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The Story of Goddess Lakshmi

When the Gods and demons were churning the ocean, in search of the Divine Nectar, of immortality, they found fourteen jewels one after the other. At one stage, while they were still churning, there appeared Goddess Lakshmi, the daughter of the Ocean, she was beauty personified, fully decorated with lovely jewels. She had a vaijayantimala, the garland of Vaijayanti flowers (kind of Lotus) in her hands. As soon as the Gods and demons saw her, they had a desire to marry her. They kept looking at her eagerly, to find out whom she would choose as her husband. The goddess looked around, but did not set her heart upon any one of them. Then she saw Lord Vishnu, who was resting upon Sesha and was not concerned about worldly matters. He did not even care to look at her, what of desire then? He was ever contained and blissful within Himself. Seeing Lord Vishnu detached to the worldly matters, Goddess Lakshmi thought him to be the right person to be her husband. So, she went to him and putting her garland round his neck, accepted him as her husband. Thus she acquired the seat of Shree (prosperity). As Lord Vishnu is possessing all Shrees such as Bhagyashree, Rajashree, Jayashree, etc., Being the consort of Lord Vishnu, she became the controller of the conch, that is power of creating sounds, the chakra., the control over the wheel of time, the Padma or Lotus is the mind and the hearts of all beings and Gada, the mace, that is the strength that protects the world. Since then she was known as Maya of the Lord. That is the feminine Prakriti aspect of Purusha. Thus she is worshipped even by Gods and sages.

[Source : Sri Sathya Sai Balvikas Guru Handbook]