FREEDOM 1992
“Joy in the Heart”
XIII
The Worship of the Goddess–
The Path of the Divine Mother
The Corona of the Brilliant Sarasvati
and the Bountiful Lakshmi
And now some notes on the Divine Mother:
The Divine Mother in her manifestation as Sarasvati is the Shakti of Brahma. Brahma is known as the Creator in the Hindu Trinity. The Ascended Masters teach us that Brahma is parallel to God the Father in the Western Trinity. He is the Divine Lawgiver, the source of all knowledge. Together, Brahma and Sarasvati are the embodiment of cosmic force.
Sarasvati is known as the Goddess of the Word. She is identified with Vac, the Word. She represents eloquence and articulates the wisdom of the Law. She is the Mother/Teacher to those of us who love the Law, revealed by Brahma. And she is the power of volition, the will and motivation to be the Law in action. Sarasvati represents the union of power and intelligence from which organized creation arises.
In the book Symbolism in Hinduism, A. Parthasarathy notes that the name Sarasvati literally means “the one who gives the essence of our own Self.” Sarasvati is sometimes represented with four hands, sitting on a lotus. She holds the sacred scriptures in one hand and a lotus in another. With the remaining two hands, she plays the Indian lute (veena). <1>
Parthasarathy writes: “The Goddess, therefore, represents the ideal guru....‘Sitting on the lotus’ symbolises that the teacher is well established in the subjective experience of the Truth. ‘Holding the Scriptures in her hand’ indicates that she upholds that the knowledge of the Scriptures alone can take us to the Truth.” Parthasarathy says that Sarasvati’s playing of the lute suggests “that a truly qualified teacher tunes up the mind and intellect of the seeker and draws out of him the music and melody of life.” <2>
According to scholar David Frawley, in an esoteric sense Sarasvati “represents the stream of wisdom, the free flow of the knowledge of consciousness.” <3> She is called the Flowing One, the source of creation by the Word.
Sarasvati also represents purity and wears white. David Kinsley, Professor of Religious Studies at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, explains:
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| The predominant themes in Sarasvati’s appearance are purity and transcendence. She is almost always said to be pure white like snow, the moon, or the kunda flower....Her garments are said to be fiery in their purity.... Sarasvati’s transcendent nature...is also suggested in her vehicle, the swan. The swan is a symbol of spiritual transcendence and perfection in Hinduism....Sarasvati, astride her swan, suggests a dimension of human existence that rises above the physical, natural world. Her realm is one of beauty, perfection, and grace; it is a realm created by artistic inspiration, philosophic insight, and accumulated knowledge, which have enabled human beings to so refine their natural world that they have been able to transcend its limitations. Sarasvati astride her swan beckons human beings to continued cultural creation and civilized perfection....She not only underlies the world and is its creator but is the [very] means to transcend the world. <4> |
Sarasvati is associated with speech, poetry, music and culture and is known as the Goddess of Learning and the patroness of the arts and music. She is revered by both Hindus and Buddhists. To Buddhists she is the consort of Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom.
Buddhists appeal to Manjushri for intelligence, wisdom, mastery of the Teaching, the power of exposition, eloquence and memory. He works with Lord Maitreya. The two are sometimes depicted in a triad with Gautama Buddha in which Manjushri represents the wisdom aspect and Maitreya the compassion aspect of Buddhist teaching.
I am holding before you a very precious statue of Manjushri that I keep on the altar. You can feel his powerfully comforting presence as he places a focus of his light body over his likeness. In his right hand he wields a flaming sword of wisdom to vanquish all ignorance. His sword has been called a “sword of quick detachment” and the “symbol of enlightened will.” Like Sarasvati, Manjushri brings the gift of illumination.
In the earliest Hindu texts, the Vedas, Sarasvati is a river goddess. The Vedas say that Sarasvati was the greatest river in India. For years the Sarasvati was believed to have been a myth, but an archaeological survey in 1985 found an ancient riverbed that matched the description of the Sarasvati. It was a great river, four to six miles wide for much of its length. It flowed westward from the Himalayas into the sea. Frawley believes that the Sarasvati was the main site of habitation at the time the Vedas were composed thousands of years ago. <5>
Frawley says that the Sarasvati, “like the later Ganges, symbolizes the Sushumna, the river of spiritual knowledge, the current that flows [through the spinal canal] through the seven chakras of the subtle body. She is not only the Milky Way or river of Heaven, inwardly she is the river of true consciousness that flows into this world.” <6>
The Rigveda calls Sarasvati “the best mother, the best river, [and] the best Goddess.” It also says, “Sarasvati like a great ocean appears with her ray, she rules all inspirations.” <7>
Her sacred “seed syllable,” or bija, is Aim. A bija mantra encapsules the essence of a Cosmic Being, of a principle or a chakra. Sarasvati’s mantra is Om Aim Sarasvatye Namaha.
