Aim K�m s�smit�m hiranya pr�k�r�m �rdr�m jvalant�m tript�m tarpayant�m
Padme sthit�m padma-varn�m t�mih�pahvaye ?hriyam|| (4)

l l Shlok – 2 l l

Tamaavaha jatavedo
Lakshmimananpagaminim
Yasyaam hiranyam vindeyam
Gamasvam purushanaham

Translation:

O, Agni, the great fire-god, with the blessings of Mahalakshmi, wealth and prosperity, gold and cattle, horses and useful animals, family and children and every type of prosperity will come to me. By the arrival of Goddess Lakshmi in my home, the prosperity will be imperishable. Health, friends, knowledge, everlasting peace and finally freedom — all these types of wealth will be mine by the arrival of the Universal Mother, Lakshmi, into my home.

Unlimited Wealth, Unfailing objective & Universal mother

Unlimited wealth (Indian ‘gold’):
I think we all read about golden hisotry of India. Still, I am 100% sure that nobody knows the fact that i am about to justify. Archeologists studying history of India concluded that India might have been inhabited around at least the Middle Pleistocene era, somewhere between 200,000 to 500,000 years ago. Prehistoric era of India existed from Stone age, Bronze age, Iron age, Vedic period, Mahajanapadas, Persian and Greek invasions, The Maghadas, Early middle kingdoms – ‘The golden age’, Late middle kingdom -’The classic age’, The Islamic sultanate, The Mughal era, Post Mughal regional kingdoms, Colonial era and the Indian independence movement up to Independence & partition. Out of that, whole world had seen stone age, bronze age and iron age, but only India had seen the Vedic period and its extension in the form of Mahajanapadas, Persian and Greek invasions, the Maghadas and Early middle kingdoms – ‘The golden age’. This was the time of our cultural and intellectual enlightenment. At the same time, Nalanda University was founded and Sanskrit was the language of communication. After Golden age, people started invading India for all purposes. The reason of invasion was prosperity. The golden age does not mean we were having ‘Gold’ everywhere. But, this means our intellectuality was like gold; pure and precious. Yes, there are possibilities that with those values and intellectuality we would have gained prosperity and this wealth have been used as �Gold� collectively. Again, Wealth does not mean money but it is different facets of happiness. If at all money is the wealth, than UAE (with precious oil) and South Africa (with gold mines) are the wealthiest countries of the world. But, recent research shows that USA (who owes more than any country) is the wealthiest country of the world.

Nalanda University

Goddess Lakshmi who shines like gold, yellow in hue, gold & silver garlands and moon, which shows the description of having wealth and becoming wealthy. And, health, friends, knowledge, everlasting peace, freedom, gold, silver, wealth, prosperity, horses, other useful animals, family, children and every type of prosperity – are examples of wealth which can be gained by arrival of Lakshmi at our homes which is portrayed in this description of second shlok ( Check above). Wealth is subjective and having wealth in your preference makes you happy and contented. It is also observed that both the ends of economic pendulum are unhappy. Maslow’s hierarchy principle ( Click here for more about hierarchy principle )shows importance of materialistic life to people across every aspects of economic scale and confirms the ideas of Sri Suktam. Research had also shown that poor and middle class people are emotionally salient and mentally stable compared to rich people. At last, Becoming rich without understanding wealth is like inviting uninvited problems.

Unfailing objective:
Lakshmi in Sanskrit is derived from its elemental form “LakS,” meaning to perceive or observe. This is synonymous with “LakSya,” meaning aim or objective. Lakshmi is thus goddess of the means to achieving objectives, including prosperity in the lives of mankind. So, Lakshmi means achievement or objective whic is unfailing. It reminds me of Arjuna and its manner of looking only at the eye of fish.

Universal mother:
We call Lakshmi a universal mother as mother is the one whom we can ask anything anytime and who is always ready. Also notice that, ‘Shall’ is used in shlok translation instead of ‘will’ because we think ‘we have to’ or ‘we will’ get everything we want. Significance of it is because of the presence of unfailing objective (Lakshmi) and its consideration as all types of wealth which includes but not limited to useful animals, family and good men. So now it can be read as, ‘I shall win every form of wealth including cattle horses due to unfailing goddess of wealth.’

When unfailing objective (Lakshmi) is on our side than which financial market can dare to scare us. Again, we all know that being poor and filthy rich are bad but being indecisive regarding the required wealth is the worst. Think twice friends; don�t repent for what we had already lost. Remember, �Life always gives us second chance but it�s mostly the last chance�.

Stay tuned for the Shlok-3 next week.

We as a Hindu are blessed with a cultural heritage of thousands of rituals and customs known as Aacharaas. This customs and rituals are for us to improve the productivity and life. There are no strict rules or regulations to follow. That is the reason that present survey shows we had forgotten almost every customs and rituals except couple of flexible rituals. And,now we had started getting curse of it in manner of new psychological and physical health problems. This clearly signifies that our culture and dharma is founded on scientific spiritually.

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If you go back to search in our ancient literature, it is clearly posted in Eesaavaasya Upanishad, the 40^th chapter of Yajurveda that use spiritual wisdom to attain immortality through philosophical outlook and use scientific knowledge for solving problems in our life. Spiritual is closely intermingled in each and every Hindu custom and so in every life of Hindu.

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Following Shlok defines importance of Aachaaraas:

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Aachaaraath labhathe hi ayu:

aachaaraath dhanamakshayam

aachaaraath labhathe suprajaa:

������������������������� aachaaro ahanthya lakshanam

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Aachaaraas should be followed for prosperity and wealth, strong family and social bondage. According to our dharmasaastra, it gives fine personality, dharmic outlook and vision. We need to follow it for our benefit and it is our right as well as duty to understand scientifically, rationally and logically the meaning of each and every Aachaaraas and follow them in our life systematically.

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Achaaryaath paadam aadatthe

paadam sishya swamedhayaa

paadam sa brahmachaaribhya

��������������� sesham kaala kramena cha

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Above is an important advice given in Smruthies, it means that a person gets only one quarter of knowledge from Aacharya � the teacher, another quarter from analyzing himself, one quarter from discussing with others and the last quarter by method of addition, deletion, correction and modification of already known Aachaaraas or new Aachaaraas.

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We will explain in upcoming MONDAY LEARNINGS about common Aachaaraas at our Vedic Learnings so as to help someone understand the wisdom of our ancient heritage. By doing such noble work, we are expecting to get the quarter of knowledge from discussing with others.

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Now, it is your turn, your right and your duty!!