REASON FOR INSTITUTING MAHALAKSHMI TEMPLE
No two Gods are the same. No two functions of the Gods are the same. No two purposes of the forms of the Gods are the same. Every form of a God or a Goddess has its own purpose to fulfill. The purpose is ourselves. They are meant to bless us. We are not meant to be used by Gods. Gods are meant for our needs.
In the material existence there are negative and positive aspects. The negative aspect is not mere suffering or poverty. What deteriorates the quality of man is negative. What elevates a man is a progressive growth within, from darkness to light, ignorance to knowledge, from cruelty to kindness, from miserliness to charity. That is the direction In which we are slowly evolving in order to finally quit this (world) for ever. That is known as Moksha or Gnana. In that progressive path we have to be taken forward every day in every birth from good experience, bad experience, suffering or happiness. In this sense, Goddess Mahalakshmi is the positive side of material existence.
In fact, prosperity and wealth are to be taken with caution and with an analytical understanding leading to an inner enquiry ”why am I here? Why am I so happy? What is wrong with me? Why am I enjoying this wealth? Is it testing me or sinking me? Is it pulling me back from progress?” Every circumstance in human life is a lesson in the text book of life. When we seek any happiness here, the Aryan method of acquiring happiness and enjoyment of wealth is to seek it from the God Himself and not acquire it on his own prowess.
It has never been said that wealth and happiness are bad. You should take it in the sense that one should not run after them, but if you seek that material wealth and happiness from God, it will be given to you by a means that justifies your possessing it. The justification of wealth is in deserving it first and then utilizing it properly. First a man and woman marry; they would like to have a child. Every family in every corner of the world, have children. I do not know whether they are seeking them from the God-that is a different matter. But even after the birth of a child, are they going to God and acknowledging with gratitude?
This wisdom has dawned on humanity long ago. This is a part of the realization that there is a great force governing this world and we should be thankful. For example at dinner or lunch, people would pray to God thanking for the food. That is Christianity. It shows the realization by the human race that there is an Almighty whose gift it is to us. The gift of food is from Him. It is His charity. As a result, one comes out of an arrogance which makes him to think, “ I am responsible for this. I earned this. I am the maker of this empire” Ultimately it helps one to lose one’s own ego and arrogance because in arrogance one does not acknowledge anything. Arrogance is something where he does not acknowledge anything as a gift of someone. He thinks it is all his own earning, his own deserving. He takes away somebody’s kingdom and assumes that the other king does not deserve his kingdom and that he alone deserved that and he has acquired now. So in this manner he is committing a foolish act of getting more and more indebted to this world and also laying the foundation for his repeated rebirths here. Being born again and again is nothing but suffering and certainly not enjoyment. When a man is wealthy and very powerful, ruling the country, having lots of money, power, and while people are obedient to him, he is enjoying it. In fact a wise man is extremely cautious about this. He should search his soul and ask himself “Did I acquire all this, or has it come my way? If I acquired it what did I do to acquire this?” If one does not indulge in this type of analytical introspection he is going to commit more and more sin. His conscience certainly tells him “No! you are avaricious. You did adopt an unfair means to acquire this wealth. So your assumption is that those people from whom you have acquired this do not deserve what they have and you deserved what they had. It is your ignorance.” This message from the conscience is available to one and all. It tells “You have not earned but you have taken it from them.” So that spells a fall and ruin for the future. In that sense what he is enjoying is his own future ruin.
Therefore a man has to have constant awareness that there is God and one’s stay on this earth is a few minutes in His time scale. A few seconds of the God’s, means a few decades for man. So the Gods are already seeing my future and my non-existence on this earth. What they see is the Truth. What I do not see is Truth. What I see is untruth. This awareness is wisdom. We can enjoy everything. There is nothing wrong. It is not a sin to enjoy life provided you have this kind of awareness and also listen to the inner voice that is telling you the truth.
There are two voices inside man. The outer voice is interested in and supports the material existence he would like to have. Behind that, deeper than that, is another inner voice which does not approve all actions. It audits, it inspects, it analyses, it condemns and it gives ;you the ultimate message. That inner message is a deeper message, is the voice which is not yours; otherwise it would have supported you. If it is your own voice, it would have supported you. A voice from within yourself, which is not supporting you, which is not approving your own actions and your judgment, is certainly not from you. How can there be a voice which is not yours but is within you? Yes! That is the all pervasive Almighty, the governor of this Universe, the giver and the taker, the protector and the punisher. That is a real wonder, the voice within you.
So we have to consult that voice inside. He is your well wisher. He is not prepared to support all that you do. He is not there to give a stamp of approval to what ever you do. In ordinary language it is called the conscience and a philosophical description of it is the inner voice. Conscience is inner voice. The origin of that inner voice is the presence of God which is not a lifeless, solid, static thing. It is a dynamic, wise, intelligent, correct way, capable of judging everything, capable of understanding your past, present, and your future. It is the Master. People realized this long ago, more than ten thousand years ago. The original discovery was about the existence of God. The religions and methodologies are man made. All the religions are man made, but the greater discovery is that there is a God who is present in you. Therefore, to search for Him from outside is not very wise.
