Today, Deepawali is celebrated as a festival to wear beautiful clothes, eat sweets and light firecrackers. But the significance of the real festival has been lost. The same Vaidika culture, which has declared that there is nothing in the world other than God, has also given us a rich range of deities to worship. Each image represents a certain aspect of life that has to be developed in our personality. Therefore, Lakshmi or wealth has been personified as an ornately turned out regal woman.

Wealth is wedded to the magnificent Lord Narayana, so she must be beautiful, pure, and worthy of Him. We worship her as Mother Laxmi because if we think of

Her that way, we will have no insecurities. A mother is shared by all her children; you are secure in a mother’s love, she will always bless you. If you worship Lakshmi as a mother would you take her to gambling dens? Would you make her dance in nightclubs? Would you drown her in alcohol? Would you abuse her in such demeaning ways? Think about it. If you think of wealth as your mother would you not share her with your brothers? With such attitude, one will understand the right and best use of wealth.

The above vision is beautifully embodied in the characters of Ravana and Hanuman. Both sought Sita, who was none other than Lakshmi Herself. Ravana kidnapped her and wanted to confine her and use her for his base enjoyment. His greed and lust consequently became the cause of his ruin, with all of Lanka being burnt. He lost everything – his children, his good name, fame and finally his very life. On the other hand, Hanuman always active and working for the greater good, saw Sita as Mother, and she extended to him her grace, making him the harbinger of serendipity and phenomenal energies. Thus, wherever Hanuman is, success is assured.

Excessive Wealth Corrupts

As a deity symbol, Laxmi embodies not only the idea that wealth is beautiful, but also the very nature of wealth. Her temperament is said to be chanchal and chapalam- ‘scintillating’ – to subtly imply ‘wavering’ and ‘peripatetic’. She comes and goes at her own will. Being the queen of the universe, she is vibrant and dazzling and her long sari is threaded with gold and studded with jewels, when it graces our life, rains material abundance. But when she leaves, uh-oh, the trail of her sari also sweeps away everything.

Therefore, Shankaracharya advises us not to be proud or vain about wealth. One shake of Mother Earth causes buildings to collapse and in a minute everything, all that one has accumulated, is wiped away. Remember, wealth comes and wealth goes.

Unnecessary and excessive wealth hoarded for selfish reasons only invites calamity. Often, people become corrupt and blinded, and turn against each other, even brother against brother, child against parent, all to get their hands on whatever wealth there is.

So, the sages advise – first, gain peace and happiness by earning and living through honest efforts. In Bhaja Govindam Shankaracharya clearly points out that wealth earned by unfair means and used unethically causes tragedy. You can see it all around you. Ill-gotten wealth can never bring lasting happiness. Only wealth accumulated through honest enterprise and channelled prudently, for nurturing oneself as well as serving worthy goals, can deliver true happiness.

Secondly, adopt the right attitude and see wealth as a mother rather than as a mistress, a gift or a responsibility rather than a right or a commodity. Even nature, the environment that provides us the resources lying at the heart of our economies, would not suffer as much if we viewed it the same way.

Last but not the least, recognize the fact that wealth is intrinsically transient. Even if it doesn’t ever abandon you, at the time of death you will be forced to part from it. So why form inordinate attachments to it? Let it not become the main agenda of your life, and do not become arrogant on account of it.

How, then, can wealth be beneficial and permanent? It is important to understand the differentiating factor by which wealth will always remain a blessing rather than a curse; a means of well-being and happiness rather than cause of insecurity and misery. The secret is this - even though Laxmi is chanchal and chapalam, she remains eternally wedded to the feet of Narayana. If one keeps Narayana, the Lord of the universe in one’s heart, Laxmi will never leave. She will follow you, because you keep Her Lord in your heart. The moment you abduct Her from Narayana and detain her with selfish intents, you court destruction.

However, the Lord does not reside in all hearts but only in those hearts that dedicate themselves to the service of others. Just like a lake, which hoards all the water, without either receiving or extruding rivulets, decays, over time, dries up and finally comes to an end breeds worms, dries up and finally comes to an end, all things perish if they don’t involve movement , a dynamic ‘giving back’ to the ecosystem of which they are apart, and which actually supports them. Like everything in nature, wealth circulates and finds its way to those who have large and giving hearts.

Reproduced from ‘ Life Management Techniques’ published by CCMT 2018