The Chandra (Moon) is considered an auspicious symbol in Hindu traditions as it symbolizes growth and manifestation, the different phases of the moon describe the phases of one’s growth and the process of one’s manifestation towards their desire.
Among the many celebrated festivities that are proclaimed in the Hindu scriptures, among the many, Sharad Purnima is considered to be an auspicious one. The name Sharad means Autumn and Purnima refers to full moon. It is said that one should look at the moon on this night as the moon shines with all its sixteen kalas signifying perfection and completeness.
Another reason why this day is such a fateful one is because it is also the birth-day of the Goddess of Lakshmi. What caused her birth is an interesting story that one should learn about. The story goes somewhat like this, once Sage Durvasa offers a garland of flowers to lord Indra, and he places that garland on the forehead of his elephant, Airavat. Airavat when bends down, the garland happens to fall on earth.
Seeing the garland fall away, Sage Durvasa feels humiliated and says that Indra has been inflated with ego and has not properly accepted the gift which was supposed to be a symbol of fortune. Indra not caring for the words decides to leave, it was then that Sage Durvasa curses Indra stating that, the downfall of his kingdom would now begin.
After Indra returns to his kingdom, Amaravati, he soon notices that the wealth and fortune of the kingdom have fallen and even vegetation is hard to maintain. All the gods slowly begin to lose their strength and powers, and with this, a war takes place between the gods and demons. As demons gain victory over the gods, they immediately run to lord Vishnu and plead for help.
Lord Vishnu suggests that both the demons and the gods should perform the churning of the ocean which will result in the making of amrutham. As both parties agree to it, the churning begins. The churning here symbolizes the literal tug of war between the gods and the demons, and the aim is to gain amrutham. In this churning, we see the rise of Goddess Lakshmi in a full-blown lotus. After her rise, she is to choose a side and she chooses lord Vishnu as her husband and thus, chooses the gods over demons which results in the gods gaining the amrutham which finally gives the gods the strength they had lost and they could again gain victory over the demons.
It is said that whoever looks at the moon and plays the game of ludo and loses would be blessed with Goddess Lakshmi’s blessing. Now what is the significance of playing the game and why should one focus on losing? Well, it is said that those who play the game of ludo and lose are the lucky ones. Why so?
There once lived a Brahmin, whose wife would always fight with her husband. One day, he decided to end his life by drowning himself in the Ganges, when he walked down the shore, a sanyasi (sage) looked at him and asked him what was troubling him so much? So the troubled Brahmin tells him his tale. After listening to the story, the sage says, that as your wife always does the opposite of what you say, you yourself say the opposite of what you want. If you are feeling hungry then tell her that you are not hungry and that you won’t eat, then she will do the opposite and give you food. The Brahmin does as he was told and this really helped him, and he felt very happy.
As the days passed by the Brahmin was quite happy with his life, it so happened that in a few days, it was his parent’s death anniversary and he was supposed to perform some ceremonious rituals. So he tells his wife that won’t do it and that even she won’t be able to do it. Listening to her husband say this, the wife scolds him and immediately starts the preparations for the rituals. As the whole day goes according to his plan, because of his excessive happiness he forgets the way to talk to his wife and says that he would take the ashes of his parents and submerge them in the Ganges. The wife, as always does the opposite, takes away the ashes from her husband and throws them away in their back garden.
Seeing this, the Brahmin loses his temper and he storms out of the house and goes back to the Ganges and takes shelter under a tree. At that moment he noticed that gods and Gandharvas were nearby and they decided to be awake the whole night and play the game of ludo as lord Vishnu and Goddess Lakshmi would go around the earth and would bless all those who would stay awake. The reason they chose to play ludo was because Goddess Lakshmi loved the sound of dice rolling. As there were only three gods they had asked the Brahmin to play with them. At first, the Brahmin denied it as he had nothing to keep at stake, so the gods told him that they would only give him some money, so he agreed to play with them. As they begin to play, the Brahmin begins to lose every game and thus loses all the money; then he keeps his clothes at stake and he loses them as well.
From above goddess Lakshmi was observing everything and had told lord Vishnu that she felt bad for him, thus she granted him her blessing, and with that blessing, he gained back everything that he had lost and also won the divine powers from the gods as well. At dawn, he goes back to his house, Upon seeing the Brahmin the wife immediately pleads for forgiveness and he tells her that now that he has enough money and that they can have a comfortable living. After some time, the gods ask him, to allow them to go back to their places, and he immediately agrees as he is content with what he had.
So with this, we see that on this day, whoever loses the game, is the one who had actually won the blessings of goddess Lakshmi. So we should all on this fateful day, take part in the Lakshmi Pooja, stay up all night play the game, and hope to attain Her blessings.
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