This is the seventh of a series of short articles on various deities. As I am not a Hindu myself, I would appreciate any feedback from Hindus.
Lakshmi’s images and attributes
Lakshmi was the personification of beauty and brought happiness, wealth and prosperity. She was also associated with fortune, since she distributed her gifts in an apparently random fashion, offering no explanation.
Lakshmi was eighteen-limbed, often depicted sitting on a peacock or lotus blossum and gold was her symbol. She was often pictured in sumptuous clothes, bedecked with jewels, and surrounded by musical instruments and domestic animals.
Lakshmi and Vishnu;Radha and Krishna
Lakshmi is wife to the god Vishnu and while he is busy dreaming up the new creation, she manifests his power and strength in the current one. Lakshmi once incarnated as Radha who became Krishna’s favourite wife.
The brides’ goddess
When a new husband brought his wife home for the first time, Lakshmi was also in attendance, present in the brides’ jewels. The bride would also wear a robe adorned with (at least) a gold brocade.
Lakshmi Tatma – Baby with eight limbs
The goddess Lakshmi came to the attention of the world in 2005 with the birth of Lakshmi Tatma in the village of Bihar, India. The girl was born, joined at the pelvis, to her headless twin and some villagers hailed her as the reincarnation of Lakshmi. Even more notable was the fact that Lakshmi Tatma was born on the day dedicated to Vishnu (below left).
Do you have any personal experience of or interest in Lakshmi or Hinduism that you would like to share? If so, please leave a comment below.
References/Sources used (please use my bookstore if you want to order the books):
Comte, F. (1991) ‘The Wordsworth Dictionary of Mythology’, Wordsworth, Kent
Image attributions
Lakshmi image in public domain
Vishnu image licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license by Pravin Premkumar
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Coming next: The Hindu Deities: Sarasvati
The Laxmi Goddess is beautiful.Goddess of beauty,wealth and prosperity.The Laxmi Mantra is very powerful and brings all this in your life.The easy one is “OM LAXMI DEVAY NAMAHA”….chant this many times..visualizing all your goals…She makes it happen….Be sure you can handle it though….as she gives in a big way.
Thank you so much for your input, Haneesha