Lakshmi

Lakshmi is the most popularly worshipped goddess in the Hindu
tradition - and also the most frequently misunderstood.

The misunderstanding is this: people treat her as the goddess of
money. They put her image near the cash register. They pray to
her for promotions, profits, successful investments. She is
depicted standing on a lotus, coins flowing from her hands, and
this is read as a straightforward visual statement.

But the tradition is more precise than this. The Sanskrit word
Lakshmi derives from laksha - a target, an aim, a mark. She
is the goddess of the thing you are actually aiming at when
you think you want money. Prosperity in its fullest sense:
a good harvest, a healthy family, a home that functions,
work that means something. The coins flowing from her hands
do not represent wealth accumulation. They represent the
constant outward flow of abundance - she gives, and in giving
she is inexhaustible.

She does not stay where she is not welcome

The tradition teaches that Lakshmi is repelled by dirt,
by laziness, by ingratitude, by arrogance, and by the company
of people who take things for granted. She visits clean houses.
She favours the industrious and the grateful. She is associated
with the lotus, which grows in muddy water but remains
untouched by it - pointing at something about maintaining
dignity in difficult conditions.

Her relationship with Vishnu

Lakshmi is Vishnu's consort. He preserves the universe; she
is the grace that makes preservation possible. Where Vishnu
descends as an avatar, Lakshmi follows - she is Sita when
he is Rama, Radha when he is Krishna. She is not just his
companion. She is the abundance that his presence generates.

Diwali

On Diwali night, the tradition says Lakshmi travels from house
to house. The lights are lit to guide her in - and also to
show her that the household is awake, expecting her, ready to
receive what she brings. The lights are, in this reading,
an act of radical hospitality.