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Mahalakshmi  is one of the most prominent personalities of the Divine Shakti.  She is the power of Ananda, Infinite Delight,  Harmony and Wealth of the Supreme. In the Vedic tradition she is known as Shree  Devi, the power of the Divine Wealth and Bliss. Very often people think of  Laksmi as the power of money. But in fact she cannot be easily compared with the  money power today. For she shall not come to those who live only for themselves  or deviate from the truth, abuse others or have imperfect thoughts or desires,  or where there is no peace or joy of sharing etc. Her prosperity is based on  the growth of Consciousness, Love and Harmony.

There is  however another power of money mentioned in the Veda. It is the power of Panis,  dwellers in the dark, described as dealers and traders, misers and traffickers  of wealth, plunderers and thieves of the Divine Riches. They live in the  subconscious cave of our being, named Vala. Their cave itself is full of divine  treasures they have stolen from the seekers of Light. They do not share this  wealth with those who need it, especially with Aryans, who aspire for a higher  life and growth of consciousness in this manifestation. Instead they trade it and  deal with it as if it was meant only for one purpose to increase their own  power. Their purpose is not to make Consciousness and Beauty grow in the world,  not even for themselves, for they do not know the true value of the stolen  wealth, but to increase their own position and power by accumulating more and  more wealth which is not theirs. Wealth for them has become a means for their self-assertion.  Themselves they cannot sacrifice, cannot give, and they hate those who give and  sacrifice. They hate the Divine Word, and fight against all those who express  it in their consciousness and offer themselves to the growth of the Divine  Presence in them and in the world. They are the masters of money today and not  Lakshmi. Their power is built on and driven by sexual energy and not that of the  soul. And that is a fundamental difference between Lakshmi who represents the Divine  Love rising from the heart of man and the Panis who rule, utilizing the sexual  energy of Nature for their domination. In the Sri Suktam this power of Panis is  called  Alakshmi, literally ‘where  Lakshmi is not’  and cannot be.

   

In the  Veda Panis are conquered by the Angiras Rishis, our Forefathers, with the help  of Indra, the Lord of the Divine Mind, Brihaspati, the Lord of the Divine Word,  Agni, the Divine Will, Usha, the Illumining Power of Infinite Consciousness, Aditi,  and other great godheads, who thus create for us the Sunlit Path for our growth  and self-finding.  

Sri  Aurobindo in the letter to a sadhak writes about the force of money and Yogic  attitude we must take to conquer and offer it at the feet of the Divine Mother,  Mahalaksmi, to whom it truly belongs:

“Money  is a sign of universal force, and this force in its manifestation on earth  works on the vital and physical planes and is indispensable to the fullness of  outer life. In its origin and its true action it belongs to the Divine. But  like other powers of the Divine it is delegated here and in the ignorance of  the lower Nature can be usurped for the uses of the ego or held by Asuric  influences and perverted to their purpose.

This is indeed one of the three forces -  power, wealth, sex - that have the strongest attraction for the human ego and  the Asura and are most generally misheld and misused by those who retain  them.   

The  seekers or keepers of wealth are more often possessed rather than its  possessors; few escape entirely a distorting influence stamped on it by its  long seizure and perversion by the Asura.

For this reason most spiritual disciplines  insist on complete self-control, detachment and renunciation of all bondage to  wealth and of all personal and egoistic desire for its possession. Some even  put a ban on money and riches and proclaim poverty and bareness of life as the  only spiritual condition.  But this is an  error; it leaves the power in the hands of the hostile forces. To reconquer it  for the Divine to whom it belongs and use it divinely for the divine life is  the supramental way for the Sadhaka.

You must neither turn with an ascetic shrinking  from the money power, the means it gives and the object it brings, nor cherish  a rajasic attachment to them or a spirit of enslaving self-indulgence in their  gratifications.

Regard wealth simply as a power to be won back  for the Mother and placed at her service.

