1st weekend of Oct'2011

With Durga Puja round the corner, the entire East is bustling with
relegious fervour. How can any other topic occupy this weekend's space.
Heres attached an old article by the famous mythologist Dr. Devdutt
Patnaik. Hope you like it though it speaks of a management thought of him.
Spiritual LSD


Published in Speaking Tree, Dec. 12, 2010


Everybody wants to be happy. We cannot be happy if we are starving or have
no shelter or if we are facing any scarcity. Naturally, for happiness, we
turn to Lakshmi, goddess of wealth. When she comes into our lives, there is
food and clothing and shelter. We can survive and hope to thrive. More
Lakshmi means abundance: there is money in the bank, investments, property,
the future is financially secure. More Lakshmi means health and time to do
things that we love doing. There is prosperity with pleasure.


The wise say that if you want Lakshmi to come into your life, you must
never chase her. She must chase you. Otherwise she will come into your life
with her twin-sister, Alakshmi, goddess of quarrels. A house filled with
wealth as well as strife is a house inhabited by both Lakshmi and Alakshmi.


To make oneself worthy of Lakshmi, to ensure that she comes without
Alakshmi in tow, one has to chase Saraswati, goddess of knowledge, who is
dressed in white and bears books in her hands. Lakshmi is a whimsical
goddess, who may move in your direction at one point, even without effort,
and then move away from you at another. But Saraswati is a dependable
goddess, very difficult to acquire, but once she comes by our side, she
stays with us.


The more Saraswati we have, the more we know what people want, how to get
things done, how to solve problems, how to take the right decisions.
Saraswati enlightens us, helps us make sense of the world. Saraswati makes
us sensitive to all things around us. One who has Saraswati in their lives
knows how much they don’t know; hence they are humble and generous. There
is no anxiety about the movement of Lakshmi. And there is no fear of
Alakshmi.


They say that Lakshmi and Saraswati rarely stay in the same house. When one
has too much Saraswati, one holds Lakshmi in disdain. If one has too much
Lakshmi, one holds Saraswati in disdain. But Lakshmi without Saraswati,
invites Alakshmi. And that is not a good thing. And Saraswati without
Lakshmi invites Daridra, the goddess of poverty, which is also not a good
thing.


But neither financial security nor knowledge guarantee emotional security.
One can have all the money in the world but it does not guarantee a
successful, fruitful relationship. One can possess all the knowledge of the
world, but if relations are strained with parents and children and
siblings, one cannot be happy. And so we seek Shakti, the goddess of power.
When we say we want fruitful relationships, we are actually saying we seek
relationships that empower us, make us feel secure and safe and
significant, as one does when one carries weapons. We want to feel
invulnerable like a citadel or ‘durg’ from where comes the name Durga.
Durga is sanctuary, emotional sanctuary, a place where we feel secure and
wanted. As Durga, Shakti rides the tiger,fearless and holds weapons in her
hands, protecting us, unafraid to go into battle for us. We want her in our
life.


And to get Durga into our life, we have to give Durga. To feel secure and
included, we have to give others feelings of security and inclusion. This
will never happen if we do not have sensitivity, if we differentiate
between ‘mine’ and ‘not mine’. To break the divide between ‘mine’ and ‘not
mine’ we need Saraswati once more.


Thus happiness requires all three goddesses: L (Lakshmi), Saraswati (S) and
Durga (D). This is spiritual LSD that every human being craves.

As I always say, brickbats and bouquets welcome!