Lord Vishnu and Devi Lakshmi (Continued)

Festivals

Diwali is the festival of lights celebrated with greatest fanfare and devotion in the Hindu faith over a period of five days. On the first day of Dhanteras, thanks are offered for prosperity and wealth as well as good health remembering ‘Dhanvantari’ the physician of the Devas who emerged during the ‘Samudramanthan’ (churning of the ocean). The second day ‘Choti Diwali’ celebrates the victory of lord Krishna (as an avatar of Vishnu) over Narakasura (a demon). In south India this is the main day of Diwali celebrating the victory of good over evil. Goddess Lakshmi is worshipped on the third day of Lakshmi Puja and little diyas light up entire neighbourhoods to remove darkness of ignorance and evil and bring in instead a wealth of knowledge, health and prosperity. Goddess Kali is worshipped in some regions on this day for destroying the evil ‘Raktavija’. 

The fourth day is celebrated as ‘Annakoot’ where various different food delicacies are prepared as an offering to the Gods (shaped like the Govardhan hill which Krishna is supposed to have lifted to protect his fellow villagers) and then distributed among devotees. It is the day of ‘Padwa’ celebrating new beginnings especially renewing love between husband and wife. This day also celebrates the victory of Vishnu as an avatar Vamana over Bali, the kind of the Asuras. The last day is ‘Bhai Duj’ meant for strengthening the love between brothers and sisters.  Some regions start celebrating from one day prior on ‘Vasu Baras’ day devoting prominence to cow and its calf focussing on motherly love. The Diwali festival has some origins as a harvest festival from very ancient times and cattle are revered by farmers also being seen as close to Goddess Lakshmi. Diwali is considered to be most prominent among most Hindus.

After Diwali, the celebration of Tulsi-Vivah (marriage of tulsi plant to Vishnu in another form) takes place. Kojagiri Poornima or Sharad Purnima is another festival worshipping Devi Lakshmi, with roots in the celebrations of the harvest season where the faithful stay up drinking milk whilst soaking in the healing powers of the full moon at night. During Ganeshotsav, Mahalakshmi Puja is performed in some households (also known as Gauri puja) where Devi Mahalakshmi is considered to come to visit her mother’s family as the host household and returns after three days to her husband. Gauri is another name for goddess Parvati. Fasting in prayer to the goddess is also known as ‘Mahalakshmi vrata’ or ‘Varalakshmi Vrata’

Temples

The Mahalakshmi temples in Mumbai, Kolhapur are very popular among worshippers as is the LakshmiNarayan temple in Delhi also known as the Birla Mandir. A very ancient Lakshmi Devi temple is located in a village in Hassan district of Karnataka state depicting the devotion of worshippers to Lakshmi over several ages.

Badrinath temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu is one of the oldest most holy temples for devotees since puranic times, part of the four famous pilgrimage sites in north, east, south and west of India known as ‘Char Dham’ (Badrinath, Dwarka, Rameshwaram, Puri). The ‘chota char dham’ made up of four pilgrimage sites in the foothills of the Himalayas also includes Badrinath along with Kedarnath (dedicated to lord Shiva), Gangotri (worshipping Goddess river Ganga) and Yamunotri (worshipping Goddess river Yamuna)

Perumal

There are 108 temples (Divya Desam), dedicated to God Vishnu known as ‘Perumal’, which are especially revered among South Indians due to their prominence in Tamil literature as created by twelve saints considered to be the greatest devotees of Vishnu (Azhvars). 105 of these temples are in India, majority being in south India whilst one is in Nepal and two are considered to be outside of this world in the heavenly world. The more prominent temples of these are the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple at Srirangam in Tamil Nadu, Parthasarathy Temple in Chennai, the Thiruvanthipuram temple in Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu and the Padmanabhaswamy temple in Kerala.

Ranganathaswamy representing Lord Vishnu is said to have one of the eight self-manifested shrines located at Srirangam is one of the largest pilgrimage sites in the South.

