||Shri Suktam||

Shlok 8

I shall, by their grace, destroy that distressing poverty which is first born in the form of hunger and thirst, (i.e., which prevents the advent of prosperity). Dispel�every form of want and insufficiency�from my house.

Poverty, trust and charity

Poverty:

Something I was thinking about yesterday, at home, is how God is never outdone in generosity, whether material or social or spiritual. Because of the economic unease we�re all facing, I was frankly thinking of the material – hanging on to jobs, my friend finding a job, how we�ll pay for home heating oil this winter, affording college for my sister – and I remembered that my wife and I have always believed it and found it to be true: when we give from our own need, it never goes unrewarded. Well, someone from you argue that how it will be rewarded. That�s where Sri Suktam is needed.

You cannot become�rich if you acquire wealth; you also need to work on removing anomalies and insufficiency of life. Otherwise, there are strong chances that acquired wealth gets vanished in no time. In short, by saying “Dispel every form want and�insufficiency from my house”, Rushi wanted to convey message that, one should also work on improving life by all means. Money or materialistic wealth is not everything a person needs to be wealthy as their value can decrease at any time e.g., stock exchange. What we need to acquire is permanent wealth in the form of blissful life, morals and principles, generosity when needed so that we can get help when we need.

Trust:

We forget, sometimes, that if we trust – really, just trust (that�s harder to do, and less simple, than it sounds) we will receive �what we need.� We may not get a penny more than that. But we will see our needs met, and perhaps part of what we �need� is to learn how to manage ourselves on less, how to cultivate thrift, how to resist the urge for immediate gratification. How to save, and to work toward goals? How to be patient? We are not very patient, anymore. We don�t like to

wait for what we want. Our society has been very spoiled and �me� oriented for a while, now. Everyone buys themselves whatever they want, when they want it, and – because of the easy credit (which helped get us into this mess) and our addiction to it – we have forgotten how to wait, how to practice that �old-fashioned� virtue of self-denial.

Charity:

Charity is a great form of dispelling unwanted wealth (which ultimately brings sickness and poverty) and helping those who are in need. By that way, you will have blissful life and also your wants will be limited. I�m going to remind them of what I remembered: God is never outdone in generosity, but you need to be generous yourself, if you want Him to outdo you. Even in these frightening times – perhaps especially in frightening, vulnerable-feeling economic times – it is important to be generous to others � families, especially extended families in need.

My learnings:

1) Expel unwanted need which can create poverty in future

2) Charity is the best to dispel our unwanted needs to get credit which can be used in future with interest rate.

-Taral Sharma

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Shri Suktam Series:

Article 1:�Linking broken links � Economics, Life and Happppppppppiness!

http://vediclearnings.com/2008/11/17/shri-suktam-new-learning-series/

Article 2:�Connect the dots�to enlighten!

http://vediclearnings.com/2008/11/24/shri-suktam-new-learning-series-2/

Article 3: Respect, Thankfulness and Glorious life

http://vediclearnings.com/2008/12/01/shri-suktam-shlok-1/

Article 4: Unlimited wealth, unfailing objective and universal mother

http://vediclearnings.com/2008/12/08/shri-sukta-shlok-2/

Article 5: Strength, bravery and�Sprightliness

http://vediclearnings.com/2008/12/15/shri-suktam-shlok-3-certificate-of-wealth-acquisition/

Article 6: Bliss, content, lotus and Balanced life

http://vediclearnings.com/2008/12/22/shri-suktam-shlok-4-bliss-content-lotus-balanced-life/

Article 7: Protection by Magnanimous & Blazing Wealth!

http://vediclearnings.com/2008/12/29/protection-by-magnanimous-blazing-wealth/

Article 8: Unconditioned & unlimited nature

http://vediclearnings.com/2009/01/05/unconditioned-unlimited-nature/

Article 9: National Spirit

http://vediclearnings.com/2009/01/12/shri-suktam-shlok-7-national-spirit/

||Shri Suktam||

Shlok 3

Certificate for wealth acquisition : Strength, Bravery, Sprightliness

A?hwa-p?rv�m ratha-madhy�m hasti n�da prab�dhin�m

?hriyam dev�m upahvaye ?hr�r ma dev�r jushat�m||(3)

Translation

I invoke that Goddess of Prosperity who comes with horses in the front and chariots in the middle and whose coming is announced by the trumpeting of elephants. May that Goddess of Prosperity come and bless me.

“The real poor is he who misuses what he has.

