Roar Like a Goddess by Acharya Shunya

Author:Acharya Shunya [Shunya, Acharya]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SEL032000 SELF-HELP / Spiritual, SEL031000 SELF-HELP / Personal Growth / General, SEL000000 SELF-HELP / General
Publisher: Sounds True

Goddesses Lead Balanced Lives

With her four hands, Lakshmi is saying embrace all four goals, not just one or two. Work hard to be reasonably well off and start a family if that helps you feel more stable (artha); don’t forget romance and play—have fun whether you are a single or in a relationship (kama); make sure you don’t hurt yourself or anyone else on the planet in the process by remaining conscious and principled (dharma); and finally, don’t forget to ask the bigger non-worldly questions like Who are you deep inside you? and What is the relationship of your Self with the goddess? (moksha).

Cultivating a balance between stability-imparting activities, like a job and family (artha), pleasure-seeking ones (kama), value-expressing ones (dharma), and spiritual seeking (moksha) will ensure greater luck in everything you do. In fact, the word “Lakshmi” means “luck.” But this luck is activated by choosing to lead a balanced life. Don’t look down upon money, material comforts, cultivating relationships, and enjoying sex just because you are a spiritual person. Don’t neglect spirituality and dharma either, just because you like shopping and worldly comforts. Be a balanced person and make time for all four goals.

Only a balanced personality can hope to be lucky in any real sense. Otherwise, even if Lakshmi comes knocking at your door, your addictions to pleasure, your workaholism due to never having enough money—a state of mind more than the reality of your bank account—or even your false beliefs that somehow you must give it all away to be pious or be downright poor and self-denying to prove a spiritual point will block you from manifesting abundance.

Lakshmi’s divine animal is the owl. The owl signifies the patient striving to observe, deeply see, and discover the right path of dharma, particularly when surrounded by the darkness of hedonism and selfishness. It remains awake during nights but sleeps during the day. As a bird reputedly blinded by daylight, the owl serves as a symbolic reminder to refrain from blindly performing scripts handed down by a sleepwalking society.

Lakshmi’s owl shares an important quality with awakening souls. As the Bhagavad Gita affirms, the enlightened ones are awake metaphorically when others sleep, and they are asleep to the illusory enchantments of the world. When others are busy chasing illusions in broad daylight, the owl happily sleeps.

Like the ascetics, the owl prefers living in relative seclusion, as if purposefully detached, to listen to its inner voice rather than be caught up in mass mentality. Therefore, rather than mindlessly mimicking worldly activities and worldly roles, modern Lakshmis cultivate an authentic relationship with their inner Self. They lead an ultra-balanced way of life, by always pursuing the spiritual goals (dharma and moksha) along with the pursuit of wealth and pleasures (artha and kama) like everyone else. While Lakshmi represents wealth, abundance, relationships, and plenty, her divine animal the owl represents discernment and detachment.

When we are not balanced, we get in our own way. Then, no amount of lucky charms, mantras, or rituals will work because our inner goddesses will be buried under our own self-ignorance.

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