The Divine Mother in her manifestation as Lakshmi is the Shakti of Vishnu. Lakshmi is known as the Goddess of Fortune and Beauty. In earlier texts she is known as Sri, which means “splendor,” “beauty,” “prosperity,” “wealth.” Vishnu holds the office of Preserver in the Hindu Trinity. The Preserver is parallel to the principle of the Son in the Western Trinity. As the Son, Vishnu embodies Cosmic Christ wisdom. He is also the mediator, or bridge, between the human consciousness and Brahman, Absolute Reality.
According to the teachings of Hinduism, Vishnu was incarnated nine times, most notably as Rama and Krishna. Lakshmi took human form to serve as his consort in each of his incarnations. Lakshmi’s incarnations included: Sita, the faithful wife of Rama; the cow girl Radha, beloved of Krishna; and Rukmini, the princess whom Krishna later married.
As the Preserver, Vishnu preserves divine design conceived in Wisdom’s flame. He restores the universe by Wisdom’s all-healing Light. Lakshmi shares his role as Preserver. Her wisdom is revealed in blessings of prosperity and the precipitation of the abundant life. She bears the cornucopia of good fortune by “eye magic,” the eye magic of the All-Seeing Eye of her Beloved. She embodies divine compassion and intercedes on our behalf before her consort. She is the mediator of the Mediator!
Lakshmi is described as being “as radiant as gold” and “illustrious like the moon.” She is said to “shine like the sun” and “to be lustrous like fire.” <8> She teaches multiplicity and beauty and is called “She of the Hundred Thousands.” Whatever matrix is in her hand, whatever you hold in your heart, Lakshmi can multiply by the millions, for one idea can be reproduced infinitely. Lakshmi also teaches us mastery of karmic cycles on the Cosmic Clock.
At the beginning of the commercial year in India, Hindus give special prayers to Lakshmi to bring success in their endeavors. She is worshiped in every home on all important occasions.
But Lakshmi has a deeper, esoteric significance in that she is associated with immortality and the essence of life. In Hindu lore, she was created when the gods and demons churned a primordial ocean of milk. Their goal was to produce the elixir of immortality. Along with the elixir, they also produced the Goddess Lakshmi.
Lakshmi is seen as the one who personifies royal power and conveys it upon kings. She is often depicted with a lotus and an elephant. The lotus represents purity and spiritual power; the elephant, royal authority.
Kinsley says, “To be seated upon, or to be otherwise associated with, the lotus suggests that the being in question...has transcended the limitations of the finite world....She is associated not only with royal authority but with spiritual authority as well, and she therefore combines royal and priestly powers.” <9>
Remember the phrase in the Book of Revelation “kings and priests unto God.” <10> The mantle and the office of that kingship and that priesthood unto God are the bestowal that God would make upon all Lightbearers of the world. Such are the crowns and scepters that are there to be bestowed. It is as though your mantle and your royal or priestly robes (or both) were hanging on a hanger in a retreat, waiting to drop upon you when you fulfill your reason for being.
So know, O my beloved children, that it is the Divine Mother who will carefully take your robes from the hanger and put them on your shoulders when you will have proven without a shadow of a doubt that you are a trusted servant of the Light–trustworthy to the end. This is the ceremony of entitlement.
In ancient times Sri-Lakshmi was considered to be the source of the power of kings. Carl Olson writes: “The relationship of the goddess to the king is so intimate that she is described as residing in the sovereign....Thus Sri is the source of the king’s power. And she is very concerned about the exercise of royal virtues like truth, generosity, austerity, strength, and [the] dharma.” <11> The Mahabharata states that when one ancient king fell from power, “he lost his royal sri.” <12>
Kinsley points out that several Hindu myths tell of “[the god] Indra’s losing, acquiring, or being restored to Sri-Lakshmi’s presence.” He says, “In these myths, it is clear that what is lost, acquired, or restored in the person of Sri is royal authority and power.” <13>
Please note that I said in my lecture on Hinduism that Indra represents the Self. So, in the process of realizing your Real Self, if you depart from the ‘royal’ virtues, you may temporarily lose the sponsorship of the Divine Mother until you value your embodiment of those virtues more than you value your freedom to embody either vices or a vacuum.
