God as Mother : 17. Sri Swami Chidananda.

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Monday, April  18,  2022. 6:00. AM.

Essence of Devi Mahatmyam

17.The Sadhak’s Attitude to Lakshmi 

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Thus it is that to the devout Hindu the aspect of the Motherhood as a material power, a power which sustains life upon this physical world is an important aspect of divinity in so far as his material life is concerned and here we have to note that the Hindu shows himself as a sane realist. He realises and accepts the importance and value of the divine power as it is manifest upon the material world in the form of these helpful factors that go to sustain and preserve life for him upon earth in a prosperous and happy state. 


While we thus recognise his realistic attitude towards the good things of this world, here it will be interesting to note that the Eternal Quest for the Absolute, for the ultimate Being, is also a part and parcel of the consciousness of every true Hindu. The self-same Hindu who devoutly worships the Mother in the form of wealth and all the good things of  the world simultaneously admits the fact that once his aspiration for the divine realisation has begun to manifest within himself, this very aspect of Lakshmi which is most important in this work-a-day world of ours has to be resolutely brushed aside, and renounced. 




Thus he turns his face away from the material things of this world, gives up wealth and takes to the path of renunciation; because he admits that as long as one is deeply concerned with desire and its fulfillment, he has to accept the all-powerful nature of Mother in Her aspect of the things of this world. But the moment he has had enough of these things and he has realised their temporariness, their transience and their perishable nature, and the moment his heart is set upon the eternal thing, he bids adieu to this aspect of the Mother and he invokes the other aspect, viz., the Vidya-Maya. 


He prays to the Mother that She may release him from the lure and the attraction of Her own deluding power in the form of wealth, prosperity, domestic happiness and all the good things of the world; and thus he makes a deliberate departure from Mother Lakshmi in Her aspect of Avidya. Herein lies the main difference between the man of the world and the seeker. Herein lies the inner significance of the worship for these two people, of the self-same deity. 


The man of the world worships the Mother; and at the same time the seeker who  has  renounced  the  world also worships Lakshmi.

To the surface-observer it would seem that both are carrying on the self-same worship; but once this conception of Lakshmi both in Her Avidya and Vidya aspects is known, then one would see underneath the surface and go beneath the apparent worship, and he will find that for one and the same worship of the self-same deity, Mother Lakshmi, there is a total difference of view or point of approach and the total difference of Bhava or mental attitude between the materialist, a man of desires, and spiritual seeker or the man who has turned away from desire, who has commenced to aspire for the Eternal. 




Yet the figure is the same, Mother is the same; and because She is the prosperity-giver and the preserver, the form of Lakshmi is always full of auspiciousness. She is gorgeously dressed. She has got golden ornaments. There is always that symbol of power and pomp, the elephant, which is by Her side. She lives upon a lotus and She holds two lotuses—and these flowers are in full bloom. The significance of these will become apparent when we reflect upon what they stand for. Full-blown lotus represents the fullness in all aspects. Even so, the elephant represents two things: the highest state of prosperity, regal splendour, royal pomp; and at the same time the highest knowledge—elephant represents the fullness of wisdom.

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NEXT

FIFTH NIGHT 

THE PATH OF PROSPERITY

To be continued ....



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