Sri Suktam Lecture 11 on 21 March 2024

Full Transcript (Not Corrected)

Shri Lakshmi Prasada Siddhi Arthe Idam So in our last class, we were studying the 13th Rig of Shri Suptam. As we came to know earlier, Shri Suptam has been composed at least by three Rishis. Three to five Rishis. And two of them are mentioned here, which we are now discussing. One is called Kardama. Another is called Chikleta. And this Shri Suptam, Shri is the Divine Mother. And the Divine Mother can bind us, can release us, can make us happy, can make us unhappy. And She is manifesting as this entire universe. We in reality do not exist. It is only that Divine Mother. And we also had discussed this Shri is invariably associated with Vishnu. And Vishnu is invariably symbolic of a dharmic life, sthiti. He is the controller. He is the sustainer. He is the nourisher. He is the rewarder of both happiness and unhappiness. According to, depending upon our past actions. And why is Shri associated with Vishnu? Because He is the embodiment of dharma or righteousness. Therefore, wherever there is righteousness, Lakshmi inevitably will be associated with that type of person who is manifesting. If a person is dharmic, he is manifesting Vishnu. In fact, he is Vishnu. And his desires are completely fulfilled. He need not pray. That is why the beautiful definition of the word dharma. Dharma protects a person who leads a dharmic life. Dharmo rakshati rakshitaha. So we don't need to pray. Now I have been living a good life according to this scriptural injunction. So you please bestow your grace. No, as soon as we start living what we call a scripture directed life, instantaneously all the results that are promised in the scripture will follow automatically. Prayer is only for the sake of let me never deviate from truthfulness, from righteous life. And that is why Shri is equated with the Divine Mother. Not particularly a sectarian type of Goddess belonging to Vaishnavas. We have to take note of it. Now we have been discussing the 13th Rekha. What is the nature of this Divine Mother? And it is a prayer to Agni, symbolically interpreted. And that is what the Bhashyakaras, the people who want to explain, commentary, Shaina especially. But we are also capable of interpreting it in the light of Shri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda. So we are trying to do, I am trying to do, to interpret this one. What is the nature of this Divine Mother? She is the Divine Mother. And what do we mean by Divine Mother? What do we mean by our own Mother? And we have to pray here, 13th, 14th, even 12th, there is a prayer for Agni Devata. O Agni Devata, what is the symbolism of Agni Devata, Fire God or God of Fire? That any type of demonic qualities, I would like to avoid, I would like to burn them. And with your help alone, I can burn them. And then you bring me all the marvellous qualities. And those qualities are being described. What is the symbolism? If we are meditating upon God, God is very kind, very compassionate, always forgiving, very unselfish. And He is full of love, He is an embodiment of love and goodness, purity, etc. As we go on thinking on these qualities, and that very thought of those qualities should impact our personality. And we also must become, that is why we say, you are what we think, you are what you think, feel, act and react. That is an absolute truth. So some qualities which have already been described earlier, not once but several times, are being repeated. And as we have learnt earlier, repetition is always good in the case of scriptures. आर्द्रां पुष्करिनें पुष्टिम् पिंगलां पद्ममालिनें चंद्रां हिरण्मयें लक्ष्में जातवेदो मा आभः O God of Fire, Agni Devata, please make Mahalakshmi, the Divine Mother, stay with me eternally. Not only bring her to me, she must stay with me all the time. What do we mean by all the time? That if I am having a body-mind, she must bestow me all the blessings of the body and mind. But if I am liberated, then I will become her. That is the idea. What type of Sri who is full of compassion, whose abode is a lotus, who nourishes the entire universe, who has the complexion of saffron, who wears a garland of lotus, who shines like the moon, and who glitters like gold. O Agni Devata, please make such a Divine Mother by the name of Lakshmi, bring her to my home, make her stay with me, not for a short time, but for all the time. Now let us explore the meaning which we have roughly seen in our last class. She is the first quality, Ardhram. Ardhram means wet. What is the meaning? A mother's eyes are always wet. Whenever she looks at the baby, her eyes are melting in compassion. Especially when the baby is very sick or suffering and she wants to do something. Even an earthly mother, only thing is she can feel it, she can shed tears, but she can never help. It is impossible, but there is nothing impossible for the Divine Mother. She who can make the impossible possible is called Maya. This is one of the