Meet the Opposite of Goddess Lakshmi- Alakshmi

Vedas even shy away to take her name directly because her name means utter misfortune and bad tidings. She is the opposite, the shadow of a great goddess, but she cannot stand in her stead. It is believed that her shadow only brings ruin and end but in truth she is a real whistleblower who cleans the world, eliminating the decayed and evil away. Read Alakshmi’s story, the goddess of misfortune.

Alaskshmi, Goddess of Misfortune, Source: Pinterest

There is a theory that a parallel universe does exist. Even though how unimaginable or impossible this proposition be, there are relevant theories that give detailed logic behind the existence of the same world but with opposites of the original. Though science hasn’t reached that far yet to determine the rightness of this possibility but mythology has already given answers for something parallel, lesser than a whole world but greater than a mere human.

This is the story of Alaskhmi, the opposite of goddess Lakshmi who was created as a side effect of the wrong churning of the ocean during the act of ‘Samudra Manthana’ by the Gods and the demons. It is said that when the ocean was churned with malice at heart the effect was upturned and the whole liquid which was supposed to turn into the elixir of life, instead turned into the deadliest of poison. From that poisonous alcove came out many evil products, one of them being the shadow of Lakshmi, the demoness Alakshmi.

The trajectory of Alakshmi is such that she is supposed to be the opposite of Lakshmi in every sense. Quite mysteriously, she is not mentioned in the Vedas by the name Alakshmi but by the name of Nirrta, the goddess of decay and death. While the goddess Lakshmi is portrayed as admiringly beautiful and charmingly powerful, Alakshmi is believed to be a hideous demoness with a wide club foot, cow-repelling smell, and a wide bell-shaped body. Alakshmi is even portrayed to ride a donkey.

Distinction between the two goddesses, Source: Google Images

Funny and outrageous description, right? Alakshmi has been very stereotypically made infamous to fulfill the divine obsession of portraying the gods in ornamental and clean light. But as Alakshmi always brings on destruction and sorrow only, many historians do believe that this physical description is quite correct believing the hideousness of Alakshmi’s pursuits.

Alakshmi is given all gruesome and grotesque duties and responsibilities. She is meant to bring jealousy, hard feeling, and malice into the household she enters. Loving families turn hateful and are torn apart causing ruin and destruction, wiping off lineages clean. She is known as the female Grim-Reaper as death lurks confidently on the threshold of a house where Alakshmi’s shadow falls. Gods also use Alakshmi to punish those who have committed evil deeds and to curse them with violent deaths and cruel next births.

No one wants inauspiciousness to dance on their doorsteps. The cult of ‘being good and doing good’ has been popularized by instilling fear of these demons. Now Alakshmi has been used as a popular myth and folktale to warn of the malice from hearts to ensure righteousness and goodness always.

Some stories portray Alakshmi as a light-hearted being who just want to ensure the reign of good people by eliminating bad people from the world and that’s why she picks all the rotten ones and takes them away to her grey kingdom of death. It can be said that Alakshmi has been used as a warning by mothers to scare their children to conduct any mischief but her significance is much wider and darker. She is Lakshmi’s shadow because she closely follows to end everyone and everything who poses a difficulty to impose the ideologies of the gods. In this sense, she is the guardian of righteousness and guardian of divinity, a goddess in a real and darker sense.