All wealth belongs to the Divine and those who  hold it as trustees, not possessors. It is with them today, tomorrow it may be  elsewhere. All depends on the way they discharge their trust while it is with  them, in what spirit, with what consciousness in their use of it, to what  purpose.

In your personal use of money look on all you  have or get or bring as the Mother's.

Make no demand but accept what you receive  from her and use it for the purposes for which it is given to you.  Be entirely selfless, entirely scrupulous,  exact, careful in detail, a good trustee; always consider that it is her  possessions and not your own that you are handling.

On the other hand, what you receive for her,  lay religiously before her; turn nothing to your own or anybody else's purpose.

Do not  look up to men because of their riches or allow yourself to be impressed by the  show, the power of influence.

When you  ask for the Mother, you must feel that it is she who is demanding through you a  very little of what belongs to her and the man from whom you ask will be judged  by his response.

If you  are free from money-taint but without any ascetic withdrawal, you will have  greater power to command the money for the divine work.

Equality  of mind, absence of demand and the full dedication of all you possess and  receive and all your power of acquisition to the Divine Shakti and her work are  the signs of this freedom.

Any perturbation of mind with regard to money  and its use, any claim, any grudging is a sure index of some imperfection or  bondage.

The  ideal Sadhaka in this kind is one who if required to live poorly can so live  and no sense of want will affect him or interfere with the full inner play of  the divine consciousness, and if he is required to live richly, can so live and  never for a moment fall into desire or attachment to his wealth or to the  things that he uses or servitude to self-indulgence or a weak bondage to the  habits that the possession of riches creates.

The  divine Will is all for him and the divine Ananda.

In the  supramental creation the money force have to be restored to the Divine Power  and used for a true and beautiful and harmonious equipment and ordering of a  new divinised vital and physical existence in whatever way the Divine Mother  herself decides in her creative vision.

But  first it must be conquered back for her and those will be the strongest for the  conquest who are in this part of their nature strong and large and free from  ego and surrendered without any claim or withholding or hesitation, pure and  powerful channels for the supreme Puissance.”

Here is  our translation of Sri Suktam, one of the oldest hymns to the Goddess Lakshmi  from the appendixes (khilanis) of Bāṣkala recention of the Ṛgveda.    

Śrī  Sūktam

Om hiraṇyavarṇāṃ  hariṇīṃ suvarṇarajatasrajām/

   

Candrāṃ  hiraṇmayīṃ lakṣmīṃ jātavedo ma āvaha /1

OM, O  Jatavedas, bring to me the Golden [Goddess] Lakshmi, of green and yellow  [light], wearing golden and silver necklace, shining like a golden Moon!

Notes:

   

Jatavedas  is a name of Agni in the Veda, meaning ‘the one who knows all who are born here  on earth’. He is the Flame of the Divine Will lit for the purpose of the Sacrifice,  the divine manifestation in material world. It is he who should bring the  Divine Lakshmi here, which means that she can come to us only through the act  of the Sacrifice.

Vedic  sacrifice, yajña, is the process by which the higher powers of universal  consciousness are invoked and brought down into our life by the kindled  aspiration within us for the sake of transformation of our life on earth.  All here is done only for this transformation  and the final manifestation of the Divine in the material universe. The goal of  this Sacrifice is Immortality, amṛtam.

In the  Gita 3.9  Sri Krishna says: yajñārthāt  karmaṇo ‘nyatra loko’yaṃ karmabandhanaḥ, ‘it is by Karma which is done for the  sake of the sacrifice that the people are free from its consequence’. The only  action in this world which gives us freedom is Karma done for the sake of sacrifice,  that is to say, the work for the growth of Consciousness in the material  manifestation.  

Tāṃ ma  āvaha jātavedo lakṣmīm anapagāminīm/

   

Yasyāṃ  hiraṇyaṃ vindeyaṃ gām aśvaṃ puruṣān aham/2

That  [goddess] bring to me, O Jatavedas, Lakshmi, who never goes away,

In whom  I shall find [all] luminous wealth, knowledge, power [and all the souls of]  men.

