14 November 2001, 12:16am IST
Pankaj Dixit.
Deepawali is an auspicious festival associated with prosperity and good fortune. according to hindu scriptures and treaties, prosperity is bestowed on those who seek the grace of goddess sri or lakshmi. the term sri , first used in the rig veda , signifies that which is beautiful, charming and graceful. the famous sri sukta of rig veda and saubhagya lakshmi upanishad provides us the details of the goddess sri and associates her with wealth and beauty. she is described as hiranyavarna , implying gold coloured, and hiranyam videyam , signifying beauty beyond compare and bedecked with silver and gold ornaments. in the taittirya upanishad , goddess sri is said to grant her worshipper gold, cattle, horses and food. in later vedic period, the term sri was fused with lakshmi and atharva veda refers to shat lakshmi or a hundred forms of the regal goddess lakshmi. in the pancharatra sect of vaishnava , sri is addressed as sridevi who massages vishnu’s feet, as he rests on his sesh, serpentine bed, in the kshir sagar or milky-ocean. by the gupta period sri became inseparably associated with lord vishnu in the form of his consort lakshmi after the churning of ocean, samudramanthan . how-ever, she never loses her distinct identity, as sri and sri vidya, the wisdom or knowledge goddess embodying auspiciousness, became a prominent cult of south india and kashmir. the principal deity of sri vidya is lalita tripursundari . the word lalita translates as infinite grace and charm and tripursundari signifies the beauty of the triple realm. goddess lalita is, therefore, grace and beauty personified. according to nasadiya sukta of the rig veda , during the creation of the universe everything was shrouded in total darkness and from that darkness originated the first sign of life in the form of light. hence upanishads repeatedly say tamso ma jyotirgamaya or let us move from darkness to light. this very basic vedic philosophy is projected in a practical form by illuminating our houses through the lightening of lamps on the deepawali night. the lamps themselves are called deepasri or deepalakshmi . the owl, vehicle of the goddess, which moves only in night, establishes the close affinity of night with goddess lakshmi. on the night of deepawali after illumination the next important act is the bursting of crackers, which suggests and symbolises sound. this act is paralleled in human consciousness with the cosmological event of creation, as the primordial illuminating light was followed by sound, vak or sabda . this sound is not merely one of the phonic emanations of the material world but a form of meta-language from which the whole of creation has evolved. this primordial emanation has symbolic identification with aum , the vedic pranav, sri vidya and the rig vedic gayatri . according to bhaskaracharya, the renowned sri vidya exponent, gayatri , the most holy passage of the scripture has two forms, one explicit or spastham, the other totally concealed and hidden is sri vidya. tripura upanishad clearly mentions that gayatri and each of the sri vidya’s three kutas or three separate portions is a microcosm of the esoteric gayatri . the spiritual and philosophical inter-relationship between sri vidya and gayatri is explained in tripurtarani upanishad . due to its seed-syllable structure sri vidya is the purest form of gayatri mantra . it is not praise or prayer to the god, it is god’s purest expression. it, therefore, confers unlimited material prosperity and spiritual bliss. therefore, the trader class symbolically write sri on their new account books and sages follow the same tradition on temple walls. women are considered to be the human form of goddess sri. the wife’s role in domestic and material prosperity is of prime importance in hindu religion and she is termed as grihalakshmi. as the spouse of lord vishnu, lakshmi becomes a model hindu wife — loyal, loving, caring and ever ready to fulfil her duties. deepawali is, therefore, celebrated as a festival of gayatri, sri and their beautiful human incarnate, the wife.
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