Why is Lakshmi Devi (Opulence) 'Chancal' or fleeting

Fortunes are getting wiped out in 2022. Crypto is in crisis and the U.S. Stock Market is negative for the year 2022.

Based on net worth calculations by Bloomberg, Bankman-Fried was worth about $16 billion at the start of the week. But as his crypto exchange, FTX, collapsed, the value of his assets was reduced to zero in what Bloomberg called “one of history’s greatest-ever destructions of wealth.” [1]

So why is someone given wealth to be taken away in this very lifetime?

Let's look at different types of Lakshmis (opulence). Modern Hinduism knows these forms very well although most importance is given to Dhana Lakshmi on Deepawali day via Lakshmi Puja.

1) Adi Lakshmi - Adi Lakshmi is said to be her primordial form, through which she helps a person attain life’s foremost aim — freedom from the cycle of death and rebirth. She is thus known also as Moksha Pradayani, or “one who bestows liberation.” 

2) Dhana Lakshmi - Dhana Lakshmi is a storehouse of all the universe’s wealth, helping to fulfill the potential of those who resolve to conquer the mind and persevere despite all difficulties.

3) Dhanya Lakshmi - Dhanya Lakshmi blesses devotees with the great fortune of agricultural wealth

4) Gaja Lakshmi - Gaja Lakshmi was traditionally of deep importance to farmers whose cows and bulls would provide dairy and till the land.

5) Santana Lakshmi - Fulfilling the desire for vibrant and long-living offspring, Santana Lakshmi especially blesses those who honor parenthood as a sacred duty, and who view children as being the greatest treasures of family life.

7) Vidya Lakshmi - Veera Lakshmi is known also as Dhairya Lakshmi (dhairya meaning “courage”), who grants one the fearlessness needed to persevere through life’s ups and downs, thus favoring those who resolve to remain determined and optimistic in all circumstances.

8) Vijaya Lakshmi - Manifesting for the purpose of helping people conquer life’s impediments with tenacity and grit

However there are countless other lakshmis as we can see from the Brahma Samhita.

Śrī brahma-saṁhitā 5.29

cintāmaṇi-prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vṛkṣa-

lakṣāvṛteṣu surabhīr abhipālayantam

lakṣmī-sahasra-śata-sambhrama-sevyamānaṁ

govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, the first progenitor who is tending the cows, yielding all desire, in abodes built with spiritual gems, surrounded by millions of purpose trees, always served with great reverence and affection by hundreds of thousands of lakṣmīs or gopīs. The words lakṣa and sahasra-śata signify endless numbers. The word sambhrama or sādara indicates "being saturated with love."

So Brahma Samhita tells us that there are hundreds of thousands of Lakshmi competing to serve Bhagavan Krishna.

Coming back to the question "Why does mother Lakshmi leave someone".

Srila Prabhupada says

"Although sometimes a materialist becomes very opulent in the eyes of another materialist, such opulence is bestowed upon him by the goddess Durgādevī, a material expansion of the goddess of fortune, not by Lakṣmīdevī herself. Those who desire material wealth worship Durgādevī with the following mantra: dhanaṁ dehi rūpaṁ dehi rupavati bharyam dehi. "O worshipable mother Durgādevī, please give me wealth, strength, fame, a good wife and so on." By pleasing goddess Durgā one can obtain such benefits, but since they are temporary, they result only in māyā-sukha (illusory happiness). As stated by Prahlāda Mahārāja, māyā-sukhāya bharam udvahato vimūḍhān: (SB 7.9.43) those who work very hard for material benefits are vimūḍhas, foolish rascals, because such happiness will not endure. On the other hand, devotees like Prahlāda and Dhruva Mahārāja achieved extraordinary material opulences, but such opulences were not māyā-sukha. When a devotee acquires unparalleled opulences, they are the direct gifts of the goddess of fortune, who resides in the heart of Nārāyaṇa."

"The material opulences a person obtains by offering prayers to the goddess Durgā are temporary. As described in Bhagavad-gītā (7.23), antavat tu phalaṁ teṣāṁ tad bhavaty alpa-medhasām: men of meager intelligence desire temporary happiness. We have actually seen that one of the disciples of Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura wanted to enjoy the property of his spiritual master, and the spiritual master, being merciful toward him, gave him the temporary property, but not the power to preach the cult of Caitanya Mahāprabhu all over the world. That special mercy of the power to preach is given to a devotee who does not want anything material from his spiritual master but wants only to serve him. The story of the demon Rāvaṇa illustrates this point. Although Rāvaṇa tried to abduct the goddess of fortune Sītādevī from the custody of Lord Rāmacandra, he could not possibly do so. The Sītādevī he forcibly took with him was not the original Sītādevī, but an expansion of māyā, or Durgādevī. As a result, instead of winning the favor of the real goddess of fortune, Rāvaṇa and his whole family were vanquished by the power of Durgādevī (sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktir ekā (Bs. 5.44))." [3]

There is the following reference to the śrī, bhū and nīlā energies in the Sītopaniṣad: mahā-lakṣmīr deveśasya bhinnābhinna-rūpā cetanācetanātmikā. sā devī tri-vidhā bhavati, śakty-ātmanā icchā-śaktiḥ kriyā-śaktiḥ sākṣāc-chaktir iti. icchā-śaktis tri-vidhā bhavati, śrī-bhūmi-nīlātmikā. "Mahā-Lakṣmī, the supreme energy of the Lord, is experienced in different ways. She is divided into material and spiritual potencies, and in both features she acts as the willing energy, creative energy and the internal energy. The willing energy is again divided into three, namely śrī, bhū and nīlā."

Quoting from the revealed scriptures in his commentary on the Bhagavad-gītā (4.6), Madhvācārya has stated that mother material nature, which is conceived of as the illusory energy, Durgā, has three divisions, namely śrī, bhū and nīlā. She is the illusory energy for those who are weak in spiritual strength because such energies are created energies of Lord Viṣṇu. Although each energy has no direct relationship with the unlimited, they are subordinate to the Lord because the Lord is the master of all energies.[4]

Srila Prabhupada concludes:

" Rāvaṇa thought that 'Take away the Lakṣmī from Rāma.' He became vanquished, finished. He could not keep Lakṣmī, but he became vanquished because she (he) wanted to enjoy Lakṣmī without Rāma. But Lakṣmī cannot stay without Rāma, Nārāyaṇa. That is false attempt. So he became vanquished—with money, with family, everything, personal, everything. So if we want to keep Lakṣmī without Nārāyaṇa, then it will not be very good. Lakṣmī keep with Nārāyaṇa, Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa."

Conclusion:

Materialists on the planet want to enjoy Lakshmi without Narayana - their attempts will never be successful. Whether it is FTX founder Bankman-Fried or Indian billionaire Jhunjhunwalla (who departed to his next body without enjoying his hard earned money)

References:

1. https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/11/business/sbf-wealth
2. https://www.hinduamerican.org/blog/ashta-lakshmi-the-eight-forms-of-lakshmi
3. https://vaniquotes.org/wiki/Although_sometimes_a_materialist_becomes_very_opulent_in_the_eyes_of_another_materialist,_such_opulence_is_bestowed_upon_him_by_the_goddess_Durgadevi,_a_material_expansion_of_the_goddess_of_fortune,_not_by_Laksmidevi_herself
4. https://vaniquotes.org/wiki/She_(Maha-Laksmi)_is_divided_into_material_and_spiritual_potencies,_and_in_both_features_she_acts_as_the_willing_energy,_creative_energy_and_the_internal_energy._The_willing_energy_is_again_divided_into_three,_namely_sri,_bhu_and_nila%22