Notes:

   

The  Rishi invokes Lakshmi who brings with her Gold, Cow, Horse and Men.

   

These  are the symbolic fruits of the Vedic Sacrifice. Gold symbolizes realization of  the highest planes of consciousness, the spiritual realization on all the  levels of consciousness and being. Cow , ‘go’, means also the ray of light, and  is symbolic of the light of the Divine Knowledge. Aśva, horse, lit. meaning  ‘running’, ‘quick’, ‘swift’, is a swiftness of the Divine Power. And it is  mentioned throughout the Veda about the sacrificial gift desired by Rishis  where the Cow is to stand in front of the Horse (goagram aśvapeśasam ratim, RV  2.1.16 ; 1.92.7 etc.) Purushas in the Rigveda are the symbol of the souls of  men who are conscious of their Origin and therefore their purpose, they are  called also nṛ, nara, vīra, the heroic souls, the worriers of Light fighting against  the forces of Darkness. They are capable of doing the work of Sacrifice  manifesting the Divine Presence, Knowledge, Power and Bliss in the world. All  these are true gifts of the Vedic Sacrifice, with whose help the transformation  of our unregenerate self can be effectuated.

Aśvapūrvāṃ  rathamadhyāṃ hastinādaprabodhinīm/

  

Śriyaṃ  devīm upahvaye śrīr mā devīr juṣatām/3

Standing  in the middle of the chariot with horses in front, awaking with trumpeting of  the elephants, Goddess Sri I invoke! The Goddess Sri should accept me with happiness.

   

Notes:

Vedic  imagery of the chariot carrying the Gods is another spiritual symbol of a  particular spiritual experience. Gods cannot reach out to our plane without a  travel. They abide in their own realm and from that place they have to travel,  as it were, to our plane of consciousness. This travel is symbolized by the movement  of chariot with horses as its powers in front.   In one of the hymns  of the  Rigveda Rishi compares his composition of the hymn with the making of a chariot  by a carpenter. ‘With the help of this Hymn-Chariot I shall rise to Heaven’,  says Rishi.

kāṃ sosmitāṃ hiraṇyaprākārām  ārdrāṃ jvalantīṃ tṛptāṃ tarpayantīm/

padme sthitāṃ  padmavarṇāṃ tām ihopahvaye śriyam/ 4

I call  down Sri, who is in the Lotus, and of the Lotus color,

Who thus  creates the golden light with a smile, flaming, and ever-young, always  satisfied and always satisfying.

Candrāṃ prabhāsāṃ  yaśasā jvalantīṃ śriyaṃ  loke devajuṣṭām udārām/

Tāṃ  padminīm īṃ śaraṇam ahaṃ prapadye ‘lakṣmīr me naśyatāṃ tvāṃ vṛṇe/ 5

The most  luminous of all the luminaries (like the Moon among the Stars), flaming with  the Glory in this world, loved by the Gods, I find my refuge in the Lotus  holder, prostrating in front [of Her]! May my misfortune vanish!  I choose you, [O Lakshmi]! 

Ādityavarṇe  tapaso’dhijāto vanaspatis tava vṛkṣo’tha bilvaḥ/

Tasya phalāni  tapasā nudantu māyāntarāyāś  ca bāhyā alakṣmīḥ/ 6

   

O  [Golden one] with the color of the Sun, Vanaspati is born from the Supreme  Power, Tapas, He is your Tree and your Fruit,

May its  fruits remove the internal and external misfortunes of the Maya by the Tapas.

Notes:

She is  of the color of the Sun. The Sun in the Rig Veda is the symbol of the  Supramental Truth, the plane of Satyam, Ṛtam, Bṛhad, the Truth, the Right, the Vast. In the Taittirīya Upaniṣad 2.5  it is called Vijñānam. It is the plane where the whole manifestation takes  place. Vijñānam yajñam tanute, karmāṇi tanute’pi ca, vijñānam devāḥ sarve  brahma jyeṣṭham upāsate, ‘Vijñāna creates and spreads the Sacrifice, and all  the Works indeed, for Vijñāna is all the gods, who worship Brahman as the  greatest.’

