A while ago, there was a time when I had gotten as far as I conventionally could in my spiritual quest - filled with extreme passion for great deeds, yet sorely without a purpose. While researching a rather shrouded aspect of transcendence in a bid to cross the threshold, I bumped into clues that were capable of constituting something entirely different - a Lakshmi sadhana.
Beyond class and creed, known to illiterates and scholars alike, the one thing that truly unites the world is money. It influences even those who claim to have forsaken it. Everyone craves money, everyone bows to the undeniable might of money and everyone, knowingly or unknowingly, in one way or another, worships goddess Lakshmi - the goddess of wealth and prosperity.
The information that I was deciphering came from another era when men were not made of ash, worthless even to the funeral pyre, and their lives were not driven by hollow pursuit of selfish desires. Although not unheard-of, I found what made sense even in the current times; authored by a visionary capable of predicting the world well beyond his own time.
More like guiding principles with an intentional dose of discrepancies, the clues pointed towards a vast array of possible interpretations. Praising the virtues of goddess Lakshmi, they described various pits one falls into without the nourishment of her blessings. They also talked about how the goddess playfully lures her devotees towards the trap of over-indulgence, a test virtually everyone fails and how the society, close relatives in particular, jealous of everything, induces one's downfall and untimely demise.
There are things meant to be understood and then, there are things meant to take one's understanding for a spin. So, seeking the former and dodging the later, I spent a few weeks contemplating to align my perspective with that of the author. Brewing the clues into workable ideas, I applied them to the tantric template. I used elements from various traditional methods and completed my divine passage through the barrier right to the doorstep of goddess Lakshmi.
Dear mother! Better start preparations for that feast. I'll be there momentarily.
I am a dreamer. No matter how wild my dreams are, they are always governed by flawless logic with priority to well-planned hard work. I am well aware of the fact that sadhanas don't make things pop out of thin air. They create a favorable environment for me to take the appropriate action and gain significantly more than I normally would. Hence, I started working on a difficult project with literally no possibility of triumph without divine intervention.
The greater the change I wish to create, the stronger I need to be. Obviously, it had to begin with me.
The ritual was tranquil. It helped contain my mind's unruly nature. The vibrations of the mantra introduced a destabilizing fervor into the calm of the meditation and initiated the churning of the ocean of possibilities. A ghee lamp facilitated the tapping of its potential while an unbroken line of mantra infused vermillion paste prevented the energy from straying away. The more I harnessed it, the more it incited my natural rebellious tendencies. With my courtship with the stillness born joy rapidly becoming a thing of the past and the constraint becoming too feeble to be of consequence, I instinctively propelled myself towards the barrier. I intended to ram it out of existence.
I was not supposed to survive a strike of lightning; or anything that closely resembles it. My whole life was flashing in front of my eyes. I thought, I was dead. Then, when it reached that point in time and started again, I realized that I was very much alive getting bored watching certain events from my past - again and again. After several attempts, when I finally broke free, I was left with a very unpleasant, sort of nauseating feeling that lasted for hours and increased exponentially with each iteration of the ritual.
Whenever there is discomfort, there has to be something in a dire need of correction. Focus on the discomfort and it will go off the scale. Focus on the required correction and the mind will be pulled towards the resolution.
With every cell of my body coercing me into stopping, I continued believing that the more hardships I’d endure, the stronger I’d become. And stronger I became once I learned the art of gaining strength from that which weakens. With bodily discomfort nudged out of the equation, I shifted my focus to what I was being shown. My mistakes and my potentials that I had overlooked were flooding my vision.
The introspective first step of my Lakshmi sadhana made me realize the need to learn from my past. Once I did, something deep within me flooded me with happiness.
Considering a friend a foe is a sore mistake, but considering an enemy a well-wisher is outrightly suicidal. The more influential I become, the more counter-productive ire of the jealous and the weak I draw. Intensifying exponentially, it can reach well inside the metaphysical and make me lose a substantial amount of energy.
The three states of consciousness - conscious, sub-conscious and hyper-conscious - are the basis for the primary constituents of any ritual. Hence, a triangular formation was the logical choice. A beautiful idol of goddess Lakshmi behind a bright, unwavering ghee lamp would condition my waking mind. Quasi-real symbols, representing what the idol and the lamp represented, would steer me clear of the evils of the sub-conscious. I left the third vertex empty because nothing worldly can represent the hyper-conscious me. When I navigate through the hurdles of the three to reach the Turiya, I attain my goal. Therefore, I positioned myself at the center concentrating my focus on the setup fortified by a red perimeter.
I blended with the mundane to look through it. The knowledge I imbibed, sailing through the fairly complicated ritual, facilitated better management of my trust. While in trance, I excelled at the craft of becoming ghostlier than things surreptitiously latched onto me and sucking me dry. The hyper-conscious expanded me beyond possibilities.
The expansive second step inversed everything meant to harm me effectively transforming bane into boon. It also greatly enhanced my happiness.
The universe contains unfathomable amount of energy and tantra is a potent medium for harnessing and converting it into virtually any kind possible. Still, the inadequacy of a lifespan wouldn't go unnoticed if I were to embark on a world changing spree the way I changed my direct interactions. Once again, my quest led me to myself.
The next ritual began with five iron nails - sturdy, sharp and brand new. Inciting their perpetuality was easier than hammering them into five ritually reinforced wooden pegs. As darkness engulfed that wet riverbank, I drove those wooden pegs into the ground at locations strategic important to amplify the waves that would emanate from the fire pit - dug deep and layered with consecrated pebbles.
The fire sacrifice, skillfully woven with everything else into the mutating third step, augmented my sphere of influence amply to strip away any adverse effect of everything that passed through.
An exhilarating sense of joy was the best indicator of my accomplishment.
The elaborate, lengthy and seemingly impossible fourth step was a grueling test of my ability to realize. I already had what I sought, wrapped in layers of paradoxes. All I needed to do was to be diligent, perform each arduous step meticulously, avoid getting stuck into ironies and remember that those who rely on shortcuts usually end up finding one to their own destruction. Since I've always been too proud to accept any allowances and believed in proving my mettle even in the bleakest of times, I was already in the good books of the goddess.
For a picture perfect finale, I sought the strength of the six elements. My confidence, soaked into a generous quantity of enthusiasm and dashed with a hint of arrogance, enabled its attainment. The vibrations of the mantras bounced off the four distinct markers on Earth towards the six vessels containing the vermillion water of desire. The concoction, excited by the determined fire menacing inside a blue decagonal fire pit, rose with the passionate twelve airs and engulfed the void where all streams of time converge and annihilate each other. When the sixth element absorbed the energy born from the destruction of the other five, goddess Lakshmi appeared. Seated on a violet lotus with one thousand petals, shining, smiling, she showered me with the nectar of her blessings of completeness and joy.
Despite all setbacks, I waded through the moments of hopelessness and continued working on my project. Almost an year after the completion of my Lakshmi sadhana, it succeeded and earned me more than seven times the originally anticipated profit.
The blessing of goddess Lakshmi allows me to work at leisurely pace, turn my hobbies into profession and still measure up sizably on the monetary gauge.
I have allowed myself to be encaged in this perishable body to savor all flavors life can offer - pleasant, repulsive or otherwise. The blessing of the divine knowledge certainly makes things more palatable. Money is an insignificant part of the grand puzzle and I can not allow it to overwhelm the experience.
