When was lakshmi the goddess born

Beautiful goddess seated on a chariot, Delighted by songs on lustful elephants, Bedecked with lotuses, pearls and gems, Lustrous as fire, radiant as gold, Resplendent as the sun, calm as the moon, Mistress of cows and horses — Take away poverty and misfortune Bring joy, riches, harvest and children.

The world may have changed, but the thirst for material comfort continues to form the core of most human aspirations. The popularity of Lakshmi can be gauged by the fact that her sacred name—Shri. Shri is written atop most documents and spoken before addressing a god, a teacher, a holy man or any revered individual. The word evokes amongst other things: grace, affluence, abundance, auspiciousness, authority.

When the word is spoken or written, an aura of holiness is established. Whatever follows the word is imbued with divine blessing. The practice of personifying the beauty and bounty of earth as a goddess was prevalent in all ancient cultures. The Greeks had Core, the corn-goddess, who was known to Romans as Demeter. Shri-Lakshmi is the Hindu form of the timeless mother-goddess who nurtures and nourishes all life.

Buddhism and Jainism are primarily monastic orders that turned away from Vedic rituals and Brahmanical dogmas about 2, years ago. They, however, could not abandon this delightful goddess. In the Buddhist Jatakas, there are tales of men and women who request the goddess Lakshmi to drive away the goddess of misfortune, Kalakanni. Images of Kubera, the pot-bellied yaksha-king and treasurer of the gods, who is closely associated with Lakshmi, adorn most Buddhist shrines.

In holy Jain texts, it is said when an exalted soul like a Tirthankara is about to be born his mother dreams of many auspicious things, including the goddess Shri. Symbols of wealth and royal power commonly associated with Lakshmi are auspicious to both Buddhists and Jains. These include: the pot, a pile of gems, a throne, a flywhisk, a conch, a fish, a parasol, nagas , yakshas , a footstool, a horse, an elephant, a cow, and the wish-fulfilling tree. Shri-Lakshmi has a long history testified by the fact that her first hymn, the Shri Shukta , was added to the Rig Veda , the oldest and most revered of Hindu scriptures, somewhere between and BC.

Considering her popularity amongst Buddhists and Jains, it has been proposed that her worship may predate the Vedic culture and may have developed independently before she was brought into the Vedic, Buddhist and Jain folds.

Scholars are of the view that initially the words Shri and Lakshmi referred to anything that was auspicious or brought good luck or bestowed riches and power. Later the two words were personified into two goddesses who eventually merged. Thus, Shri-Lakshmi came into being. Fragmentary verses in the Shatapatha Brahmana, written not long after the Vedas, talks of the birth of Lakshmi from the mouth of Prajapati to provide the inhabitants of the cosmos food, clothing, shelter, and all things that make life more comfortable.

She also offered wisdom, strength, beauty, luck, sovereignty and splendour—the good things in life. Stories of Lakshmi first appeared in the epics Ramayana and Mahabharta , that were composed between BC and AD, a period that witnessed the waning popularity of Vedic gods and the rise of gods who offered moksha such as Shiva and Vishnu. Gods and demons fought over her and both strove to churn her out of the ocean of milk. As folk heroes such as Rama and Krishna were viewed as incarnations of Vishnu, their consorts Sita, Radha and Rukmini became increasingly identified with Lakshmi.

In the Harivamsa, appendix to the Mahabharata, Manmatha, the god of love, lust and fertility, was described as her son. The mythology of Lakshmi acquired full form in the Puranas , chronicles of gods, kings and sages that were compiled between and AD. In them, the goddess came to be projected as one of the three primary forms of the supreme mother-goddess, the other two being Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge, and Kali or Durga, the goddess of power.

Prithvi, the Vedic earth-goddess, became Bhoodevi in the Puranas and a manifestation of Lakshmi. The elephant takes the garland and throws it down on the earth. Sage Durvasa curses Lord Indra that his kingdom will also be ruined like he has thrown the garland onto the ground in his excessive pride since Lord Indra has not bowed in front of him. Sage Durvasa walks away and Indra returns to his capital Amravati.

With the Gods getting weak in Amravati, the demons invaded the Gods and defeated them. This is the reason the Gods and Demons reside in us and are representative of the good and evil within us.

After being defeated, the Gods went to Lord Vishnu who suggested the churning of the ocean to restore the power back to the Gods by providing them with the Amrit that would make them immortal. This is how the churning of the ocean began. The churning is symbolized by a literal tug of war between the Gods and Demons in the story. When the process of Churning began, the first thing to emerge from the sea-bed was Kamdhenu—the holy cow. The deities claimed the ownership of this divine cow.

Subsequently, Varuni intoxicating drink emerged from the sea-bed, which was claimed by the ignorant demons. During the process of ocean-churning, various kinds of things emerged out from the ocean—Parijat, sixty crore apsaras, the moon and Kalkut poison , which were distributed among the demons and the deities. Lord Mahadeva drank the Kalkut when he saw that there was no taker for it. The churning of ocean also resulted into the manifestation of ambrosia-pot, Uchchaishrava horse and Airavat elephant.

Ultimately, goddess Lakshmi manifested herself, seated on a lotus. The deities eulogised her by chanting the mantras of Sri Sukta. The deities were desirous of having goddess Lakshmi on their side, so were the demons, but Lord Brahma instructed Vishnu to accept her as his consort.