   

The Sun itself is  the creation by the Supreme Tapas, (RV 10.190.1 ṛtaṃ ca satyaṃ cābhāddhāt tapaso 'dhy  ajāyata, ‘the Right and the Truth were born from the Flaming Tapas of the Divine  Power’, and so the Lord of Delight, Vanaspati, whose Shakti is Lakshmi, who  dwells in him as her own home tree and is its fruit.

   

So it is  with the help of Tapas that all the Alakshmis, inner and outer, can be removed.  It is interesting to note here that it is not by the power of Lakshmi that  Alakshmi can be removed but by the Divine Power, Tapas, which is the source of  them both.  

Upaitu  māṃ devasakhaḥ kīrtiśca maṇinā saha/

Prādurbhūto  ‘smi rāṣṭre ‘smin kīrtim ṛddhiṃ dadātu me/ 7

   

May the  friend of the God approach me and the Glory with the Pearl.

I am  made visible (manifested) in this luminous kingdom, [and] in this [kingdom] she  should grant me [her] Glory and Prosperous Growth.

Notes:

The  friend of God, is most probably one of those souls who already realized the  union with the Divine  here in the  physical body, he expanded the Divine Presence in him, for he has kīrtiḥ, and  concentrated his inner light symbolised by a shining jewel, maṇinā saha. Sakha,  lit. means ‘the one who shares the same space’, sa-kha.

   

‘I have  appeared, made myself visible in your Kingdom’, - says the Rishi. ‘Grant me the  expansion and the growth in this luminous kingdom of yours.’ 

Kṣutpipāsāmalām  jyeṣṭhām  alakṣmīṃ nāśayamy aham/

Abhūtim  asamṛddhiṃ ca sarvāṃ nirṇuda me gṛhāt/ 8

   

I  destroy mis-fortune, the oldest of impurities of hunger and thirst.

All the  calamity and blockage in prosperous growth, [ O Lakshmi], move away from my  house!

   

Notes:

   

Kṣudh  and pipāsā are two fundamental powers of the first emanations of the Divine  Being and Consciousness, which turned into their opposites: Death and  Inconscient. In the Upanishads Rishis mention is as the original Aśanāyā Mṛtyu  (Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 1.1.2), or as aśanāyā  and pipāsā, ‘hunger and thirst’ ( of Aitareya Upaniṣad, 1.2.1.) depicting their  influence upon the faculties of consciousness of the Divine Purusha, who was  thus sacrificed for the sake of creation and whose faculties descended into the  Infinite Ocean of Inconscient, (mahatyarṇave prāpatan, AitUp 1.1.2-3). These  hunger and thirst were already there.   That is why the misfortune, Alakṣmī is called jyeṣṭhā, the oldest, for  She herself had been there when Lakṣmī arrived. It is as if Alakṣmī is her elder  twin sister. In the Veda we have two sisters Aditi and Diti,  the Divine Mother in two personalities: Aditi,  Infinite Consciousness, The Mother of the Gods, and Diti, the Dividing  Consciousness, the Mother of Daityas, Dānavas and Dasyus, the dividers, robbers  and demons, the enemies of the gods. Similarly the Asuras are considered to be  the elder brothers of the Gods, for the Gods come after, as it were.

   

Gandhadvārāṃ  durādharṣāṃ nityapuṣṭāṃ karīṣiṇīm/

Īśvarīṃ  sarvabhūtānāṃ tām ihopahvaye śriyam/ 9

   

[The  one, who is], cognisable through the Odor, Invincible, whose growth is  constant, Karishini (with a pure smell of the Cow), Mistress of all the  creatures, that [goddess] Sri I invoke here.

