In the ancient Vedic hymns, the term shrī suggests beauty, luster, power, glory, riches, fertility, abundance, advantageous skills, and high rank. The term is especially used in later Vedic literature to refer to the wealth, ruling power, and majesty of kings (Kinsley, Hindu Goddesses 19). Shrī is the splendor that gives a king magnificence and authority to rule.

The personified form of Shrī, Lakshmī, is described and worshiped in the Shrī Shukta, a supplement to the Rig Veda (the earliest Indian literature). In that hymn, Shrī Lakshmī is associated with symbols of prosperity. She represents agricultural abundance. As an “earth-bound” goddess she is united with the “sky-god” Vishnu for creative power and the sustaining balance of the universe. In some texts, Lakshmi is the consort of Indra (the king of the gods) (Kinsley, Hindu 23). At other times she brings ruling power to demons, such as the demon King, Bali, who is both victorious and virtuous under her influence (23-25). When she moves from one ruler to another, she brings righteousness and fertility with her to the next kingdom.

By the Gupta period (300-700 CE), when the Vedic and folk goddesses become full-fledged Puranic (mythic) images, Lakshmī finally settles down as the consistent and faithful consort of Vishnu (the deity of sustenance and fruition). In the Bhāgavata Purāna and Kūrma Purāna for instance, Mahālaksmī (great Lakshmī) is equated with Vishnu’s supreme shakti (power).

In the “Devī Māhātmya,” an epic poem within the Markandeya Purāna Lakshmi is honored as the ultimate creative power. She is also recognized as the supreme universal grace in the Lakshmī Tantra (the main text of the Pāncharātra school of Vaishnavism), 

Meditating on the principles of beauty and abundance, you can become awakened to new layers of gratitude and realize the sacredness of life. You are invited to care for your Self with nourishing and nurturing practices. You are invited to attune with Nature's rhythms and honor the divinity within this earthly experience. You may create of your life a masterpiece of sensation, relationship, and joy.

Learning to LOVE your life unconditionally—is an ongoing process. Use the following soul questions and action steps to cultivate the archetypal qualities of Lakshmi in your real-world, human experience.  

Lakshmi's Bija Mantra is Shrīm.
"Just as "Om" is the mantra for spiritual liberation, "shreem" is the mantra for material well-being."
–Sreedevi Bringi

*Chant the mantra: Om Shrīm Mahalakshmiyei Namaha to invoke the generous compassion, unlimited abundance, and creative powers of Srī Lakshmi.

May you realize the glorious beauty and sacred sweetness of this human experience and delight in every single moment with creative freedom.

lakshmi. abundance. ritual. ​
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Love.  Shadow.  Spiritual bypassing.  ​

And I started the season with eyes wide open, asking: "What don't I know?" Because everyone has their own, unique, singular, individual, perspective and experience. White people, black people, red people, blue people...and every other color people; we all want to be heard and understood. We all want be seen for who we are.

But who are we? ​

I keep spiraling forward through the conversations (the many many convos about race, class, yoga, life and death, spiritual bypassing and shadow work) to find myself standing squarely back where I started: on the basis of LOVE. 

This is not a Hollywood love–not a transactional, conditional, superficial or perverted kind of love. This is universal LOVE–a LOVE beyond all opposites. It is a LOVE that has nothing to do with "Spiritual Bypassing" because this LOVE includes the truth of the experience. It isn't trying to deny the wound or skip over the healing process. This LOVE fully recognizes the life and the death of it, the "pile of sh*t of it" ...the "hard" and the "not easy "of it. It includes your pain, your fear, your own unique manure of it.
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This LOVE wants to know you, hear you, see you. It want to live as you–to be you. 

I believe–like really, truly know in my guts: This LOVE IS WHO WE ARE. 
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And I also believe (more like hope, pray, cross my fingers, and imagine) that LOVE will move us forward in systemic healing, active peace and unified individuality ...without skipping over the pile of fertilizer that lays in our path. Keep Going. 


Growing Forward. Not skipping ahead. 

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