Lord Vishnu as Padmanabh is worshipped at the temple in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. The temple houses the idol of Vishnu in reclining position and Lakshmi is represented as Sridevi and Bhudevi. This temple is said to be the richest in India due to hidden treasures kept safe for centuries inside locked chambers of the temple. The other richest temple is at Tirupati worshipping Vishnu in the form of lord Venkateswara.

Venkateswara is a form of lord Vishnu worshipped mainly among south Indians. Vishnu is said to have visited the earth when he was separated from Devi Lakshmi. She went away to live in Kolhapur after she couldn’t bear the treatment of her husband by sage Bhrigu who had visited them and deliberately provoked and mistreated her lord to test the greatness of Vishnu. After Lakshmi’s departure Vishnu lived and meditated at the Venkata Hill as Srinivasa or Venkateswara and thus his idol came to be worshipped in this region. Srinivasa is said to have also married princess Padmavati as per Vishnu’s promise to her in a previous birth at this time. The Venkateswara temple at Tirupati is today the most popular temple in south India for devotees and pilgrims who gather daily in thousands to seek blessings from lord Balaji. Padmavati , the wife of Venkateswara is worshipped as ‘Alamelu Manga’ and her temple is nearby.

Lord Jagannath is said to be a form of Vishnu or Krishna worshipped in Orissa, India and the main deity of the temple in Puri which is one of the four most important pilgrimage sites of India (Char Dham). Alongside the principle deity are Balabhadra (or Balaram, the elder brother of Lord Krishna and also considered a form of Lord Vishnu himself) and Devi Subhadra (the half sister of lord Krishna) who are also worshipped in the temple. Some people believe that the origins of Jagannath as a deity are not only in Hinduism but also some local tribal cultures while others believe him to be a form of Shiva as Bhairava. The Jagannath Ratha yatra (chariot festival) in Puri is very famous celebrated as a procession of the three deitites who reside in the nearby Gundicha temple and return after nine days.  Jagannath means ‘lord of the universe’. 

Lord Vishnu and Devi Lakshmi

Om Namo Narayanaya Namah (Om and salutations to Lord Vishnu)

Om Shri Mahalakshmiyei Namah (Om and salutations to Shri Lakshmi, the Great One)

Vishnu is the preserver of creation. When the Dharma of the world is disturbed, Vishnu incarnates as an ‘avatar’ to restore balance and rid the world of that evil. He is the only God of the trinity who never grants any boons to demons (asuras) or evil people.  Ten incarnations (Dashavatara) of lord Vishnu are most prominent. These are Matsya (fish to protect vedas), Kurma (turtle to help churn the ocean), Varaha (Boar to save the earth), Narasimha (half lion half human to save Prahlad), Vamana (dwarf that crushes king Bali’s ego), Parashurama (powerful sage with an axe), Lord Rama (to destroy demon Ravan and embody virtue, incarnated in the Treta Yuga), Balarama (Krishna’s elder brother), Lord Krishna (incarnated in the Dwapara Yuga to assist the Pandavas win the war in Mahabharata and gave wisdom to the people in the Bhagwad Gita), Kalki (the tenth Avatar of Vishnu which is yet to incarnate on earth in the currently on going Kali Yuga). Vishnu is known by thousand other names (‘Sahasranamah’) such as Narayan, Hari, Mukunda, Padmanabha, Madhusudhana, Janardhana, Pradyumna, Anirudha and many more.

Bhagwan Vishnu is said to be living in ‘vaikunth’ (heaven). His idol or image is often depicted as resting on the ocean (ksheer sagar), sitting upon a huge serpent (Sheshnag) holding his discuss (like a rising sun), a conch symbolizing five elements, a mace or bow representing primeval power and a lotus denoting causal power. The divine vehicle is the eagle (Garud). By his side is his wife, Goddess Lakshmi. 

