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In our tradition we are supposed to get up early in the morning and offer our prayers to the Lord. There is one very important and significant prayer for mornings. This is the well-known “Karaagre Vasate Lakshmee”, “Kar Madhya Saraswatee” “Kara Moole Gauree” – Prabhat Kar Darshanam. Look at your hands for Lakshmee residing in the tip of the hand, Saraswatee in the middle of the hand, and “Durga” or “Gauree” at the end of the hand. When you look at the hands don’t look at the lines remembering palmistry but pray to Durgaa/ Lakshmee/ Saraswatee. One needs to remember and invoke the grace of all these three deities before climbing down from the bed.

Durgaa Lakshmee and Saraswatee
There are two reasons to worship these three Deviyaan - Durgaa, Lakshmee, and Saraswatee
(1)They are the spouses or consorts of the three Moorti -Shiv, Vishnu, and Brahmaa
(2)These deities represent three very important Shakti or powers (Resources) of these three Devtaa.

Durgaa Devee represents our health, especially important as we are growing old.
Lakshmee Devee represents wealth, for when health is lost one will realize the importance of wealth in the form of expensive medical bills.
Saraswatee Devee represents wisdom or knowledge.

These three basic resources are required by every one of us: health, wealth, and knowledge.
When we have them we don’t know their value and take them for granted. Only when we are deprived of any one of them we discover the value of that particular resource. Therefore all the three are equally important for our lives. When we are sick we think that health is most important. In poverty we feel that wealth is the most important, and in day to day life we feel that knowledge and intelligence is very important. So which of the three we can afford to forego? Actually none. And there is no pecking order also in which we give more importance to one in respect of others - each would score 33.33%. Health, wealth, and knowledge, all are necessary for survival, for success in our ventures, and life itself. Hence Shaastras recommend that we remember these three resources every day.

Navaraatri
We have two Nava Raatri – one is called Vasant (Spring) Nava Raatri and the another one is Sharad (Autumn) Nava Raatri.
During these Nava Raatri we exclusively worship Durgaa for three days, Lakshmee for three days, and Saraswatee for three days. We invoke the grace of these three Shakti then what follows? The tenth day is called “Vijayaa Dashamee” or victory. The Vaidik way of victory is Shakti Saamya – all the three resources must be there and they must be in balance. Otherwise life will be a failure. Therefore let us start invoking these deities every day. The scriptures say that we must ask for two types of favors from each deity –
Two types of health
Two types of wealth
Two types of knowledge.

Two Types of Health From Durgaa Devee
One is the physical health which is extremely important and second is the mental health. Our modern lifestyle is such that we are neglecting Durgaa Devee. One morning prayers states: In Brahm Muhoort, one must not sleep. Sleeping in this time will deplete one’s Punya and produce Paap. For this sin one must do Praayashchit. Even there is an English proverb that talks about the virtues of rising early: Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy.

When you rise early you get the blessings of Durgaa, Lakshmee, and Saraswatee. In today's world mental stress is a major problem of modern day living. Continuous stress reduces the immunity of a person and that invites all kinds of diseases. A man squanders his health initially working for wealth. Then he squanders his earned wealth in search of health. And ultimately loses both. In Sanskrit there is a humorous verse – "O doctor, my Namaskaar to you, for you are the elder brother of Yam Raaj. Why elder? Because Yam takes only life while you take both - the life and money and say,” Operation was successful but the patient died”. So Durgaa Devee is so important and one must pray every day to her for physical as well as mental health.

Two Types of Wealth From Lakshmee Devee
One is the outer wealth in the form of money, gold, shares, real estate etc and the other is contentment. In the Vaidik jargon wealth is reduced to “gold and land” to signify every kind of wealth. We have to invoke Lakshmee Devee, for without this external wealth we cannot survive life. Even a Sanyaasee needs wealth in the form of food, clothing, and shelter. Ved state that we should not stop with the desire for external wealth; internal wealth is just as important – inner wealth in the form of contentment or Tripti. If Tripti or contentment is not there we will face several problems in the life. Because desire for external wealth cannot be balanced without contentment, because desires will always escalate. Desires by themselves are harmless but unknowingly “Kaam” will be converted into Lobh or Greed. Kaam (desire for wealth) is one of the four Purushaarth but it needs to be balanced with contentment.

