Alakshmī and Uddālaka
This episode is told in the Uttara Khaṇḍa of the Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 116. It tells why Alakshmī, the elder sister of Lakshmī, lives for all time in the Aśvattha tree (the pippala, or sacred fig). Alakshmī is also called Jyeshṭhā. She is misfortune and poverty. After the churning of the ocean, Lakshmī asked Vishṇu to accept her elder sister first and to marry her afterward. Bhagavān Vishṇu gave Alakshmī to the ṛshi Uddālaka, but she would not live in his āśrama, where the Vedas were always recited. Uddālaka left her under an Aśvattha tree and never came back. Lakshmī told Bhagavān Vishṇu of her sister’s sorrow. He came and made the Aśvattha her home for all time. He said that daily pūjā to the elder sister under the Aśvattha would bring Lakshmī to stay in the home of the one who gives it.
Alakshmī, the elder sister of Lakshmī
Alakshmī, also called Jyeshṭhā (the Elder One), is misfortune, poverty, strife and every inauspicious state, taken as a person. She is the elder sister of Lakshmī, who is prosperity, beauty and auspiciousness, and she always goes with her.
Alakshmī lives where there is discord, filth, falsehood, gambling, too much sleep, laziness and quarrelling. Lakshmī does not live in such places. Alakshmī is drawn to the speaking of falsehood and strife. She cannot bear the air of Vedic recitation, of the divine names or of right conduct. (Chapter 116)
Lakshmī’s condition when she chose Vishṇu
Lakshmī rose from the churning of the ocean of milk and chose Bhagavān Vishṇu as her husband. She put a condition to him. She would come to him only if he first accepted her elder sister Alakshmī. Lakshmī would not leave Alakshmī without making sure she was cared for. Bhagavān Vishṇu accepted the condition. (Chapter 116)
Alakshmī is given to Uddālaka
Bhagavān Vishṇu arranged the marriage of Alakshmī to the ṛshi Uddālaka. Uddālaka was a learned brāhmaṇa. His āśrama was given to the recitation of the Vedas, the performance of yajñas and spiritual discipline. Uddālaka took Alakshmī as his wife.
But from the moment Alakshmī reached Uddālaka’s āśrama, she did not fit in at all. The constant sound of Vedic recitation, the sacred fires, the purity of conduct and the air of tapas (austerity) were all against her nature. She could not stay there, and she made her distress known. (Chapter 116)
Uddālaka leaves her under the Aśvattha
Uddālaka saw that his āśrama was no place for Alakshmī. He left her under an Aśvattha tree (the sacred fig, Ficus religiosa). He told her he would look for a place that suited her, a place with the quarrelling, gambling, impurity and discord that were her natural home. He went away to search for such a place. He never came back.
Alakshmī waited under the Aśvattha tree, alone and left behind, and she wept. (Chapter 116)
Lakshmī hears and tells Vishṇu
Lakshmī heard of her elder sister’s plight. Alakshmī was left alone and weeping under a tree, with no household to live in and no husband who had come back. Lakshmī was troubled for her sister’s sake. She went to Bhagavān Vishṇu and told him how Alakshmī had been left under an Aśvattha tree and was still there in tears. (Chapter 116)
Vishṇu makes the Aśvattha her home
Bhagavān Vishṇu came to the place where Alakshmī wept under the Aśvattha tree. He looked at her with compassion and declared that the Aśvattha tree would be her home for all time. He set her there. He declared that Alakshmī would live in the Aśvattha for ever, and that the tree, as her dwelling, would be her own realm. (Chapter 116)
The vara: honouring the elder brings the younger
Bhagavān Vishṇu then laid down a practice and its result. Those who give daily pūjā to Alakshmī, the elder sister Jyeshṭhā, under or near the Aśvattha tree will find that Lakshmī becomes steady and lasting in their homes. (Chapter 116)
The Aśvattha as Vishṇu
Chapter 115 of the Uttara Khaṇḍa, the chapter just before this one, tells that the Aśvattha tree is itself a form of Bhagavān Vishṇu. The devas were put under a śāpa (curse) to become trees, and Vishṇu became the Aśvattha. So the Aśvattha is the tree of Bhagavān Vishṇu, and it is also the home of Alakshmī. (Chapters 115 and 116)
Sources
- Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 116
- Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 115, for the Aśvattha as Bhagavān Vishṇu