definitions of Mahamaya. We are not talking about the Advaitic Maya. We are talking about Shri Ram Krishna's Mahamaya. She can make anything possible. In this context, you might have read and remembered, she is called Maya. This is the explanation given by Swami Advaitananda. Because she makes even the Supreme Brahman forget that He is the Supreme Brahman. We are all that Supreme Brahman. And there is nothing called I or You or We. The entire creation is nothing but like the dream. But a very conscious, awareful dream of the Divine. So she makes Him forget. Even Him to call Supreme Reality as Him is a mistake. It is neither Him nor Her nor It. It is beyond all description. But for the sake of our contemplation, sometimes He or sometimes She and sometimes It vary. And the Guru says Tatt Tvam Asi. That word Tatt means that. That is called a pronoun. A pronoun is a representation of all the nouns. So that is the most beautiful word Tatt. He, the Brahman alone can fulfill as the pronoun for everything else. And that is why it is called Tatt. So she is Ardhra. She is the embodiment of compassion. Her heart, her eyes, her entire body is made up of water only. Why is she made up of water? Because according to Puranic interpretation, Mahalakshmi is born, especially when we studied the Bhagavatam. I told you the story, symbolism of the churning of the milk ocean. She is born of the milk ocean. What is this peculiar thing called milk ocean? Has anybody seen this milk ocean? That means just as milk is a representation of strength, of health, of beauty, of goodness, the source of everything that is great in one's life, that is represented by the word milk. That is why even the Hamsa is given a beautiful interpretation. Hamsa means Soham. What is the interpretation? That particular bird capacity who can separate water from milk and discard the water and only drink the milk, that is the supreme wisdom, supreme power of discrimination. So, here Samudra Manthana means deep thinking and when we think really deeply that is called austerity. And when we can think deeply, the truth that comes is Aham Brahmasmi and that is called Amrita or that which makes us eternally free. Not that it makes us free, but it removes the knowledge that I am not free, the thought that I am not free. So, what is this got to do with our explanation? This Mahalakshmi is born. If anybody is really deeply thinking, he can get Lakshmi, he can get the invaluable jewels, birds, horses, elephants, all sorts of goodies in life which are considered the source of happiness, though temporary happiness. All these things will be the result of a person who is capable of thinking. About 50 years back, a book had come, I think his name was Arthur Avalon and the name of the book is Future Shock. And therein, he reiterated the truth that in future, a person who has knowledge, he will be the most powerful person, he will get everything. And today, every letter of that statement has come true. He who has that power and AI means it is nothing but a billion times what a human being's brain, best brain can combine together and work in a million-fold way, billion-fold way, that is called artificial intelligence. How did it come about? Through deep thinking. So, that is what we have to do here. So, a person who becomes a deep thinker, what does he realize? That I am the child of the Divine Mother. I am the manifestation of the Divine Mother. And this is what for ordinary people, if we address the Divine, what we call God as Mother, then our devotion will be quicker. That is what I said, Ardhram, she is the embodiment of compassion. And then what does she do? She wears a garland of lotuses and holds a lotus in her hand. She shines like pure gold. She manifests in the form of prosperity. Please bring, O God of Fire, such a Divine Mother to my house. This is the very unspoken prayer, desire, unconscious prayer of every living creature. Now we will go to the word meaning, Ardhram. Rishi Ardhram means what? Vet. Vet means what? Full of embodiment of compassion towards her children. And she is Pushkarinim, the best of everything. The Puranas describe that the Mother is anointed by elephants, carrying fragrant water in their trunks. If you closely observe any picture of the Mahalakshmi, you know every year so many different calendars are printed, especially by the shops. And on a particular day, this calendar is presented to the people who buy things from that shop. And if you notice clearly, always she is sitting on a lotus and two elephants with their trunk are always making her wet. What does it mean? It means she is born of water. Waters here stand for compassion and actually waters stand for Srishti also. There is a beautiful hymn. It is called Nasadiya Saptam. And there it is said that the whole universe has come out of the unmanifest existence. And based upon that, the mythologies, what we call Puranas, always said at the beginning there was a water, infinite amount