The verse and its meaning · Stotras · Stotras — Mahalakshmi Ashtakam

Coarse, Fine, Fierce, Vast

Mahalakshmi Ashtakam 6

स्थूल सूक्ष्ममहारौद्रे महाशक्ति महोदरे । महापापहरे देवी महालक्ष्मि नमोऽस्तुते

Meaning · English

Goddess, you are both the coarse and the subtle, fierce beyond measure, mighty power, vast within, the one who carries away grave wrongs. Mahalakshmi, I bow to you.

She is the coarse, the things you can touch: stone, bread, a body. She is also the subtle, the things you cannot touch: breath, thought, the pull of a feeling. She is fierce, and fierce on a large scale, not only gentle. She is great power. She is 'great-bellied', wide enough inside to hold everything that exists. And she takes away the heaviest wrongs a person carries. The line closes, as each one does, with a bow.

Think of water. In the freezer it is a hard block of ice you can hold. On the stove it is liquid in a pot. Above the pot it rises as steam you can barely see. All three are the same water. The goddess is like that, present in the solid world and in the unseen one, one thing in every form.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: First Power, Without End · Mahalakshmi Ashtakam 5
• Next: Lotus-Seated Mother of Worlds · Mahalakshmi Ashtakam 7
• All of Stotras · Ask Krishna about it

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