When laxmi changed her mind...
Once Laxmi, the goddess
of wealth, granted a wish to Vishwakarma, a great architect,
for building a beautiful house for her. When Viswakarma told
her that he would accept anything she would give, she told
him that she would give him gold enough to  cover
his body and a luxurious life. Then she brought an enormous
jar of gold-powder and started to pour it over his body. The
jar of gold did not suffice and so she went to get more. This
display of magnanimity started to worry Vishnu, the lord of
balance and preservation. Vishnu was worried that the boon
would make him lazy and forget his talents as an architect.
He made a plan and accordingly put fleas and ticks inside
the gold dust, which made Vishwakarma to move for relief.
On the other hand, Laxmi
was tired of filling and pouring the gold dust without succeeding
in completing her task. She finally decided that the Vishwakarma
was moving because he wanted more and more gold. She, deciding
that he was getting greedy, put a curse on him saying that
he must work hard even on her ceremonial birthday (laxmi-puja
day). At first Vishwakarma was confused, but he wasn t sad
for he was relieved of the fleas. Thus, in this way everything
went back into order as usual.
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