of water. And perhaps this is also symbolic that when we say when the end of the world practically comes, then that the whole world is flooded with water. What is the symbolism? That it came from water, it goes back into water. That is why even now scientists who are searching for extra planets where life is possible, the very first thing they search for is the water. And our Chandrayanar recently sent to the dark side of the moon. It had discovered marvelous things. One of the things that it discovered was there is water is there. Source of water is there. That means life is possible. It doesn't mean tomorrow you buy a ticket and then fly there. But it has to be made available. There are so many other things which are lacking there. Nothing like earth. But it will do you plenty of good if you can go to Mars or moon. And then when you come back, what a stupid fool we have been. That we are destroying our very mother who is the very source of all our life and happiness and evolution with our own hands. We are bombing each other. We are destroying each other. We are trying to appropriate everything whether it is land, whether it is water, whether it is forest, whether they are plants. So, there is they are telling why I don't know how far it is true. Just something that I read may be true, may not be true. That why is China so much obsessed with the Himalayas, Arunachal Pradesh and other places claiming as their own because there is a Himalayan gold. What is that gold? Not the metal called gold. A particular type of a fungus which Chinese believe is highly medicinal and it is more valuable than gold and there is, it is plenty available and they want to. This is the race for whether it is Mars, meteors or moon. Everybody is searching. Are there precious materials, minerals? Materials, minerals, etc. which we can harvest. So, as some wise person had said, we have polluted this earth and now we are in quest of polluting wherever we go. Anyway, that is an extra something which has nothing to do with our topic. What is meant is the Divine Mother. She who is manifest in the form of the motherliness in every creature and that is astonishing. And then Pushkarini. Pushkarini means a lake. Always Lakshmi is sitting on a seat of lotus and the lotus is coming out a plant. Then there is a blossom and she is sitting on that blossom and that plant itself is in water and some elephants are standing there. They are continuously sprinkling her. That means she will always be Ardram only. So, she is Pushkarini, the indweller in a Pushkarini. And this Pushkarini, what is this? This Pushkarini stands for the true devotion. When our hearts, we make a lake of our heart, make the Divine Mother sit on the lotus and we all know that lotus is comparable to the heart. Our heart is compared to a lotus and where do we find lotuses? Don't imagine you go and then you travel on that lake with a motorboat and then collect all the lotuses, bring to your useless home and then decorate it. You go where the Divine Mother is there and that living plant, living lotuses and the Divine Mother is there. That Divine Mother is the lotus. We will come to that. The Divine Mother is lotus and this lotus is compared also to the seven chakras. Every chakra is a lotus having a particular number of petals. This is the description especially in the Tantras and Sairam Krishna had confirmed it. Now this Divine Mother is there. So Pushkarini, another person has interpreted Pushtikarini, she who nourishes us continuously because the first thing for the nourishment, for the sustenance of the life is water. There afterwards only other things will come. If there were to be no water then no food will come out. So earth alone will not do. Water is also necessary. And that water element is represented here in the form of a lotus, Pushkarini. So the Puranas always describe, that is why the calendars are printed that the Divine Mother Lakshmi is anointed by elephants carrying fragrant water in their trunks. Where do they get the fragrance? The fragrance also comes from the lotus only. And the elephant in fact has come only out of the milky ocean. Horses came. Elephants came. Precious stones, jewels, etc. came. A marvelous description is given in the Bhagavatam. It is what is called Kshira Samudra Manthana. So the Mother is all of love and affection for every living being. Why? Because she is the Mother of everybody. Even in an adversity we should understand that it is the Divine Mother's will that this adversity has come. And when a mother administers a bitter medicine for the child, that is what the child describes as adversity. But he doesn't understand that it is being given so that quickly he can regain his health. And be his normal self. So she is also called Pushtim. The very word Pushtim. That is why we need not give Pushti Karinim. Pushkarinim is okay. Pushtim because the word is used. Pushti means nourishment, strength. Both body and mind, both