In such a context, questions like what is Hinduism, what is idol worship will arise. It is nothing but an external application of the inner realization of certain men. They realized that the God as the Mother who is the giver of all that we ask for, has a form and name. It can be approached externally because all men are not capable of addressing the inner Truth.
They are not capable of traveling inward. We can physically travel10,000 miles in 10 hours, but internal travel is not that easy. Therefore they have said “There is a temple a thousand miles away, you go there,” because you are not capable of going inside of yourself. When a person makes an effort to go to that Goddess somewhere, he finds a relief. The very act of leaving home and office and going far away, on pilgrimage, releases man from the constant demands, whether domestic or professional, and gives him relief. For a while, he is on a holiday from home and office.
Why would the Christian go to a church? Why not pray to Jesus inside the house? He has to go out of his house. That is the urge probably. Why should the Muslim go all the way to Mecca . Allah is there, Allah is here also. He is aware of it. Not that he is not aware. He has to make a pilgrimage to Mecca , once in his life time and he is a Haji. He calls himself Haji. Hindu has to go to Kaasi. Fortunately Hindus have 1000 Meccas. They(Muslims) have only one Mecca . Christian tries to go to Jerusalem , only one place. We have, say 200 Hindu Jerusalems inside Andhra Pradesh.
That is why we invite the Goddess to be physically present in a posture and location so that we look at Her and see Her in a beautiful form. The left palm is pointing down. It gives , it is Varada Mudra. It is the boon giver. The right palm is raised up meaning ‘No fear to you. I will protect you.’ This is called Abhaya Mudra. It is guaranteeing fearlessness and protection. So these two are necessary. That is what we want. Both aspects are already existing in the world. Placing the Goddess in a room, with a name and a form as above, we then address Her by so many epithets like “you are Prakrithi, you are Vikrithi, you are Mother, you are the maker, you are the giver, you are the punisher”. There a man finds great relief, a man finds a freedom from himself.
Behind this, there is another and more secret aspect. There is a Mantra, there is a Tantra, there is a chant, a Technology. A great secret theory is behind this technology and that secret holds all the power, that is manifesting at the temple, manifesting as the giver, manifesting as the protector of those who seek it. That secret power is in the core of the Mantra. So it is not just human imagination or a materialistic culture. No! There is a secret in it also. It is known as the Mantra. “Mana naat traa yatheethi Mantra”. Go on chanting the Mantra, it will protect you. That is the secret of a few letters. Letters are permanent . What we utter is not permanent. Letter is there in the Nature, like A, B, C, D,…They are there in the air. Our pronunciation, our utterance is short lived. The letter is not dead. Letter is of all time and is all-time truth. Our utterance is short. Therefore what is permanently existing all over the Nature, , we repeatedly utter that to realize its permanence. Its permanence is realized by us by constantly, repeatedly uttering it a thousand times every day. One day in your subconscious or conscious level you will understand how this exists all over and this is what I have been chanting about. It is there! It is the giver, it is the protector, it can take care of us. So that is the Mantra. They call it Saadhana.
Providing a temple for Mahalakshmi is with a purpose. The poor man wants two square meals a day and a shelter. The rich man wants to become richer. The politician can come and pray “Mother! I want to be the Chief Minister”, She does not ask ‘Why?’. She grants your desire on your own responsibility. “You do what you like with it and face the consequences. You asked for it, you take it.” But there is another wiser man who goes to Mother asking “I may ask you many things. You treat me like my mother who never gave me what I demanded in my childhood. She decided what I should have and what I should not have. You take a decision about my desires and give only what is good for me. So be my Mother for ever. I am ignorant .I will keep on asking you. This discipline is called surrender. Suppose you do not get what you ask for, it is her – the Mother’s decision. Good for you! If you get it, it is Mother’s decision. Several categories are there among people offering prayers and asking for boons.
So people asking me, another human being, for this and that can go and ask the Mother, where I also go, and my job is done. They do not have to meet me for all sorts of things. Here it is! You may ask me “ Are there no temples all over India (for this)?” Yes! There are temples. This temple is my contribution. People have been approaching me for this or that. I am surrendering them to the Mother. It is my Mother for my own people and then Mother for anyone. So all the prayers are placed before her. Thousands of people from several decades entrusted to the feet of the Mother. So this is a kind of transfer of power, to grant or not to grant. That Mother will never grow old. It will not become sick and does not need doctors. Doctors need her.
Is my program understood? In reply to the question why am I instituting this temple, I am to say that the large extended family that I have around me, that family has a future, because generations are coming up. My large extended family is going to perpetuate. Who knows, may be for ten decades or more? So I surrender all the welfare of my extended family at the feet of the Mother and then she is available to one and all, not only to my family.