The real rich is he who well uses what he has “

~ Mikhail Naimy

Certificate for wealth acquisition

Shri Suktam�s shlok 3 accurately explains nature and environment of Mother Lakshmi. It shows that how, when and where, goddess of wealth listen our invocation and blesses us with wealth. It testifies Certificate for acquiring wealth.

Strength

Goddess who comes with horses in front and chariots in the middle signifies strength. Horses and chariots were use to be considered as icon of military power.(akshauhini (akshauhinee¹).Strength is required when your are fighting a battle against financial situation, a battle against oneself, a battle against poverty,a battle against global warming,a battle against terror,a battle against wicked; man vs. man, man vs. nature, man vs. regime, man vs. systems and so on. Here, devotee invites goddess and his trust in goddess is seen in description. He describes her like he is going to fight against army/person/situation with the help of her. It creates an environment of joy and power, it shows boldness and bravery, which is needed for reform. Yes, Reform needs ‘Shaurya geet’ (bravery song) and that is the reason soldiers sing that before going for the battle.

Exhibition for societal prosperity

Switzerland is famous for two �B�s � Nature�s Beauty and Humans� Banking. One is exhibition of wealth and another is secrecy of wealth. To name few; trees, rivers, mountains, flowers are Switzerland�s wealth and I personally cherish them (Unknowingly, we all do by watching Bollywood songs) because it is demonstrated, expressed and celebrated wealth. But I certainly don�t consider those secret bank accounts as wealth parameters. To me, they are mere currency having no value. It is not society�s strength but is individual (person/organization)�s weakness of not able to spend earned/looted/tricked wealth in constructive and creative ways for planet upliftment. Money is strength when it is utilized for lofty purposes and is folly when we miss opportunities to use it in proper channel. Forget about Swiss bank accounts, we often hear in neighborhood about someone died leaving abundance of wealth without any will to use it. How can someone live life so uneventful where there is no purpose for wealth utilization? Earning ethically in abundance is the way to live life but not spending it or spending it for vested interests is a way of dying.

Trumpeting of elephants represents exhibition of wealth (Mind you! there is difference between exhibition and show off!). By exhibition, I understood �presence of wealth with me is apparently known to all and not hidden�. It says that, If one million dollars is earned; it has to be known with a blow of sound as good as trumpeting of elephants. In context of exhibition, it explains non-possessiveness. I am talking about non-possessiveness exhibited by the king Raghu who was the abode of charity and gentleness and an ocean of mercy on this earth.

If one is not capable enough to acquire certificate of wealth acquisition by cultivating qualities like strength, boldness, wealth exhibition (Once again, it�s not about show off! BMW is not an indicator of exhibition!), kindness, heroism, generosity then it�s better for her or him to live life as a dependent; like child dependent on parents , beggar dependent on society and wicked dependent on government/mafias/pirates � the ghetto way of living life.

My learning

Wealth earned boldly, utilized charitably, invested heroically and consumed (for personal usage) frugally will never lead to any type of financial crisis and ensure happy life.

1. A fighting unit consisting of 109350 foot-soldiers, 65610 horses and horsemen, 21870 elephants and elephant warriors, and 21870 chariots and their human equipment.)

|| Shlok 1 ||

Om, Hiranya varnam harinim
Suvarna rajatasrajam
Chandraam hiranmayim
Lakshmim jatavedo ma avaha

Translation

O all-knowing fire-god (Agni), would you kindly propitiate Mahalakshmi, the Goddess of prosperity, one whose body has the golden color; one who is decked with gold and silver garlands; one whose sari is yellow colored and one Whose face is like the full moon and whose eyes bless humanity with soothing grace. O Jata Veda, the fire-god, kindly tell Her of our supplications.

Respect, Thankfulness and Glorious life

It is foremost to understand that why Shri Suktam starts by invoking Agni (God representing fire) before we try to understand economics of life. Not only in Shri Suktam but every ritual that I read or observed, it is very common to invoke God Agni (Fire) first. Here is the humble effort to understand Shlok 1 on the basis of science of evolution and psychology.

