Maha Lakshmi's St. Nicolas' Prasad

Maha Lakshmi

Divine Mother, who bestows
Wealth, both spiritual and material

Maha Lakshmi’s St. Nicolas Prasad

The woman, in despair,
Laid her head down on the table.
The red rose of springtime had long lost its bloom.
Snows of winter hung on the windowsill
In cold testimony of Old Man Winter
Wrinkling his frosty brow.
Children played on sleds and toboggans
On the hill outside the woman’s window…
And some just watched.

The children's shoes were placed just outside the door
On December 6 for St. Nicolas to fill…
As was Germany’s tradition
Since...well...long, long ago.
Where will come the means to fill
The children’s shoes the mother worried…
In deep and sorrowful despair.

She fed her children a meager meal
Of porridge and bread and put them to bed.
All through the night she prayed for help from above
That some kind soul would
See the empty shoes and place a little
Something in her children's St. Nicolas shoes.

As dawn came, the mother peeped into the room
Of her children ever so peacefully sleeping there.
Then she dried her eyes and went to the door
To bring the children's shoes inside to slip into them
All that she had…
One penny, each, for the candy store.

The woman opened the door
And in amazement and bewilderment
She wonderingly beheld. . .
Her children’s shoes overflowing...
With candy and toys and fruit and all good things.
Each shoe was filled to the brim
And spilling onto the floor.

The woman’s tears welled up again and she prayed:
“Dear Heavenly Father,
Who art in Heaven,
Hollowed be thy name…

And St. Nicolas, too,
From whence your bounty came
I shall never be certain.

Oh Heavenly Divine Mother Lakshmi,
She who gives spiritual wealth
As well as the material needs of
Her children on Earth, 
Thank you from a mother’s heart
That we have learned from our
Beloved Premavatar Sri Swami Vishwananda…
You, Beloved God, are bound only by love.”

-Swamini Vishwalakshmianandama