Lakshmi is the one who anoints us with the Christ Light, the Light of Vishnu. This is the Light that makes every son of God royal, every son of God a king or a priest unto God. The office of king, remember, defines “the one who holds the key to the incarnation of God”–k-i-n-g. The office of priest defines “the one who holds the power of the Ra and the Rai and who incarnates the energy of the sacred Tau and Tao”–p-r-i-e-s-t. <14>
Lakshmi is often shown with an elephant on either side showering her with water from their trunks. Kinsley tells us that these images are “probably meant to portray the act of royal consecration.” <15> And I would say “the consecration of the mind,” because it is out of the memory of God that we are able to properly rule ourselves and all who may be with us or under us. The elephant-god Ganesha has the infinite memory of the Mind of God. Without that memory we cannot really progress on the Path.
Kinsley writes that this concept of royal consecration by elephants resonates with the Vedic royal consecration ceremony, “in which the king was consecrated by having auspicious waters poured over him.” <16>
Has anyone seen any auspicious waters these days? <*>
The Hindus believe that these auspicious waters bestowed authority and vigor on the king. So claim your authority and vigor when the rain rains upon your tent! Nothing happens by accident or without certain purpose.
The king can be seen as representing the Christed one who has gained enlightenment. Author Adrian Snodgrass interprets the sprinkling of water as a spiritual initiation of the soul in which one is “washed free of mortality.” <17>
So, we see the Goddess Lakshmi as an embodiment of the Divine Mother. We see her in her role as consort of Vishnu, the Second Person of the Trinity, as very much a part of the ceremony of the marriage of your soul to your Holy Christ Self. When you are wed and bonded to that Christ Self, that is when you become royal in the godly sense of the word. Each one of us can receive this “royal” initiation when we have earned the grace of the bountiful Lakshmi. Lakshmi restores us to our original estate of oneness with God.
In one Tantric text, Lakshmi says of herself: “Like the fat that keeps a lamp burning I lubricate the senses of living beings with my own sap of consciousness.” <18> Lakshmi bestows upon us the nectar of God consciousness when we gain her favor. Vishnu is the Christ Light and Lakshmi is the bestower of that Light. The riches she brings are spiritual riches and admission to the kingdom of heaven.
Lakshmi’s seed syllable, or bija, is Srim.Her mantra is Om Srim Lakshmye Namaha.
Messenger’s Invocation before the Lecture:
O sweet flame of Divine Love burning in our hearts, expand now and glow! Let the glow of Divine Love in our bodies and in our souls, O God, which you have placed there provide a new emanation of the aura of the Lightbearers of the earth. Let this Light accelerate by all of the Causal Bodies of all of the beings of Light who are one with us in this hour in the Divine Mother.
O thou greatness of Divine Love that we share, let the full power of the Godhead through the mighty Shakti so multiply and multiply and multiply again, O God, for the victory of every soul of Light on planet earth. Encircle them now! Lakshmi, Durga, Sarasvati, Kali, Parvati, come forth!
O mighty ones of God, O Divine Mother in concentration in manifestation throughout all cosmos, be one with your chelas in this hour! Be one with us. Oh, magnify the Lord as Mother within us! And let us mother all life, succor all life, O God, that they might be free, free from fear and want and doubt, free to stand with thee in the heart of creation.
O beloved Father, because thou art, so we have our Mother with us, as Above, so below. We are grateful, O God! Our gratitude overflows beyond this cosmos unto thy throne. Receive us now, O God.
CHANT THE BIJA MANTRAS TO THE FEMININE DEITIES
and the Bountiful Lakshmi” on July 2, 1992, prior to the dictations of Sarasvati and Lakshmi. It was the concluding section of her lecture “The Worship of the Goddess–The Path of the Divine Mother” and has been edited for publication. The lecture and dictations were part of the ten-day conference FREEDOM 1992: “Joy in the Heart” held at the Royal Teton Ranch, Park County, Montana.
7. Rigveda 2.41.16, 1.3.12, quoted in Frawley, Gods, Sages and Kings, pp. 70, 71.
9. Kinsley, The Goddesses’ Mirror, pp. 56-57.
12. Mahabharata 9.18.14, cited by Olson, “Sri Lakshmi and Radha,” p. 136.
13. Kinsley, The Goddesses’ Mirror, p. 58.
15. Kinsley, The Goddesses’ Mirror, p. 57.
16. Ibid.
18. Lakshmi-tantra 50.110, quoted in Kinsley, The Goddesses’ Mirror, p. 66.
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