Agni-Fire

When I was in school, I was taught that �Fire� is one of those basic discoveries by which Humans had changed living remarkably. Imagine their wonder when they first saw Fire spark! The first ever fire in the history of human life!I think, it was godly feeling for them who never experienced Fire before, power which is beyond their imagination. Certainly, over the period of time, with new learnings, they came across many such superpowers, externally (Wind-Pavan, Air-Vayu, Surya-Sun) as well as internally (Knowledge � Saraswati, Intellect �Pragna, Vak � Speech); they might have started giving respect to those extraordinary learnings, they gave them human form, they worshiped them to express gratitude and yet they did not forget basics that how fire helped them exploring all these new ways to live life better way. And that might be the reason for fire worship known not only in Vedic culture but in various other cultures across this planet in different times (Evidences found in Jews, Zoroastrians, Hebrew Bible, Graeco-Roman tradition, The Greeks etc.). Agni is considered as messenger for all other known super-natural strengths. So, to even understand Goddess of wealth, Shri Lakshmi, We invoke God Agni first. A highest way to express gratitude by highest intellects!

Lakshmi � motherly figure

Personification of qualities is very essential when we want to convey great qualities to forthcoming generations. And when those qualities are pure and unconditional love, joy, care � to me, it is well understood by feminine figure. In psychology, they have similar concept called �archetype�. An archetype is an original model of person, object, or concept from which similar instances are derived or patterned or emulated. In this sense, motherly figure is described by all above mentioned qualities. And when we are talking about Goddess of wealth, her description in Shri Suktam identifies mother figure with certain additional qualities like Gold, Silver, glory on face, humanity in eyes and soothing grace. Learning starts with behavior of acceptance. So, we need to open ourselves and remove all doubts to learn lessons of life. We will make every effort to provide you brighter vision in this fuzzy atmosphere.

First shlok gives us one sure message that economics of life is about gratitude, blessings, humanity, and glory. Also, last but not the least, Gold and Silver.

My Life Learning – The economics way

• Respect nature, they are our highest wealth.
• When I say God is within me, Fire(Feelings of great warmth and intensity) must prevail in me and my actions. Actions ignited by fire within and my readiness to worship mother Lakshmi will only determine my richness and not laziness or blemish lifestyle.

Are we ready to understand importance of different types of wealth, beyond and above Paper money? Yes is the answer for those who wants to understand economics of happiness.

Stay tuned for shlok 2 next week!

{Images :

1) http://www.askganesha.com/images/Lakshmi.jpg

2) http://www.flickr.com/photos/dragoncito/166536062/}

|| Shri Suktam ||

Linking broken links � Economics, Life and Happppppppppiness!

�Even if all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion.�

� George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw can utter above statement but I cannot. I cannot because I don�t even know one line definition of economics in present context. But, I do have urge to understand it as I feel that it has keys to resolve human race�s trivial and fundamental issue � Pursuit of Happiness!

Recently, I watched latest Bond movie – Quantum of solace. You might not like this bond movie if you are pre-conceived about typical Bond-type movies and so I also did not like movie without cars, gadgets and high-tech action. But, at the end, it surely gave spark to let me started thinking about present days Oil economy (by comparing it with Water Economy) and so called Economic crisis. Movie talks about mafias in water economy age (Age when now easily available water will have highest market value! And so people around the world do business on water. Futuristic but hope that we don�t observe WW1 � Water War 1).Giants reporting bankruptcy, Stock markets across the world started sinking, following Wall Street way, credit gambling, rising unemployment, slow growth in developing countries, reduced trade volume, income insecurity are few buzz headlines hitting news every day since last six months. These all lead me to start thinking on this front and explore more in details.

Mind you, we are here, not to give any remedy or discuss why it happened and how bleak or bright future will be�.we are here to see world economy with different perspectives. We are here to understand what actually mean by word �Economy� and different segments of economy. We are here to connect broken links between Economics and allied sciences. We are simply here to sing a song of Economics known as �Shri Suktam� and put earnest efforts to design ways to pursue happiness.

Some people say that Adam Smith (1723-90) is father of economics. I respect Adam Smith for his efforts and would say that He is path finder for Modern Economics. Before Smith, Hobbes� Leviathan (1588-1679) was considered as some base for economics which explains power of common wealth. Again, I haven�t read any of them but I would surely believe that it is time to go back, go back and re-search our roots. If we have to go-back then why not start with well known Sanskrit devotional hymn �Shri Suktam� and understand ways towards happy life. Why not to understand true meaning of Goddess Lakshmi and bless our life with rich wealth?

Lakshmi in Sanskrit is derived from its elemental form “lakS,” meaning to perceive or observe.^[2] 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.

By singing �Shri Suktam� along with Vedic Learnings team, I am confident that this musical journey will surely help in exploring economics of life.

~ Nisarg Joshi

Followed to this article, we are committed explore more about economics, life and happiness! Stay Tuned!