Lakshmi Ashtottara Shatanama Stotram

Prakriti and Vikriti open the list because Lakshmi is both raw nature and the many forms it takes. She is Vidya, the knowledge that actually helps a person, and Sarvabhutahitaprada, the one who works for every being's good, not only her devotees'. Shraddha is the trust that makes any effort worthwhile, Vibhuti is visible glory and abundance, Surabhi is the plenty of the wish-granting cow, and Paramatmika reminds us that under all these forms she is one with the Supreme Self.

Here she is Vach, speech itself, and Padma or Padmalaya, the lotus and the one who dwells in it. Shuchi is purity, Svaha and Svadha are the sacred words that carry offerings to gods and ancestors, and Sudha is the nectar of immortality. Dhanya is the one who is blessed and who blesses in turn with grain and fortune, Hiranmayi is golden radiance, Lakshmi is fortune plainly named, Nityapushta is abundance that never runs dry, and Vibhavari, night lit by moonlight, closes the verse.

Aditi and Diti, mother of the gods and mother of the demons, remind us her grace is not fenced off to one side. Dipta is radiance, and Vasudha and Vasudharini are the earth and the one who sustains it, since wealth, after all, grows out of soil. Kamala is the lotus-dwelling one, Kanta is beauty that draws the heart, Kshama is patience, and Kshirodasambhava recalls the story of her rising from the ocean of milk. A few manuscripts read the third line as Kamakshim krodhasambhavam instead; both readings circulate, and the milk-ocean version is the one more commonly chanted today.

Anugrahapara is the one whose whole nature leans toward grace, Buddhi is intelligence, Anagha is one without fault, and Harivallabha is Vishnu's beloved. Ashoka names her freedom from grief, Amrita is deathless nectar, Dipta is brilliance again, and Lokashokavinashini is the one who ends the sorrow of the world, a line worth returning to on a hard day.

Dharmanilaya is the home of righteous living, Karuna is compassion, and Lokamata, mother of the world, sits at the center of this verse. The rest are lotus names: Padmapriya, fond of the lotus, Padmahasta, lotus in hand, Padmakshi, lotus-eyed, and Padmasundari, lotus-beautiful, each circling back to the flower that has stood for purity and untouched beauty since the earliest Puranas.

Padmodbhava is she who was born from the lotus, Padmamukhi has a lotus face, Padmanabhapriya is dear to Vishnu, whose navel-lotus gave this name its second half, and Rama simply means she who delights. Padmamaladhara wears a garland of lotuses, Devi is the goddess stated plainly, Padmini belongs to the family of lotus-women praised in older texts for grace, and Padmagandhini carries the lotus's fragrance.

Punyagandha is sacred fragrance, Suprasanna is one who is easily pleased, and Prasadabhimukhi turns toward you the moment grace is asked for, a comforting thought mid-chant. Prabha is light itself, Chandravadana has a moon-like face, Chandra is the moon, and Chandrasahodari, the moon's own sister, ties her again to the churning of the ocean where both the moon and Lakshmi rose together.

Chaturbhuja, four-armed, is how classical art usually shows her, holding lotuses and pouring coins. Chandrarupa takes the very form of the moon, Indira is one of her oldest names, meaning splendor, and Indushitala is cool as moonlight. Ahladajanani is the mother of delight, Pushti is nourishment, Shiva is auspiciousness, Shivakari is she who makes things auspicious, and Sati is chaste, steady devotion.

Vimala is spotless, Vishvajanani is mother of the universe, and Tushti is contentment, the quiet kind that money alone cannot always buy but she can grant. Daridryanashini names the end of poverty directly, the promise most people are silently chanting for. Pritipushkarini delights in the lotus pool, Shanta is peace, and Shuklamalyambara, dressed in white garlands, closes the verse in Shriya, glory itself.

Bhaskari carries the sun's own brilliance, Bilvanilaya lives among the bilva leaves sacred to Shiva, and Vararoha has a graceful, upright bearing. Yashasvini is fame rightly earned, Vasundhara is the earth that holds all treasure, Udaranga has a generous, noble form, Harini moves like a deer, gentle and quick, and Hemamalini wears a garland of gold.

Dhanadhanyakari brings both money and grain, the two things a household needs most, and Siddhi is accomplishment itself. Strainasaumya carries a gentle grace, Shubhaprada gives auspicious results, Nripaveshmagatananda brings joy into a king's home, or read plainly, any home that is well kept, Varalakshmi is the boon-giving form worshipped in her own separate vrata, and Vasuprada simply gives wealth.

Shubha is auspiciousness, Hiranyaprakara has walls of gold, and Samudratanaya names her the ocean's daughter, born when gods and demons churned the sea of milk. Jaya is victory, Mangala is the goddess of all things auspicious, and the verse ends by placing her exactly where the epics do, resting on Vishnu's chest, Vishnuvakshahsthalasthita.

Vishnupatni is Vishnu's wife, Prasannakshi has eyes full of grace, and Narayanasamashrita has taken refuge close to Narayana, as inseparable from him as fortune is from right action. Daridryadhvamsini repeats the promise of ending poverty, this time naming her Devi outright, and Sarvopadravavarini wards off every kind of trouble, not money worries alone.

Navadurga links her to the nine forms of Durga, and Mahakali to the fiercer, time-devouring Goddess, a reminder that Lakshmi and Kali are not opposites but two faces of the same Shakti. Brahmavishnushivatmika holds creation, preservation and dissolution within her at once, Trikalajnanasampanna knows past, present and future completely, and the verse closes by naming her Bhuvaneshvari, ruler of every world.

This longer verse steps back and paints the whole picture. Lakshmi is the daughter of the milk ocean's king, mistress of the Sri Ranga shrine, the one before whom every goddess in heaven serves, and the single lamp that lights every world. It says Brahma and Indra owe their own fortune to one soft glance from her, and it calls her the true keeper of the three worlds' household, dearest of all to Mukunda, Vishnu.

The final nama verse turns into a direct plea. Kamale, lotus-dwelling mother, Kamalayatakshi, lotus-eyed one, it names her the one who lives in Vishnu's own heart-lotus and mothers the whole universe. Born of the milk ocean, fair as the tender inner petals of a lotus, she is asked plainly to be gracious, always, toward those who bow to her, because that is exactly what shelter, Sharanya, means.