, Ramaa and Vaidehi.


Vishnu’s incarnation as the princely hero Rama epitomizes loyalty, bravery, strength, and responsibility. Rama’s beloved Sita, one of Lakshmi’s many forms, is the traditional ideal Hindu woman: feminine, faithful, resilient, and pure. They are often accompanied by the monkey god Hanuman. Hanuman, the gods’ messenger, symbolizes the power to achieve the impossible and embodies a conscientious sense of duty, absolute trustworthiness, and selfless service to the gods.


Goddess Sita is a brave woman of extraordinary brilliance. She has got all the values that people believe, a woman must have in her character. Through her great character, she has captured hearts of millions of people. The legend behind the birth of Goddess Sita is divine and supernatural. As per the mythological concept, Sita was discovered in a furrow in a ploughed field by King Janaka, and for that reason is regarded as a daughter of Goddess Mother Earth. She was reared by Janaka, king of Mithila and his wife Sunayana, hence she is also called Janaki.


She later got married to Rama, the prince of Ayodhya. She is seen as a symbol of power by every female. Her entire life constitutes an example of idealism. She is a perfect example of loyalty and morality, who sacrificed all the amenities, in order to stay in exile with her husband, Rama. During the period of exile, she was abducted by Ravana, the demon-king of Lanka. Lord Rama to rescue his wife Sita, fought a great war against Ravana with the help of monkey army. When Ravana was killed and Sita got freed, she proved her sanctity to Lord Rama by giving Agni – Pariksha (Fire Ordeal). She in her mind and physical form remained chaste and completely dedicated to her husband Lord Rama. She cleared the fire ordeal and proved her chastity to all present around her.


Thus, Ravana is an example of Lakshmi’s chanchala nature. He took Sita away from her Vishnu, and instead of being happy, calamities befell his entire family and his kingdom until he finally perished. Lakshmi in the house of Ravana was chanchala, very unsteady.


<strong>Vishnu & Lakshmi as Krishna and Radha</strong>


Krishna, with his beloved Radha, is an incarnation of the god Vishnu. He is worshiped by more Hindus than any other of Vishnu’s many forms. Krishna was born human, and the stories of his childhood and adolescence exemplify his mischievous character. One story often illustrated by artists describes how, as an infant, he crawled away from his mother to steal butter. Other images depict Krishna dancing on the snake Kaliya. This refers to a famous legend in which the hero-god conquered a demon serpent. Images of the youthful Krishna playing his flute are also popular. Later, as the wise hero of the ancient epic the Mahabharata, he established the fundamental principles of practical Hinduism.

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