physical, intellectual, aesthetic, moral and spiritual nourishment. How do we know? Because in the Chandi it is described in that beautiful hymn, Yathivi Sarvabhuteshu, in everybody, with several epithets are there. And all of them indicate the divine qualities. And also some Asariki qualities are also there. This word Pushti means nourishment. And our Puranas classify this Pushti nourishment into nine types. So what are they? Sharira, Indriya Pushti. Strength and nourishment of the body, mind. Vaak Pushti. The ability, richness with which we can express our thoughts in beautiful words or it may be poetry or it may be classical literature, etc. And this is the difference. When some speakers speak, thousands of people listen to them, attracted like bees to the honey. So that is the divine mother's grace. Then Gnana Pushti. The wealth of wisdom. If a mother wants to make her child full of wisdom, only she manifests in the form of Matra Rupena, Vidya Rupena. Samsthita Pushti. Then Griha Kshetra Pushti. When mother specially is prayed for, she comes in the form of prosperity of wealthy home and fertile fields and then not only that. Dhana Dhanya Pushti. Plenty of Dhana, that is wealth. Dhanya and all the crops, vegetables, fruits, etc. Then Praja Pushti. Every householder, he desires, let me have children so that they can also propagate the ideals that have been indicated, prescribed by the scriptures for every married person. Prehasta. So he wants Praja Pushti. Then Pashu Pushti. Prosperity in terms of cattle, horses, elephants. If he is a Kshatriya, he wants all these things. If he is a farmer, he wants cattle or buffaloes, etc. It is also included. And then in the earlier days, the Rishis, Munis used to perform what we now call Pooja. At that time, it is called Kratu or Yagna and Yaga. And the main ingredients are coming from the cattle, especially five products. The milk, the ghee, the butter, the urine and the cow dung. All five are used. It is called Pancha Gavya. Then Grama Pushti. It will not do. If I want to be healthy, happy, prosperous, peaceful, then I require my neighbours also, my village also. Look at the condition of the world now. Everywhere there is a civil war going on and people have acquired firearms and everybody is made afraid whose life is in the hands of which person. At any given time, people can be shot dead. No. So this is called Grama Pushti. Let others, let society also prosper so that we all can travel together to the Divine. And of course, most important, the last is Dharma Pushti. That is Shraddha Pushti. I have complete faith in the scriptures and I want to lead my life in the form of the goal of life, Chaturveda Purushartha, Dharma Artha Kama Moksha and the ability, the strength to stick to that life and then go forward. These nine types of Pushtis come only by the grace of the Divine Mother and all these are essential in anyone's life and one can gain them with the blessings of the Mother. But we save only with the blessings of the Mother. And Mother is described as Pingala, reddish brown like that of saffron. So this is especially the Mother's colour of the skin, Hema Malini, Padma Malini and also Pingala, a very attractive, beautiful reddish brown colour. If it is reddish, it will be like Mother Kali's tongue. If it is brownish, it will be something not very desirable. So Pingala. Then Padma Malini. Mala means garland. So she is wearing a garland of lotuses. What are these lotuses? Earlier we have explained every lotus. External meaning is a flower called lotus flower. Inner meaning is a state of consciousness. Hinduism describes the whole body as a representation of seven chakras and it is most wonderful if we go a little bit deeper into the meaning. Every chakra represents a state of consciousness. Only when the lower three chakras are transcended, then only spiritual life really starts. Everybody is stuck, moves only within the lower Muladhara, Anahata and Manipura. These three. So this is what Shri Ramakrishna says. This is the life of every worldly person. But here we are talking about every lotus. Chakra is technically called a lotus. And she who wears means what? She is the embodiment of spirituality and all these chakras are her manifestation and therefore her manifestation is from the lower to the higher. As we progress in spiritual life, we what we call manifest her nature within ourselves progressively greater and greater manifestation and when we ascend to the seventh chakra called Sahasrara chakra, we become completely one with her. So this is the meaning of this Padma Malini, one who is wearing garland of lotus flowers. There is a beautiful song in Bengali language where we see that the Divine Mother is playing from one chakra to the that is compared to a lotus. So once Mahapurush Maharaj had seen when this song was being sung, the Divine Mother came and saw really listening to that song. This playful Mother not only manifests as the chakras but she is the