PONDERING OVER LAXMI

Why do we celebrate Diwali? The question may elicit many answers. For many it is the time to celebrate the victory of good over bad. The legend is that when Lord Rama reached Ayodhya after vanquishing the mighty Ravana, the people of Ayodhya celebrated the victory by lights and crackers. With passage of time, this became a ritual to be celebrated as Deepavali — the festival of lights.

Another answer is that Goddess Laxmi is invoked and worshipped so that she is pleased and will shower prosperity on us. The modernists may say that it is the time when the season changes from autumn to winter and has environmental significance. Thus homes, shops and establishments are cleaned thoroughly so that for the next one year, hygiene can be maintained. Maybe there are many more explanations. Maybe they all are correct. But the common thought is that it is the time to invoke Laxmi and seek her blessings. The point is, if this were true, all Laxmi worshippers would be blessed with riches and prosperity.

This, however, does not happen. Pleasing Laxmi is easier said than done. It is important, therefore, to understand the nature of Laxmi. Thepurans say that the nature of Goddess Laxmi is being mobile; she does not stick to one place. Further, she blesses those whose deeds are good and therefore right means are important. One can gain wealth by unfair means, but that wealth will not bring the prosperity, which includes peace, health and pleasure. This explanation needs to be considered as we see the rich and mighty falling like nine pins in not too long a time.

A case in point is that of senior bureaucrat BK Bansal, who was allegedly caught red-handed taking a bribe of Rs9 lakh. What happened to him may serve as a grim reminder of the classical view that wealth needs to be earned righteously if it is to bring real prosperity. Bansal and his entire family committed suicide. What use of the Rs9 lakh?

There are many such incidents and accidents that remind us that it does not make sense to fall prey to greed. In long run, it pays to be good. But why are we not learning the lessons right? A difficult question to answer, yet we can say that temptations outweigh the odds in the short run. The pull of the allurement pushes reasoning ability to the back seat.

There may be counter-argument that not all who earn wealth by wrong means get caught or pay the price. Well it of course is a matter of conjecture and there cannot be a proof to indicate that all ill-gotten wealth vanishes like thin air. Nevertheless, the all-important questions is why fall prey to the allurement that is fraught with such serious risk?

The point after all is that all those who have been caught were fairly well-to-do. There was no need to adopt dishonest means. The risk, thus, was not worth taking. And this provides the answer. It is not about those who could not afford being honest. It is about those who could afford to be honest. Because it is they who pay the biggest price. So this Diwali lets us ponder over the nature of Laxmi and pray to her to give us the strength not to fall prey to temptations that may be high risk deals.