{"id":21,"date":"2009-11-19T14:30:13","date_gmt":"2009-11-19T14:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/omsweetom\/2009\/11\/reuniting-rama-and-laksmi.html"},"modified":"2009-11-19T14:30:13","modified_gmt":"2009-11-19T14:30:13","slug":"reuniting-rama-and-laksmi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2009\/11\/reuniting-rama-and-laksmi.html","title":{"rendered":"Reuniting Rama and Laksmi"},"content":{"rendered":"
Reuniting Rama and Laksmi:<\/b>
What can two Diwali narratives tell us about living our lives today?
<\/i><\/div>\n

\"Maha_Lakshmi_Devi.jpg\"<\/a><\/span>
When I was a child, every Diwali night before going to bed, our family did something which I thought was extraordinary. We unlocked and slightly opened the doors to our home. (That may not seem so extraordinary to some of you, but growing up in New York City it was!)  The reason, I was told, was that so on this night, Laksmi the goddess of fortune could freely enter and bless our home with prosperity. In my childish way, I imagined Laksmi to be something like a more selfless version of the tooth fairy… leaving coins for us on the altar.<\/p>\n

As I grew into an adult and embraced the path of Bhakti, Diwali became more focused on the narrative of Lord Ramachandra – the Divine in the form of an exemplary king – returning home to His kingdom of Ayodhya.<\/p>\n

\"ram.jpg\"<\/a><\/span>
This evening’s celebration focuses on these two personalities, Laksmi and Rama. I’d like to invite you to reflect on the deep and esoteric connection between these two aspects of Diwali this evening.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n


\nThe basic story of Lord Ramachanrda, which is known as the Ramayana, is
\nthat Rama’s beloved wife, Sita Devi, was kidnapped by the demon king
\nRavana. Rama valiantly rescues her, liberates the people from Ravana’s
\ndemoniac rule, and returns home to Ayodhya, where the citizens have lit
\nthe city with candles in celebration of His return. And while there is
\na historical significance to these events, there is also rich symbolic
\nmeaning. Who is Rama? Rama is the supreme embodiment of dharma,
\nspirituality, righteousness, our very essence. Who is Sita? Sita is the
\nsame Laksmi Devi we celebrate as the goddess of all fortune, all
\nauspiciousness.  And who is Ravana? Ravana – his name means “he who
\ndelights in making others cry” – is the personification of the bases
\ninstincts – lust, wrath, envy, greed. He is the personification of
\nexploiting others. The Ramayana is the story of how Ravana wanted to
\nenjoy Sita, wanted to enjoy the wealth and prosperity and fortune,
\nwithout Sri Rama.  And the whole Ramayana is about the epic quest to
\nreunite Rama and Sita, to have fortune and dharma side by side once
\nagain. If we look at all of the other characters in the story, they are
\nall either trying to help Rama reunite with Sita, or keep them apart. <\/p>\n

What might this tell us? What might it mean to us in the age of Wall
\nStreet greed and Bernie Madoff, and an economy in which many of us are
\nstruggling to catch even a fleeting glimpse of Laksmi?<\/p>\n

Well, maybe it can remind us that while its easy to point the finger at
\nthe Ravanas on Wall Street, maybe there are a few Ravanas on main
\nstreet too. Maybe there is a Ravana within each of our hearts that sees
\nan opportunity to capture Laksmi – prosperity and fortune – even at the
\nexpense of exploiting, cheating, or hurting others. <\/p>\n

This evening, in honor of Diwali, we can choose an alternative. We can
\nchoose to commit our lives to reuniting Rama and Sita, to seeing
\nprosperity and fortune in their relation to Dharma. If we are
\nstruggling, we can take that struggle as an opportunity  to re-valuate
\nour priorities, to discover the real wealth is not in possessions or
\ncurrency, but in our relationship with God and our relationship with
\nHis creation. If we have been blessed with wealth or resources, we can
\n– we must – see it as a gift from the Divine, to be used responsibly
\nand in the service of God and one another. Rather than to exploit, we
\ncan choose to serve. <\/p>\n

To the extent that we fail to do that, Laksmi Devi remains like my
\nchildish conception–a tooth fairy like character to beg some coins
\nfrom. To the extent that we can sincerely try to do it, however, to
\nthat extent Laksmi Devi runs into our home and resides there happily.<\/p>\n

Today is also a very special day for me, because it is the anniversary
\nof the day that my parama<\/i> guru, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, left this world. In
\nthe Hindu tradition the passing of a great saint is regarded as equally
\nauspicious as his or her  birth – for in either instance, it is a
\ncelebration of a life of service and unconditional love. Prabhupada,
\nand others like him – some famous, some practically unknown – show us
\nthat to live a life dedicated to serving others, to reuniting Rama and
\nSita, is actually possible.<\/p>\n

Thank you very much.<\/p>\n

(Originally delivered as an address at Princeton University’s Diwali at the Chapel<\/a> event, November 14, 2009)<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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He is a Hindu Chaplain and the Coordinator for Hindu Life at Princeton University, and serves as the North American Director of Communications for the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), a worldwide organization representing the Vaishnava Hindu tradition. In previous incarnations, Vineet has been a New York City prosecutor, a cable TV show host, and a hospital chaplain. In his free time, he enjoys relaxing with his wife and his new baby, attending classes at The Bhakti Center, and teaching himself photography. As a second-generation, Indian-American, Vaishnava-Hindu, Vineet ponders new ways of further hyphenating his identity.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/author\/vchander"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/207"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}