Reflection · 2 min read
Learning to Receive Without Guilt
Let her fill what you have emptied
The habit of giving
Giving can be beautiful. It can also become a habit so deep that receiving feels like a debt. Many women can carry a heavy load more easily than they can accept a kind word. They give, and give, and keep a quiet ledger of what they still owe.
Her open hand
In so many of her images, Lakshmi’s hand is open and turned toward the one who comes to her, and gold falls from it. Her blessing is not payment for work done. It pours. The elephants pour water over her, and she pours on the world.
In her presence abundance moves. It is not hoarded, and it is not hurried back.
Receiving is not taking
To accept help is not to fall into debt. To enjoy beauty is not shallowness. To ask to be paid fairly is not greed.
At Diwali, many merchant families bring their new account books before Lakshmi for her blessing. Tradition has never been embarrassed to bring prosperity to the goddess. You need not be either.
Receiving with care
Not everything offered is a blessing. A gift that comes with pressure or control is not the same as one freely given. Lakshmi was won by no one; she chose. You may choose too: yes to what is given in love, no to what binds.
Practice
On a Friday evening, sweep the threshold of your home and light one small lamp beside it, as households do to welcome Lakshmi.
Sit before the flame. Recite softly, as many times as feels right: Om Shreem Mahalakshmiyei Namah.
Then bring to mind, without hurry, one thing that has come to you this week: a kindness, a meal, an hour of rest. Say thank you, and nothing more. Let it stay.
A QUESTION TO CARRY
When something good comes to you, do you let it stay, or do you hand it back?
A moment in her sanctuary
If Lakshmi is calling you, her sanctuary is open. Draw a complimentary oracle message and sit a while in her world.
Enter Lakshmi’s Sanctuary