It Is Indeed Auspicious To Make Investments On Akshaya Trithiya
Over the past many hundred years, devout Hindus have been observing and celebrating auspicious festivals, occasions and days. The tradition of celebrating festivals, rituals and rites associated with them are followed religiously even today. Festivals such as Diwali, Navarathri, Krishna Jayanthi, Ganesh Chaturthi, Shivarathri and Ram Navami are enjoyed and celebrated with immense devotion as well as gaiety all across India. However, in recent years, we see a trend of unwarranted commercialization of our festivals. Nowhere is the commercialization aspect so obvious as much as in the festival of Akshaya Trithiya.
I remember celebrating the above-mentioned festivals with a lot of fervour and enthusiasm. However, Akshaya Trithiya is arguably the one festival that most of our ancestors were unaware of and did not celebrate much in South India. There wasn’t much hype about the occasion in North India either. The festival came to prominence only 8-10 years back when corporate houses and business establishments retrieved the holy day from the lost pages of the Hindu mythology and resurrected it by marketing its importance aggressively.
Before concluding whether Akshaya Trithiya is an auspicious day or not to make investments, let us first understand the meaning, significance and legends associated with this festival. Let us analyse the reasons for celebrating it. We must also probe if we are commemorating Akshaya Trithiya for the right reasons or just falling prey to marketing strategies of various business firms. Like many people, I too was tricked into believing that the festival was meant only for investing in gold, land and properties. I never knew that other reasons too existed for enjoying the occasion.
According to Bharath Gyan, an Indian research organization, the word Akshaya means unlimited, infinite, undiminished, limitless and endless. The day, Trithiya falls on the third day of Amavasya in May or in the Hindu calendar month of Vaishakha. As per the Hindu mythology, it was on this day that Lord Krishna gave the Akshaya pathra (a vessel with infinite powers or that could contain unlimited quantity of food) to Pandavas for serving and partaking of food. Lord Vishnu’s sixth avatar, Parashurama, was born on this day. Do we know that it was on Akshaya Trithiya that Veda Vyasa dictated Mahabharatha to Lord Ganesha? This day also saw the mythological character, Sudama, a very poor man, meeting Krishna and being blessed with unimagined wealth. The legendary Bhagiratha,who was the forefather of Rama and Dasaratha, is believed to have changed the course of the Ganges to the present terrain. Imagine our current state had the Ganges flowed in a different direction and was not at all beneficial for us! Akshaya Trithiya also saw the birth of Goddess Annapoorna Devi.
Considering that several fortunate events happened on the Tirthi, the lunar day in the month of Vaishakha, it gradually assumed significance and came to be looked upon as an auspicious day. The sacred day was christened as Akshaya Trithiya, a day with infinite possibilities, boundless prosperity, unlimited success and endless fortune. Therefore, it slowly led to the belief that any new venture undertaken on this auspicious day can only result in success, any good beginning will find the favourable result and any new activity will yield the desired outcome. Given that a number of crucial historical incidents took place on Akshaya Trithiya, it is only reasonable to justify and conclude that it is a sacred day for making investments.
Small wonder then the commercial organizations have latched onto the festival’s significance and its auspiciousness for furthering their interests. Sure, it is a holy day for new undertakings but nowhere in the scriptures is it mentioned that we need to hoard only gold and properties on Akshaya Trithiya. It has only been interpreted that new experiments and fresh endeavors will be fruitful. Honestly speaking, we will do far more justice to the festival if we start celebrating it for the right reasons. Let us remember the day to celebrate Parashurama’s birthday, let us observe it to show our gratitude for the knowledge and wisdom we received through Mahabharatha and let us reflect on Lord Krishna’smagnanimous nature of blessing Sudama with abundance. We will do well to recall Krishna’s generous act of presenting the Akshaya pathra to Pandavas and emulate it by buying gifts for our relatives, friends and neighbours. It would be even more worthwhile if we engage ourselves in doing charity. Let us also examine the current plight of the Ganges and do our bit to restore it to its past glory. It will definitely make the historical Bhagirathafeel proud of us!
Confining Akshaya Trithiya to a festival of indiscriminate buying and selling of materialistic things would only result in undermining its importance. While it is definitely an auspicious day to make investments in the form of purchasing gold, silver, houses and lands (rates are usually lower on Akshaya Trithiya) in the belief that it would lead to further prosperity, let us not forget the festival’s history, its stories and legends for us to replicate in our lives. Our lives will be far richer if we show our reverence to the occasion in appropriate ways!
Rationally speaking, even if we were to make investments on the particular festival day, we will be able to attain dividends only if we make personal efforts to find out if our investments are of the right kind, then probe the credentials of the investor and gauge the investment’s value correctly. Post investment, we must continue our efforts to promote, sustain and maintain it. Or else our investments will only end up as lessons in failures. Our responsibility does not end by just making investments on Akshaya Trithiya rather it only begins. Taking ownership, responsibility and accountability for our new ventures will help us stand in good stead and give us the result we desire. A fine combination of fortune and personal responsibility for any new undertaking will certainly open the doors to success.
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