Lakshmi

She is a major form of the Divine Mother. She is described as the Goddess of riches in the Vedas and she is, in fact, God manifest as wealth. However, Lakshmi provides us with both material and spiritual wealth. One may pray to Lakshmi for worldly wealth but it is best to pray to Her for something that is permanent and more precious than gold or money - we should pray to Lakshmi for the spiritual riches of the Divine. She is the embodiment of heavenly beauty and light as well as wealth. One is truly wealthy when one is full of spiritual qualities because these characteristics give rise to the highest knowledge. Lakshmi's colours are pink, white and gold. Thus She

As Divine Mother of peace and happiness in the world, she takes much care over the welfare of all Her children and blesses them with health, wealth and happiness. This is why Hindus feel it most necessary to propitiate Lakshmi always by keeping a picture of Her and lighting Lakshmi lamps in Her honour. They feel that auspiciousness, grace and good fortune are manifest through the presence of Lakshmi. They know that every home should, ideally be the dwelling place of Lakshmi. We pray to Her always and ask Her to bless our homes. Thus it is essential to keep them clean, to make them places where others are always welcome and from where we freely dispense service and charity. If these virtues are yours then surely Lakshmi will make your hearts Her own home, you will always feel Her abundant grace and you will never want for anything. Those who are blessed with the name of Lakshmi should do their best to emulate Her wonderful example as mother of all kinds of wealth. To those who surrender to the great qualities personified in the name of Lakshmi, She reveals their true Self (or atma).

"There was once a very poor man who had a large family. He could not earn enough money to feed them. He had a cow that would not give milk unless it ate a sack of grass every day. One day the poor man's son was collecting grass for the cow when he fell into a well and died. Now the man had no son and no grass. He ran away and decided to be a sannyasin. On his travels he met a great spiritual master and he told the saint his sorry story. The master gave him a mantra so that he could get the blessings of Mother Lakshmi. The poor man said the mantra with great fervour and soon Mother Lakshmi appeared. She asked him what he wanted. He quickly said, "Please give me four bags of grass." Later, the saint heard about this and said to the poor man, "What a fool you are. When the Goddess of Wealth, Lakshmi Herself appeared before you, you only asked Her for four bags of grass. You are like those who call themselves sincere spiritual aspirants but who pray to the Supreme only asking for material wealth and prosperity instead of the real and permanent wealth of anandam and shantam (everlasting happiness and peace)."

Swami Premananda