"Brahmin's are poor"- Is it a Myth or Truth ?

Before making any delay to answer the first statement let me be very straight to clarify the question. According Brihatdharma Purana the statement “Brahmins are poor” is a myth.

However there is a back story why the statement is so popular. The story goes in the way that Goddess Laxmi was an ardent and pious devotee of Lord Shiva and she used to worship Lord Shiva each and every day. As a ritual of her devotion she used to offer one thousand lotuses to Lord Shiva, during the worship. Well during her worship one such day, she realised there were two lotuses missing, and it was already too late to go to bring two more lotuses to compensate those. It was then that she remembered that once Lord Vishnu had described her breasts as blooming lotuses. She immediately decided to offer them for Lord Shiva as her offing in her worship. Laxmi Devi did not give a second thought to cut off one of her breasts and when she was just about to cut off the second one, Lord Shiva appeared and stopped her. Satisfied with her worship, Lord Shiva then changed the breast into a bael (wood apple) fruit and sent it down to earth to grow outside every temple of Lord Shiva.


 Although bael (wood apple) is a fruit and however leaves are offered to Lord Shiva, as a part of ritual. It is supposed to be the house of Goddess Laxmi. Now let’s get back to the original question, as to why Brahmin’s are poor?



Once Lord Vishnu asked Laxmi that she visited each and everybody and changed their fortunes, but why is it so that, she never visits the Brahmins, especially when they were responsible for the up keeping and maintaining the temples, the abode of God and Goddesses on earth. And they were the people who had knowledge and followed all religious rituals and practices and also helped other people to follow them?



To this question of Lord Vishnu, Laxmi Devi replied, that she was upset about the fact that the Brahmins, kept tearing off leaves from her home which is the Bael tree (the tree of wood apple) and offering them to Shiva. When they didn’t take care of her home, then why should she enter the homes of Brahmins?

Lord Vishnu had no answer to the spontaneous reply of Goddess Laxmi.

Don’t you think there is a great lesson within the lesson with is story? We cannot make any good for ourselves if you harm other.

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