manifestation of chakras and as I said chakra is a state of consciousness. The lowest state is Muladhara, the highest state is Sahasrara. Then we have seen another epithet Chandram. She is manifest as the moon because moon inevitably brings beautiful transformation in our mind of Ahlada that is joy, spontaneous joy, bringing comfort in the form of moonlight to the minds of the people who beholds and who is manifesting in the form of the Chandra Devata and Surya Devata is only the Divine Mother. But our Acharya has interpreted it very beautifully. He said there are three cosmic sources of light which correspond to the Srishti Stithi Laya, creation, sustenance and dissolution. What are they? The sun, the moon and the fire and in that order Srishti, the entire creation comes because of the sun Surya Deva. If there were to be no Surya, no sun there would be no creation. Naturally there would be no need of sustenance and dissolution but that which carries on what we call both sustenance, not only creation but sustenance, the same divine Surya Deva in the form of the Chandra and in the form of the Agni Devata. So in the form of the moon sustains the entire food material and then in the form of the fire especially Jathar Agni, that is the digestive fire and the divine sun Savita. Savita means the creator actually. That is why whoever does this Sandhya Vandana, he turns there and says Prachodayat. So this light in the form of the sun, in the form of the moon and in the form of the fire, these are the three sources of light and this is represented in the Durga Stuti Yathevi Sarvabhuteshu Kanti Roopena Samsthita and this is the reason why all orthodox Hindus, Vaidikas, offer daily oblations at the altar of fire at the time of sunrise and sunset also, dawn and dusk because these are the three representing creation, Srishti, Stithi Laya, creation, sustenance and dissolution. So here also if you see Shiva, he is called Triyambaka, three-eyed and here also when we are every day evening we are singing Sharanya Triyambake Gauri Narayane Namostute, three-eyed. What are the three eyes? These are the three lights, the sun, the moon and the fire representing the creation, the sustenance and the dissolution and this divine mother has to be contemplated as Hiranyamayim, that is she is shining like gold. As I mentioned at the very beginning, gold represents the spiritual aspect. She is not only the manifestation of Tamas, not only the manifestation of Rajas but she is the manifestation of Sattva Guna. When Shri Ramakrishna came to Varanasi, he had vision of a golden Kashi. For several days he could not answer calls of nature so he had to go outside. What is that golden Kashi? It represents the pure spiritual side of this Punyakshetram and she is called Lakshmim. A divine mother is Sarvamangala. Whatever happens in our life, whether it is a happy or unhappy incident, it is forever welfare alone. No mother would ever do anything unhappy. So the divine mother or Bhagawan in the form of the divine mother takes care of us as long as we lead a righteous life. We need not have any fear in life provided we lead a righteous life. Because Ishwara called by the Vedantins and the same thing Shakti is the name for the divine mother by the Tantrics. She is the universal father and universal mother. O Jata Veda, O Agni Devata, Agni Deva, Maam Avaha. Ma refers the person, the devotee who is wholeheartedly praying to the divine mother and also if it is possible doing Homa. You would be doing herbal chanting because it has got 15 tricks. So it is said symbolically 15 days it has to be done or one day 15 times it must be done and every time this Sri Suktam has to be chanted methodically. So this is what is Avaha. Please bring that divine mother because you alone can bring because you are the representation of all Gods and Goddesses. You are the Purohita between Gods and human beings. You are the middleman who facilitates communication like a telephone, like a TV etc. It is only by the grace of the Agni Devata and he is called Jata Veda. He knows everything. You can't be a hypocrite and say that please bring Lakshmi. No, it is not going to work out because he knows everything. But if somebody longs, then he will bring. The request to the Agni Devata to make Lakshmi manifest not only in the house but in the mind and body of the seeker and not only that, she must be there permanently and as we discussed earlier, manifestation of the divine mother means complete self-surrender into her, merging into her. That means we also become the universal mother. Motherliness also manifests as soon as we become one with her. So this is her grace and the seeker will definitely get it. Now we move on to the 14th. Ardram Yakhkarinim Yestim Suvarnam Hemamalinim Suryam Hiranmayim Lakshmim Jata Vedo Ma Avaha Again a prayer to the Agni. O Agni Devata, please bring the divine mother Lakshmi into my house and make her stay. That is never should she go away from me. Eternally