Modern lifestyle provides a conducive environment for Greed. If we are not careful we will fall under the trap of greed. The first consequence of greed is running after Lakshmee and ignore the other two deities which disturbs the “Shakti or resource balance”. Instead of "Shakti Saamya" Lakshmee will become predominant and unbalanced life will have disastrous consequences. Greed will pressurize the mind to become more and more aggressive, and more violently. The value of Ahinsaa is lost. Greed will also force a person to compromise with Dhaarmik values. First the “Shakti Imbalance” and the second “the loss of Dharm” will obstruct success in our life especially spiritual success. Thirdly when there is greed, there is competition and cut throat philosophy. Greed creates a lot of stress. The world has enough for human need but world does not have enough for human greed. We are so caught up with external wealth that we forget the internal wealth of contentment (Tripti). Ved says that whatever you earn legitimately one must be contented without comparing with neighbors, therefore we must pray to Lakshmee Devi for both types of wealth.

We don’t appreciate the value of contentment for we wrongly think that our level of enjoyment would come down. This is a serious misconception and delusion born out of greed. Our Shaastra take great pains to remove this misconception: If external wealth is the source of joy then internal wealth of contentment is as much a source of joy if not greater. In Traittireeya Upanishad this important message is given graphically. They have divided external wealth into ten levels. Let us imagine a man acquiring more wealth and goes from level 1 to level 2. Let us take another wise man who progresses in contentment levels from level 1 to level 2 (contentment is also divided into ten levels parallaly). Traittreya Upanishad states the second person who progresses on the contentment scale has hundred times more joy than the person who finds happiness in material acquisition. So when you pray for LakshmeeDevee every day include both external and internal wealth.

Two Types of Knowledge From Saraswatee Devee
Then there is another important deity, “Saraswatee”. From Saraswatee Devee also we have to seek two types of knowledge - one knowledge is material knowledge given by material sciences; science and technology being developed in thousands of laboratories all over the world - that is called A-Paraa Vidyaa. The another one is Paraa Vidyaa. It is the  spiritual knowledge represented by our scriptures which are designed to change our internal mindset. Material sciences are used to adjust the external set-up to suit our likes and dislikes, while spiritual knowledge is to change our mindset. This is extremely important for however advanced material sciences maybe we can never be totally in control of the external set-up.

With materialistic knowledge we make our life easier in this world and by spiritual knowledge we adjust our mind. Our mindset and perspectives must be adjusted such that it cushioned and protected from the external unfavorable situations. Like wearing sunglasses in hot sun that protects the eyes but when things cannot be changed externally we must know them how to adjust the mind towards them. That is why our Shaastra make a difference between spiritual ignorance and spiritual knowledge. An ignorant mind is like a convex lens that magnifies any external unfavorable situation. In fact spiritual ignorance exaggerates every choiceless situation. In contrast spiritual knowledge is one that makes a person face even the most unfavorable situation with an appropriate attitude. Lord Krishn in the Geetaa presents two techniques to deal with any problem - Karm Yog and Gyaan Yog.

Material sciences (A-Paraa Vidyaa) teach how to adjust the world while spiritual sciences alone will tell us how to adjust the mind. Mental adjustments are necessary when we are facing choiceless situations. There are certain situations that have no remedy and at that time you need spiritual knowledge to cope with your situation. Therefore pray to Saraswatee for both types of knowledge. So let us invoke the grace of Durgaa, Lakshmee, and Saraswatee for two types of health (physical and mental); two types of wealth (physical and contentment); two types of knowledge (material knowledge and spiritual knowledge).