Contemplative Devi Lakshmi

A beauteous Devi, seated calmly within the mouth of a gigantic lotus bloom. Her legs are gathered in an elegant siddhasana, leaving Her dhoti in lifelike silken creases. From the navel upwards She is bare but for the janeu and the gold ornaments gracing Her decolletage and earlobes and arms. She is possessed of no less than four arms; She is the chaturbhujadhari Devi Lakshmi, wife of Lord Vishnu and the presiding deity over wealth and resources.

Devi Lakshmi is the presiding deity over wealth and resources; things that are indispensable to the process of preserving creation as we know it, over which in turn Lord Vishnu is the presiding deity. She is tall and slender and sinewy, with a narrow, tapering crown to match. In the posterior hands of Devi Lakshmi are lotus-buds on the verge of bloom. These are an unmistakable part of Her iconography, like the veena is to Her sister’s (Devi Sarasvati). In line with the same are the karnakundalas, the drops of which are resting in the thick coils of Her hair gathered over Her shoulders.

The murti of Devi Lakshmi that you see on this page depicts Her in all the calm and contemplation of the Hindu Devi - the perfectly round face, youthful yet wise beyond its years, soft and pleasing features from the half-shut eyes to the compassionate lips.