may she stay. And what type of Mahalakshmi? She who is full of compassion and fame, whose abode is a lotus, who holds a staff or wearing a pearl necklace, who has the complexion of gold, who wears a garland of lotuses, who shines like the sun and glitters like gold. O God of fire, kindly bring that Goddess with you. And you alone are capable of bringing. Please bring her. This is my prayer. I cannot go to her. Like when a devotee of Vishnu prays to the Vishnu Devata, I want to see my divine Lord. But somebody has to bring. Who is that somebody? Garuda Vahana. That's why he is called Garuda Alvar, the greatest devotee, who is also a representation of the Guru, the teacher. Guru is one who brings God nearer to the devotee. Because the devotee cannot go to God. God has to come to the devotee. And he who makes it possible, he is called the Guru. And this Garuda, what is called the king of the birds, he is the person who is capable of bringing. That is why symbolically, mythologically, he is called the Vahana, the carrier. Carrier means what? Like a courier. He will bring. That is, God himself takes the form of the Guru and assumes a form, a nature which is understandable by my mind. And then I can adore him, worship him. And this is the only way I can become one with him. I cannot go to him. He has to come to me. This is called the grace of God. And as we discussed earlier, many words are repetitions. Ardhram means with, means compassionate. So this Ardhram, compassionate, Daya, Karuna, auspiciousness. And that is her very nature. Not that she sometimes becomes compassionate, sometimes not, all the time. Then the next word is esteem. She always has a stick in her hand. Danda. It is called Danda. And what is this Danda? So she is what is called, she is a representation of her power. Without her grace, nobody can do it. Even very interesting. And the Queen of England bestows what is called knighthood upon somebody because of some invaluable service rendered to the country. So she strikes that, that person will be kneeling and she will be striking with a small hook only, not very strongly. And you arise. Then from that time onwards, a beautiful word, Sir, is not our tunes calling Sir like that. A knight is called a Sir. That title goes, that is called bestowing the knighthood. So a king will have that Danda as a representation. If he is a Rishi, he will have what is called Brahma Danda like Vasishta. And there are three Dandis, Eka Dandis, we have been discussing it in the Paramahamsa Upanishad. So esteem means, also another name is fame. She who is well-famed, but she is the controller because she is the creator. That means she has become a whole creation. That means the material, the Upadana Karana, the material cause, the intelligent cause. Therefore, she is the controller. God is the controller. She is the Divine Mother is the controller. So she is the embodiment of prosperity, auspiciousness and happiness. And the idea is that if any devotee lives according to the dictates of the scriptures, then this esteem will be touched to that person's head and immediately anything that the person wants or even doesn't even know how to want, name, fame, everything will come. Very interestingly, Swami Vivekananda was being urged to speak on the very first day of the inauguration of the Parliament of Religions. And he was so, what is called, shying away. He said, not now, I will do later on, later on. And he was the last person. That is also Divine Will. And the president was writing, Dr. Burrows, whether this man is going really to speak or not. But then at last Swamiji got up and then he just addressed brothers and sisters of America and the whole hall of nearly more than four and a half or five thousand, the cream of the society gave a standing ovation. Overnight, he became the most popular person. Huge portraits of Swamiji, posters of Swamiji started appearing everywhere. And that night, he slept on the floor. He wept and said, my privacy is gone from now onwards. So if somebody says, let me be very famous, then he can't sleep peacefully because there will be admirers pestering him. And there will be enemies also trying to pester him. You become a Prime Minister, see that you require very costly security around you. But here ST means that you will have that power to bestow your grace only when you follow the dictates of the scriptures. That is the meaning. And then there is a beautiful word, Karinim. This word Karinim comes alone. It refers to a female elephant because when people want to catch the male elephants, she will use the Karinim. That is to say, just as these people use a female elephant, she is called a matriarch. In the elephant community, the matriarch, she is the ruler. No male elephant is allowed to come anywhere near except in mating time. Rest of the time, the responsibility of protecting, leading them to where water is available. And these elephants are endowed with extraordinary memory