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EPILOGUE The Goddess Returns Home Invoking Lakshmi begins with the circumstances of a ceremony inviting the goddess to visit our human realm. Throughout this book we have considered how she is invoked and how she makes herself manifest. We have seen a fluidity in her manifestations: She fills the form that we provide for her through our capacities for perception. In the undifferentiated state of her source-essence, she has no form, for there is no form to be had—she is expansiveness itself. Is this not the very definition of abundance, of resplendence, of Ír¥? We have considered just a few of the infinite ways that the goddess presents herself; all of these are expressions of the vessels we have created for her to fill. Of course, in the highest sense, the goddess, as creator and mother of all, has provided the substance for even our own imaginations. As humans dwelling in the differentiated state of a time-space continuum, we construct vessels that fit the size of our own expectations and abilities to greet the goddess. How we invoke her, whether she arrives, and what we do to maintain our relationship with her all play a part in the continuous journey of spiritual exploration . What begins as a prayer for one type of wealth might evolve into yet another level of expanded awareness of the magnificent gifts that the goddess of prosperity is ready to bestow. As we consider the ever-changing nature of Lak∑m¥ and our abilities to perceive her on our terms and in our territories, we can’t help but wonder: What are the goddess’s terms and territories? We are reminded of a question posed at the beginning of this book: If the goddess has arrived, then where has she come from? In the Farewell (Namaskåra) section at the conclusion of the Lakƒm¥ P¶jå, the goddess is seen off, to return “home.” From our vantage point in our world, we don’t really know what that is, other than to envision it, somehow, as an undifferentiated state of pure, unlimited consciousness. However, the songs throughout this volume indicate 203 204 INVOKING LAKSHMI that the goddess has quite a few other “homes.” There is more to the picture than her simply moving from a primordial state of pure expansiveness into the limited arena of name-and-form (nåma-r¶pa) that characterizes our worldly constructions of reality. We learn that the goddess inhabits each of the eleven cosmic directions—the eight cardinal directions on the earth plane, plus the central point, and then the various levels stretching “above” into the heavenly realms and “below” into the strata of the netherworlds. When she is not “here,” she might be in the heavenly abode of Vaikuˆ†ha, where she dwells with Vi∑ˆu in his form as Nåråyaˆa, or she could be in the paradisiacal Cow Realm (Goloka), where she dwells with Vi∑ˆu in his form as K®∑ˆa. So too may she be found on one of her sacred islands within the cosmic Ocean of Milk, such as the White Island (Ívetadv¥pa) or the Island of Gems (Maˆidv¥pa). Even in Påtåla, the lowest level of the netherworlds, whose murky waters are home to poisonous snakes, Lak∑m¥ reigns as beneficent queen. All of the realms that Lak∑m¥ inhabits exceed the time-space matrix of our ordinary conceptual capacities. They may be visited, however, by those who can meet the specific dimensions of the consciousness prevalent in those realms. This is why the poets beseech the goddess to bring their own consciousness into resonance with hers. How amazing to bask in the exquisite presence of the goddess, having convinced her to arrive. How much more amazing might it be to follow her home, to experience the splendors of Vaikuˆ†ha or Maˆidv¥pa or Ívetadv¥pa. Simply to experience the states of conscious that one would have to develop in order to prepare for such journeys would constitute a spiritual transformation of its own. From that state, the entire universe would call to us. Even the serpent-beings who dwell in Påtåla at the very root of the body of the universe might entice us to wonder: Are these not primordial forms of the Kuˆ∂alin¥ that dwells at the very root of our own human body? As the Tantric sources suggest, the realms...

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