LAXMI PUJA

Laxmi puja means a very special day chosen for worshipping Laxmi, the goddess of wealth. People save their earnings to spend lavishly for this day with firm belief that  wealth is the boon of goddess Laxmi. The more she is pleased, the more one may be able to amass wealth.. People also believe and say  ‘that work is worship’. That is why some say that Laxmi is Labour and Labour is Laxmi. Laxmi Puja is, therefore, an example of aspirations, commitments, dedication and hard  labour for various achievements and successes as well as to earn wealth for which they worship Laxmi symbolically. Laxmi is the escort of Lord Vishnu.

It is also believed that Laxmi was found by gods during the great churning of the ocean. It was a great adventure to churn the ocean which was so done in the days of yore for the benefit of all. It involved lots of energy of gods and demons for a long time. Each of them had to work very hard as a result of which they found tremendous amount of jewels, elixirs, and many other invaluable materials. Goddess Laxmi was one of the findings. They found her to be exquisitely beautiful, full of virtues and charm and with great power of bestowing wealth to her devotees. 

If one is lazy and does not show energy in works, Laxmi won’t enter his house even by mistake. So everybody in the households is advised to keep oneself busy doing something. This festival encourages cleanliness as well by instilling the belief in people’s mind that Laxmi won’t visit those places which are not cleaned properly.

Laxmi Puja is the one of the most important day during Deepawali festival which is also known as Tihar festival in Nepal. The following story may be interesting to justify background of the festival.