Devi Lakshmi

is worshipped as the goddess of prosperity who brings riches and wealth to her devotees and protects them from material as well as spiritual misfortunes showering motherly love responding to the devotion (bhakti) of her worshippers.  

Lakshmi is said to have emerged from the ocean when the devas and asuras (demons) churned it to find amrit (immortalizing nectar).  She holds a lotus symbolizing purity, the amrit kalash (pot of nectar) representing her power to grant long immortal life, and a blessing along with a bilwa fruit (to give fruit to devotees as per their actions). In mythology the moon is said to be Lakshmi’s brother. When Lakshmi travels with Vishnu it is on his vehicle, the Garuda (eagle), otherwise her vehicle is the owl.  Due to her affinity to the lotus flower, she is also known by names such as Padmasundari, Padmapriya.

She is also worshipped as Mahalakshmi, Deepalakshmi. Mahalakshmi presides over the different aspects of wealth that humans can aspire to including gold, gems, valuables, grains but also fame, knowledge, strength, beauty, good health, long life and good offspring. Ashta Lakshmi is the form of the Devi with power to grant eight forms of wealth. Lakshmi is said to have incarnated as Vishnu’s wife whenever he took a human avatar to rid the world of evil. Together their avatars are known as RadheSham, SitaRam, LakshmiNarayan, Srinivas-Srilakshmi, Kannan-Padmavati. Mahalakshmi is worshipped in several other forms such as Ambabai, the patron goddess of Kolhapur, Maharashtra, or as Sridevi/Bhudevi in south India.

Stories

When the king of the Gods, Indra disrespected sage Durvasa by accepting a gift of fragrant flowers from the sage and then garlanding his elephant Airavat with it, he was cursed to lose all his powers and all the Devas suffered the same curse. Thus the demons destroyed Indra’s army and the Devas looked for help from Brahma and Vishnu. Upon Vishnu’s suggestion, they finally joined forces with the demons themselves to undertake the mammoth task of churning the ocean in order to find ‘amrit’ the elixir of immortality. It was agreed that the mountain ‘Mandar’ would be used as a churner and the serpent god ‘Vasuki’ would function as the rope. As the mountain keeps slipping into the ocean, Vishnu takes the avatar of a giant turtle to hold the mountain on its back while it is being used for the churning.

The churning bears various gifts which are shared by the gods and the demons such as the celestial cow ‘Kamadhenu’ given to the sages, the wish fulfilling tree ‘Kalpavriksha’ planted in heaven, the elephant ‘Airavat’ accepted by Indra and the white horse Uchaisrava to Bali, king of demons. The precious jewel Kaustubh is accepted by lord Vishnu. The deadly poison ‘halahal’ which came out first was swallowed by lord Shiva to save the universe from destruction and stored in his throat which resulted in him being called ‘Neelkanth’. The goddess of wine, Sura was given to Indra, The goddess of fortune Lakshmi emerged from the ocean too and chose to marry Vishnu. She emerged extremely beautiful and mesmerized all the gods and demons, finally garlanding lord Vishnu and thus choosing to be lord Vishnu’s companion.

Dhanvantri, physician for the gods emerged with the pot of ‘amrit’ which had been previously agreed to share equally between Devas and Asuras. But the Asuras immediately snatched the pot and refused to share it. Lord Vishnu then took the form of an enchanting maiden, ‘Mohini’ and cast the spell of her beauty upon all the demons so that they willingly gave away the amrit to Mohini. Lord Vishnu in the form of Mohini distributed all the amrit amongst the Gods and gave none to the demons. Their powers thus restored, the Gods regained their kingdom from the demons.

Another story is of Lakshmi born to the sage Bhrigu and Khyaati married Vishnu and made the Ksheersagara (ocean) her home as per the Vishnu Purana. Sometimes she is depicted in two forms as Bhudevi (mother earth) and Sridevi (goddess of wealth and knowledge) with lord Vishnu.