   

Notes:

Gandhadvārā,  can be translated as ‘who is reached through the doors of odor’, or ‘whose  access is through odor’; ‘who comes by the means of odor’. 

Manasaḥ  kāmam ākūtiṃ vācaḥ satyam aśīmahi/

Paśūnāṃ  rūpam annasya mayi śrīḥ śrayatāṃ yaśaḥ/10

   

‘May we  realise Mind’s Desire, the Intention of the Word, the Truth, the abundance in  the form of (all perceptions) Pashus and of food! In me Sri should thus fix the  Glory.’

   

Notes:

Manasaḥ  Kāmam, ‘the Desire of the Mind’, is the first seed of light within the darkness  to bring it back to light. It is known as desire and later as the mind itself.  It is also associated with the Intention of the Word rising from the depths of  our being, and the Truth which is to be discovered here. These three: the  Divine Mind, Word and Truth are the triple movement of the Divine itself within  this manifestation. The Divine Mind supports it from above, the Divine Word  from within the Heart, and the Divine Truth is rising from within manifestation  as the Flame of the Divine Will, Agni.

Paśu, is  usually translated as ‘cattle’, but the root of this word is paś/spaś, ‘to  see’, ‘to perceive’; it is the consciousness inherent in the embodied creature.  

Kardamena  prajābhūtā mayi sambhava kardama/

Śriyaṃ vāsaya me  kule mātaraṃ padmamālinīm/ 11

With the help of  Prajapati the creatures are born.  In me  you become the all-powerful, O Prajapati.

Make Mother Sri,  who wears the garland of Lotuses, live in my family.

Āpaḥ sṛjantu snigdhāni ciklīta vasa me gṛhe/

Ni ca  devīṃ mātaraṃ śriyaṃ vāsaya me kule/12

   

‘May the  Waters create [all things] smooth and lovely!

O  Chiklita, (O Smooth and Lovely) live in my house!

And make  the Goddess, Mother Shree live in my family.’

Ārdrāṃ  puṣkariṇīṃ puṣṭiṃ piṅgalāṃ padmamālinīm/

Candrāṃ  hiraṇmayīṃ lakṣmīṃ jātavedo ma āvaha/ 13

O  Jatavedas, bring to me, the shining and the golden Lakshmi,

Ever-young  and soft, abandoned in lotuses, perfect in growth, gold-colored, with the  garlands of lotuses.

Ārdrāṃ yaḥ  kariṇīṃ  yaṣṭiṃ suvarṇāṃ hemamālinīm/

Sūryāṃ  hiraṇmayīṃ lakṣmīṃ jātavedo ma āvaha/ 14

[The  one] who [brings] the ever-young, holding [with] the Golden Rod, and wearing the  garland of gold,

the  Luminous Daughter of the Sun, the Golden Lakshmi, [it is you], O Jatavedas,  bring [her] to me.

Notes:

Here She  is directly called Sūryā, the daughter of the Sun. This is the epithet of the  Divine Mother. She holds the golden Rod, the symbol of the Divine Power.

Tāṃ ma  āvaha jātavedo lakṣmīm anapagāminīm/

Yasyāṃ  hiramyam prabhūtaṃ gāvo dāsyo ‘śvān vindeyaṃ puruṣān aham/ 15

That  [goddess] bring to me, O Jatavedas, Lakshmi, who never goes away,

In whom  I shall find [all] luminous wealth, knowledge, power [and all the souls of]  men.

Yaḥ śuciḥ  prayato bhūtvā juhuyād ājyam anv aham/

Śriyaḥ  pañcadaśarcaṃ ca śrīkāmaḥ satataṃ japet/ 16

Who is  pure, having  surrendered [to Her], he  should offer the oblation of the clarified butter every day, seeking Shree, he  should always recite this hymn of Shree, consisting of 15 verses.

Sri Aurobindo's quotation ends: "powerful channels for the supreme Puissance.”

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replied by Vladimir on Apr 10, 2013