"This Lakshmi was born or came out of the sea, the great sea, which was churned thousands and thousands of years back. And She came out of the sea because She is the daughter of the sea. That's why She's called as Neeraja. Neera means 'water' and ja means 'born out of.' This has happened thousands and thousand years back that She was born. So what is that? What is this Lakshmi? See symbolically, what is it expressing? It is expressing the awareness. Lakshmi expresses awareness, and She came out of the sea, you know that; the awareness first started growing in the sea. The life started existing in the sea, to begin with, and then it grew out. Without the life there is no awareness. First the life, because everything is jarda, everything is dead, and when it becomes life it means it has awareness. So the awareness started growing in the sea."
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H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, extract from Shri Mahalakshmi Puja, Hampstead, London, 9/11/80