power. Once their mothers show, they will never forget in life. And once I saw a very peculiar thing happen in the African country. I do not remember. It could be Zimbabwe or wherever. Somebody had created a restaurant. And then suddenly, a huge herd of elephants entered into the restaurant, entered through the entrance, departed from the back side. People were scared, frightened. Later on, they started wondering, why did this? Usually where human beings are, these elephants will not come. Animals will not come. They avoid because they also have got a sense of pride. Do we have to mix with these lowly creatures? So later on, somebody found out that was the ancient path through which elephants used to travel in search of water and food. And the matriarch remembered after many years, whenever especially there is a few years of drought, then they have to force, they are forced to seek for water and nourishment. She inevitably leads that path. So she found this path. She could somehow remember the map. And then this restaurant is smack on the way. Anyway, it is a very interesting thing. Then Suvarnaam. Lakshmi is described as Suvarnaam, old complexioned. Old means pure consciousness, radiating like gold, like Sri Ramakrishna had a vision of olden Kashi. Then Hemamalini, adorned with gold ornaments. What does this golden ornaments represent here? Asuri Sampath, like compassion, all-powerfulness, all-forgiveness, equality and doing one's best like a mother to keep the baby alive and nourish him and make him grow up and live his life happily. All these qualities represent Hemamalini. We have seen Malini means garland. So golden ornaments. But here it means spiritual qualities or divine spiritual qualities. Earlier we have seen Chandram. She manifests in the form of Chandra. Here that word Chandra is substituted by the word Suryam. Previous verse said that she shines like the moon. And this verse, this Rig says that she shines like the sun. What does it mean? This conveys the meaning that she always like the sun, illuminates the entire universe, illuminates every one of our hearts. So when a sadhaka performs tremendous amount of austerity, it is she who throws the light and that light is called buddhi. That is why she alone manifests in the form of right knowledge, right understanding. Suryam. She has golden complexion. And she is called Lakshmi or Sri who is invariably associated with Vishnu. And Vishnu is Sarvabhyapakal Parvedi. And so if anybody tries to make her, only I will keep wealth, prosperity, money, etc. She will not like it. She will destroy that person because she says, I am the mother of everybody. I cannot be only one single person. Therefore, Jata Veda, O Lord Agni, Ma Avaha. That is, please bring that kind of the Divine Mother. And I am a Sri Vidya Upasaka. Make her come to me. Make her live eternally with me. May there be no separation between her and me. So this is a prayer again to the Agni Devata. And the mother manifests in what form? She has got Dharma Danda, the scepter of a king. That means what? She is an embodiment of Dharma. And when she manifests within us, we also become embodiment of Sathya and Dharma. And both these words coalesce in a particular word that is called Ritam. Ritam Adhishyami, Sathyam Adhishyami. That Ritam in the form of intelligence is the function of the knowledge. But the same Ritam in the function of translating my knowledge into day-to-day actions, that is called Dharma. Later on, these two words Sathya and Dharma have come from this word Ritam. It is a most marvellous discovery of the Rishis. So this is a prayer again to the Agni Devata. Then the last prequel is entering. So again it is a prayer to the Agni Devata only. Because Agni Devata is also a representation of the Guru only. I cannot comprehend God. But God comes in the form of the Guru so that He becomes easily available to the child, who has got a childish mind. Childish doesn't mean what is called ignorant mind. Child-like mind. Not childish mind. Child-like mind. So the 15th Rig, concluding Rig. So the summary of the entire other earlier 14 Rigs is summarized here. What does He say? So the devotee will gain plentiful riches wherever Lakshmi is there. So everything will come. That is why there is a belief in us. When a person gets married and when the wife... Our Hindus are very particular that you put your left foot first in the house. And it is believed some women have got Lakshmi Rekha. That is a sign of the Divine Mother Lakshmi. And if she puts her foot in the house, the prosperity will go on. And it is absolutely true. And while discussing the Great Master, I have pointed out how as soon as Rashmani entered into the house, the prosperity of Rajya Chandra has gone on growing and growing and growing. Because Lord Vishnu Himself is about to incarnate Himself and come here to do His Tapasya and to awaken the Divine Mother. And so we will discuss this as well as a few verses in our next class.