Hari Aum.
It is very hot in many places on the planet currently. In these circumstances, it feels natural in my view to turn to worshipping a cooling form of the Divine, namely Mother Lakshmi.
Since November 2011, I have been an enthusiastic worshipper of Narayana/ Krishna. After doing sadhana for some time, one's deep-seated karmas begin to emerge and this can feel quite taxing. I have had my share of dealing with various karmas, particularly in recent years. I am very much in the mood to seek refuge with Mother Lakshmi as a result.
My plan, therefore, is to spend this time between purascharanas on Lakshmi worship. In the past week, I have taken up regular recitation of one of Her mantras and am also doing some regular puja. I am listening much more to the Sri Suktam again, one of my favourite Vedic prayers.
I recently bought a copy of the Lakshmi Tantra, a very interesting book about Her worship using various mantras and meditative techniques (I plan to study this in the coming months). This book describes Brahman as equivalent to Lakshmi and Narayana. It describes the spiritual benefits of worshipping them together.
It also emphasises (as in the Puranas) that the higher Self of all beings is Lakshmi-Narayana (and, with regard to our physical manifestation on this planet, the Puranas say that every woman is a manifestation of Lakshmi, while every man is a manifestation of Narayana).
We are presently in the auspicious month of Purushottama or Adhik masa (that occurs once in three years as per the lunar calendar). This is a very good time to perform spiritual practices as the gates are wide open to receive divine blessings.
I am using this time to immerse myself in Lakshmi worship. From now until the end of Navaratri this year, I will focus on mantra, yantra and tantra related to Mother Lakshmi. (I continue to worship Narayana by repeating the ashtakshara daily-- however, as I am not currently doing any purascharana, I repeat one mala a day slowly without any pressure. This is proving to be a beneficial experience.)
I have not yet decided when to start the next purascharana. But I know only one thing-- it will happen after I have sufficiently soaked my mind in the worship of Lakshmi (potentially after Navaratri this year).
I feel happy and peaceful when I recite Her mantra, when I listen to the Sri Suktam and when I engage in Her worship. I want to give sufficient time to these practices for now. I feel that worshipping Lakshmi heals me, recharges my spiritual batteries and gives me the strength to continue sadhana of the ashtakshara.
My worship of Lakshmi is not rigid; there is no fixed sankalpa. It is spontaneous and free of any pressure-- after years of the discipline of purascharana, this flexible, spontaneous sadhana of the Divine Mother feels good to me.
I will conclude this post by sharing one of my current favourite online recitations of the Shri Suktam. This is slow and meditative with excellent pronunciation of the Vedic mantras (one can learn to chant along if desired):
Om Sri Lakshmi-Narayanabhyam Namah.
Om Namo Bhagavate Sivanandaya.
Hari Aum Tat Sat.
P.S. I recently met my spiritual mentor in person; this is the lady Swami whom I have known for over 20 years. I discussed with her the ups and downs of my sadhana, including the apparent presence of a twin soul in my life based upon certain events that have occurred in recent years (since late 2020). I explained to her the experiences that some others and I have had on this specific type of spiritual journey.
She is a traditional Swami who lives a life of detachment. Upon hearing about this unfamiliar subject, she was surprised and concerned (at one point, she urged me to cut the cord with my twin; however, I explained that this would not be at all helpful, and was also not possible).
I said that my intuition currently is to directly include the Divine in handling this energetic cord. My current feeling is that Lakshmi can be the partner of my twin (rather than me) and Krishna can be my partner (rather than my twin). In other words, I hand over my end of this energetic cord to Lakshmi for safe-keeping, and request Krishna to take over my twin's end of the cord with me. Instead of being connected with each other's lower selves, we will thus find ourselves connected to the higher aspect of each other.
This energetic cord is not easy for most twin souls to handle alone; actively requesting the Divine to intervene and take over would be the right way forward I feel. She agreed that this could be one way of managing this connection.
We will see where this leads us. I have no doubt that there will be ups and downs in this approach too-- however, I remain hopeful that, over time, this will bring a greater sense of wellbeing to myself and my twin. Any other twin souls reading this post, may also wish to explore this option. I feel intuitively that this could be very helpful on this type of spiritual journey.
Hari Aum Tat Sat.
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