lakshmi: Gods and Goddesses of India- 6

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

Lakshmi believed to be the Goddess of wealth and riches, Lakshmi's place of origin is also described to be ocean. Does wealth has any special link with water? Is the 'Sea-Churning' by the Gods and the demons only a symbolical allegory? Why did she readily choose Vishnu as her consort? Why does the joint image of Lakshmi-Narayan have most of the temples dedicated to their worship? This small book shall not only satisfy the curious, modern mind with logical answer to these questions but shall also allow the Computer-Age youth to have a glimpse into the basic human psyche behind the creation of such a divine character. Included in the book are also the popular hymns. shlokas, chalisa etc; dedicated to Lakshmi with their original texts and Hindi-English translations.

Dr. B.K. Chaturvedi born in a village, Holipura (Agra, U.P.) on 3rd August 1945, in a reputed family, he had his education in Allahabad (M.Sc.) and Bangalore. Having served for a couple of years in HMT, he is now a free- lance author, journalist and poet based in New Delhi for about two decades.

He has many articles/poems/books published in both Hindi and English to his credit. among them is a mattered verse-translation in English the famous epic of modern Hindi: KAMAYANI. He has also rendered "Srimadbhagawat Gita' and 'Sriramcharitamanas' into English. A prolific writer, he often writes for TV and Radio.

Goddess Lakshmi is the unique deity in the Hindu pantheon who grants all material wealth and riches to her devotees. Since the material wealth and worldly riches occupy most degraded position in the normal desires of a devout devotee in conformity with our religious tenets, her getting this exalted position and becoming the spouse of the most revered god, Lord Vishnu, appears, on prima facie viewing, a contradiction in terms. Why should a race deriding material wealth have a deity bestowing all those things which are deemed evil in scores of scriptural accounts? How and why Lakshmi came to be associated with material wealth and worldly prosperity and what made this concept gain acceptances are some of the questions that have been tackled with a view to provide a logical answer. Since not much material is available on this unique goddess in even mythological accounts barring her casual references here and there, most of the interpretations mentioned in the book are based on the various religious, social and even domestic practices prevalent in our society from the hoary past. In order to assess the social status of this goddess we have also culled a few folk tales doing rounds perpetually in many parts of our country. This is done precisely to present a full picture of the goddess's personality before our lay but awakened reader. All the famous hymns, orisons, prayers etc., have also been given in the end of the book with their texts in Nagari and Roman scripts along with the minimum possible and relevant diacritical marks to help the reader get their correct pronunciation, and their English and Hindi prose renderings. Some of these prayers are in colloquial parlance whose authenticity could be suspected but their extreme popularity among sections of our society advocates strongly in favour of their inclusion in the book.