While explaining the Sri Suktham.. (see site map), I put forward my reasons for treating Lakshmi as light. In the previous posts on Time, Life and Consciousness I have explained why I hold that Devi, Sakthi is energy.
Lakshmi is the “light” part of energy.
I was interested to see that “Lakshmih” is one of the name attributes of Vishnu as given in the Vishnu Sahasranama by Bhishma.
Interestingly, Bhishma does not take credit for the 1000 names of Vishnu. He says, these auspicious names were given by the Rishis. He has summarised them for Dharmaraja, Yudhisthira, since Krishna asked Bhishma to teach the eldest Pandava!
I have been kind of revising a book called Newton to Einstein, the trail of light, by Ralph Baierlein.
He tells of how and why Newton reasoned that light was made of particles, and why the wave theory of light held sway for a while. Then he goes on to explain how the speed of electromagnetic waves as computed by Maxwell, matched the speed of light as given by Newton, leading Maxwell to suspect that Light was indeed an electromagnetic wave.
Of course the story does not end here, I have to read up photons and quantum mechanics, to understand what humanity has worked out about light and from there get a hold of general relativity.
We know of Lakshmi as sthoola and sookshma, both material and fine, maha sakti, the great energy.. Indians as a rule are comfortable with, This And That, we don’t insist on the exclusive Or.
So the list of things, I insist on learning, please add Light also!
Why should I worship Lakshmi if she is “only” light? The Indian way is ancient. We worship parents, guests, trees, children, food, knowledge, rivers, light, darkness… everything!
Michelle Paver has spent a lot of time understanding tribes and animals and has written an excellent set of six books for children. The first is called Wolf Brother and its an excellent book for getting into the skin of people who she thinks lived ariund 6000 BCE. Its a book of humans, nature and magic, the world as perceived by tribes in the hunter gatherer day, earlier than agriculture.
So one thought is that Indians have inherited this culture of universal respect that we call worship.
Another is of course the view held by David Frawley and Aryabhata and Bhishma that we are actually recovering and relearning ancient knowledge.
My view is that The Rishis knew more than some people today give credit for. And it was in a code that we are trying to solve. My efforts to understand them have been very rewarding.
In my head the brilliant visionaries like Einstein, Maxwell and Newton are also Rishis, though by religion they may have been unitarians, jews or whatever else. And their work is encoded in mathematics, which also we need to learn.
So recently, I have been called a researcher in philosophy by someone who never reads what I read or what I write!
Like many of the Rishis, ancient and recent, I too believe in God and prayer.
To me it seems that the bio electrical signals of my little brain (also Devi), that I call my heartfelt prayers, actually influence other little events in my life, which are really the energy (Devi) in other things.
In today’s world this is seen as an admission of idiocy by many. 
But that’s okay. The feeling is mutual!
Authorship, Photography and Copyright notice : All Rights Reserved : Satya Sarada Kandula.
