Read an engaging story by Pritha Ghosh, Class VI, Epic Public School, as she shares a playful debate with her sister about Maa Lakshmi and Maa Saraswati. Through their grandmother’s wise tale, they discover the deep connection between knowledge and prosperity.
Hello my dear readers! I am Pritha, Pritha Ghosh. If you remember, I was the one who along with the other members of ‘Arundhuti Roy Club’ had shared a story on the legendary freedom fighter Neera Arya. So, needless to say I have a special fascination for words and languages, and I often spend my time by writing stories and incidents, even on debates on them.
Today, let me take this opportunity to share one such debate that occurred just the day before. It was a fight, not with swords, but with words, and this fight descended right from the heaven. Yes, you heard it right from HEAVEN. Let me share the incident with you….
It was just a pleasant afternoon when our thinking buds roamed around topics ranging from cricket to food. It was then my sister declared, “You know what, Maa Lakshmi is the greatest deity known to mankind.”
“I cannot agree to that, I feel Maa Saraswati is far more important.” I protested
In such a way, our argument continued for some time. “Pritha, what is going on in there?” My mother called out from the kitchen listening to our debate. “Nothing Ma.” I replied to avoid scolding.
But then our fight continued and we went on arguing until late evening. “Well, I cannot continue,” I declared, “It’s time for my tuition.” I added.
“Well you are running away, I knew you cannot win, so it is a relief for you.” My sister said smiling.
Ignoring her I went off for my tuition. “We were fighting over such a silly question!” I thought as I walked out of the house.
When I came back I started again, “You know without education we cannot understand the mysteries of our cosmos.”
My sister immediately commented “We can leave without education but without money can one really survive?”
It was then that we finally went to our mother for validation. She agreed with me but my sister refused to come to the same conclusion. We never realised all this while, our Grandma was listening all our conversations.
She finally realising this fight is never going to end, called both of us and narrated a story. It goes this way…
“My dears, don’t fight about this silly things. Let me tell you one story.”
A story idea sounded fascinating, we spoke out loud, “Yessssss!”
We sat around her and then she began ~
“Many many years ago there was a village named Manala. There lived two friends Lakshmi and Saraswati. They were the best of friends. They used to play together, study together and spend a long time with each other.
Lakshmi was very beautiful, naughty and clever. Saraswati was very timid, calm, clever and cute. The villagers liked Lakshmi so much and wanted Lakshmi to stay in their house always. But Lakshmi was very naughty and could not concentrate in one place for much time.
One day, the villagers noticed that wherever Saraswati visited Lakshmi used to accompany her. No matter how long Saraswati stayed in a place, Lakshmi would never leave her side. There were occasions when both of them lived in one single place for more than a year. From then the villages started to invite Saraswati and that is how Lakshmi visited their house and stayed with Saraswati for long.”
Grandmama ended her story. But for us it was a lesion we learnt as my sister asked “What is the moral of the story? Didun”.
Now you must be wondering why the story must have moral. Let me inform. It has never been any occasion when my grandma would tells a story without a moral.
Answering my sister grandma said, “It is simple. If to you Lakshmi means money and prosperity, you have to welcome and respect Saraswati who is the goddess of knowledge and education, as without knowledge you won’t be able to find prosperity”
