A line comes in the middle while singing the aarti of Lord Vishnu..
You are the ocean of compassion, you are the nurturer,
I am a foolish fruit lover, please give me your blessings.
There are two words in these two lines which are very special, the first is Palan Karta, i.e. the one who nurtures and Bharta, i.e. the one who maintains.
Similarly, there is a line in the Aarti of Goddess Lakshmi…
Without you the Yagya would not have happened, no one would have got the clothes.
The splendor of food and drink, all comes from you.
Om Jai Lakshmi Mata॥
It means to say that Lord Vishnu is the deity and authority of all the glory, opulence, prosperity and even general upkeep in this world. That is why Lord Vishnu is called the maintainer and Jagdishwar, but it is not easy for Lord Vishnu to do this work of maintenance alone. Goddess Lakshmi helps him in this, because whatever Lord Vishnu is doing, he is doing it only by the grace of Goddess Lakshmi. They have Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, and that is why both of them are able to nurture the world.
There is a story told in Bhagwat about how Goddess Lakshmi is the goddess of wealth and good fortune. The meaning of the story is that ‘the whole world is the child of Jagdishwar Lord Vishnu. Lord Vishnu does not take food until every living being in the world gets something, and if Lord Vishnu has eaten, it means that the entire world has eaten.
Goddess Lakshmi tested Lord Vishnu
Once Goddess Lakshmi expressed doubt about this in Vaikuntha. He asked, ‘Lord, is it true that you know when all living beings have finished eating?’ Lord Vishnu laughingly said, Goddess, it is your job to give wealth and grains to the world, so how can I doubt any of your work. I assume that you are taking good care of the whole world.
He said that I do not know who has eaten and who has not, the real thing in my understanding is that you do not serve me food without feeding your children. Hearing this, Goddess Lakshmi wanted to test Lord Vishnu.
When Lakshmiji stopped the ant
The next day he locked an ant in a box. The day passed, the whole world had food, then Goddess Lakshmi served the plate to Lord Vishnu. As soon as the food appeared, Lord Vishnu started enjoying different dishes. Goddess Lakshmi said- Has the whole world eaten, Lord? Lord Vishnu said – ‘Yes Devi, I told you that you do not feed me without feeding the world.’
Then Goddess Lakshmi said, ‘But I think that one creature has still not eaten.’ Then Lord Vishnu smiled and said – Okay, who is that, tell me also. Hearing this, Goddess Lakshmi brought the same box in which the ant was kept for proof. When she opened the box in front of Lord Vishnu, she herself was surprised.
Why was Goddess Lakshmi surprised?
There, two grains of rice with kumkum in them were found lying in the box. Then Lord Vishnu said that when you were closing this box, the intact kumkum on your head had fallen into the box. He laughed out loud and said that even while being in your hands, someone should be saved by your grace, the Creator has never made anyone so unlucky. Hearing this, Goddess Lakshmi also laughed.
Similarly, Goddess Lakshmi fills the world with wealth and grains and the one who gets her blessings becomes rich and fortunate. That is why Goddess Lakshmi is worshiped on Diwali, because wealth and gold appeared along with Goddess Lakshmi on Diwali.
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