Inspiration hour

inspiration hour….
It was while sweeping that new thoughts rose…sphinx- like from the dust. The article which had appeared in that morning’s Chronicle wove itself around her like a toddler seeking attention.

“A temple dedicated to the goddess of Anima”
The only temple in India dedicated to misfortune is found at Thacha-nattu-kara. The presiding deity of this temple is Jyeshta, the elder sister of Goddess Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, auspiciousness and of all prosperity. Which makes Jyeshta the goddess of of poverty, indigence and inauspiciousness. “

This WAS news. It provided food for thought, firepower for imagination and immense consolation to the soul. NOW she knew where to turn to when the neighbour’s daughter brought an astounding 99% in her exams, whom to dedicate the burnt toast to, whose shoulder to lay my head on when she felt like a four letter word…. The possibilities were immense and she wholeheartedly saluted the master creator of Jyeshta… above all she felt here was one deity who wouldn’t be hung on a 108 flattering names to open her eye to the devotee’s humbling prayers, who could be buzzed ‘hey Jyests!’ or ‘hi Jay’ and who didn’t care a damn about antiseptic offerings…
Jyests wouldn’t be draped in a gold bordered sari flaunting her slender waist and ample bosom, but would be unadorned by jewels and paraphernalia. Her temple wouldn’t have intricate carvings- it would be a mere cobwebbed shelter where birds, animals, insects, the afflicted mind and the incorrigible drunkard all would find refuge.
The burst of inspiration echoed in her sweeping. A resident lizard of under-the-pedestal fan ran in disbelief. Sandhya herself was taken aback by her own efficacy on the one hand and her flight of imagination on the other. She wanted a second look at the article to fuel her new wave thinking.
“The two sisters are born rivals. When one is in, the other is out. So the Indian household is engaged in a constant fight to keep Lakshmi in and Jyeshta out. Waste, dirt, slovenliness, indolence, idleness, disorder, anger and all such undesirable things show the presence of Jyeshta in the house. Until she is turned out, Lakshmi wouldn’t enter and stay. In some houses, it is a custom for the lady of the house to open the back door first, send Jyeshta out and then open the front door and let Lakshmi in.”
Fine. It was easy enough to imagine Jyeshta physically but … what exactly would be the significance of a goddess of – say disorder? Or disgrace? How can a goddess preside over dirt? By definition a god/goddess listens to prayers and gives…. What would Jyeshta give her devotees? Would she condone slovenliness, encourage idleness and provoke anger? She’d be the teenager’s goddess par excellence! Would she then also preside over divorces, abortions and the like? …….Perhaps quite simply, by building her an abode, it was hoped that she would stay put there and not haunt households. This persona non-grata among the Hindu pantheon could be kept busy presiding over her own little empire keeping out of Lakshmi’s haloed pathway.
One probably went there not to ask her for favours but to request her not to radiate inauspicious boons in one’s direction.
Sweeping over… the broom laid to rest..till tomorrow. Now Jyeshta had Sandya’s undivided attention. Somehow it seemed unfair to Sandhya’s ever probing mind to dismiss Jyestha as a persona non-grata. She remembered the bundle of alum hanging on her front door which her mother said would ward off evil eyes from straying into the house. Her answer to that was that her house should have so much positive energy that it would squash all negativities at the front door itself.
Coming back to the story at hand Sandhya mused:
Burnt toast would probably teach me more than a steady pocketmoney …from the necessity to replace it with something else (when the last of the slices are gone) on the breakfast table to the difficulty in disposing it off. Cobwebs are reminders of the attention that the house hasn’t received.
So…Mind meandering, thoughts thrashing, Sandhya sat down to eat her breakfast. So taken up was she with the story that the oil mark left
on the table cloth reminded her that she had forgotten to remove the cloth before eating. Now how am I going to deal with this she asked herself…but let me get back to my thinking.
Happiness and prosperity seemed to be the only guiding factors in mother’s prayers. She could conveniently label all mediocre situations as happy and accept them as ‘god-ordained’. And she could never really explain the very- less-than-happy occurrences in the context of her beliefs. Why did the young girl next door die during her delivery leaving a helpless little thing in this world- in spite of all the preceding rituals and rites?
‘goodness’ and ‘badness’ , or karma didn’t explain a great many things. Pilgrims dying in an accident, in stampedes for example. Thefts, fires, youngsters eloping….
Doubts, fears, insecurity and risks …..
Suddenly Sandhya seemed to find the answer to many questions which had mystified her, where mother’s explanations didn’t work. Jyestha beautifully filled in all the blanks and answered all her questions like a bright student. She seemed to say
I am the goddess of the aftermath of ravage, not of its post-mortem; the goddess of the just orphaned baby, of the terrorist victim, the abandoned doggie, the laid-off worker, of the parents of the disabled child; one who doesn’t answer to ‘why did you do this to me?’ but who asks with you ‘what can be done now?’ and counselor-like, helps one find self-acceptance and regeneration of the soul and resourcefulness to start all over again.
Jyeshts then would be the goddess of Ground Zero reasoned Sandhya;
Truly the goddess of the Spirit.