The Book Of Lakshmi

Lakshmi is the goddess of all that is good-wealth (dhana), beauty (saundarya) and happiness (sukha). As Vishnu's consort and in her incarnations as Sita and Rukmini, she represents the ideal of femininity in Hinduism. She is also Shri, the goddess of fertility and grain, and Mahalakshmi, the amalgam of the goddesses Kali, Lakshmi and Sarasvati. She is benevolent and generous, yet it takes surprisingly little to offend her. And when she leaves, her place is taken by Alakshmi, all that Lakshmi is not-poverty, pestilence and ill fortune. How did this popular and accessible goddess come to represent these qualities? R. Mahalakshmi presents an evocative picture of the mythical and historical development of the goddess Lakshmi. Using a range of sources, from ancient texts to sculptures and everyday religious customs and prayers, this fascinating and deeply-insightful book sheds new light not only on the figure of Lakshmi, but also on the fundamental tenets of Hinduism as it is practised today.

Let's dive into the vast and wonderful world of Hindu mythology! Clever Ganesha's got something on his mind, but what that is you'll have to read on to find. With charming illustrations and simple language, this short tale about Ganesha will entertain and delight. · This series of charmingly illustrated board books introduces kids to some of the best known and best loved gods from popular Hindu mythology, including Krishna, Ganesha, Lakshmi, Hanuman, Shiva, and Durga. · Dotted with interesting facts about each god as well as an interactive seek-and-find activity. · Suitable for bedtime reading and parent-child association. · Perfect way to familiarize babies with India's rich cultural fabric. · These books offer a fun and enjoyable introduction to timeless myths and festivals for modern kids. · A must have to impart important life lessons from various gods and goddesses. · Collect all books in the series!

A multi-faceted portrait of Lakshmi, Hindu goddess of wealth and prosperity. Includes translations of verses used to invoke this goddess.

A Thousand Seeds of Joy is a gem of a read! It is a conversation with ascended Goddesses Lakshmi and Saraswati about their many incarnations on Earth. These ascended Goddesses take us on a grand spiritual journey revealing new secrets about Buddhas, and Gods and Goddesses who have walked on Earth. Very insightful, informative and engaging!

Lakshmi is the Hindu goddess of wealth, health, and fertility. She is the energy that powers this creation. In her many forms, she impacts our lives in numerous ways. Her 'Ashtalakshmi' avatar helps a seeker find the eight kinds of wealth in life. She helps her devotees create a 'lakshya' or goal and set forth to achieve the four 'purusharth' or aims of life, namely 'Dharma, ' or right conduct, 'Arth, ' or wealth, 'Kam, ' or pleasure and 'Moksha' or liberation.Read about her many forms and understand the messages she conveys to enrich your life. Wealth has many types. It is money and much much more. Every kind of wealth improves your lives in many ways. Following Goddess Lakshmi's guidance and praying to her fills life with great prosperity and fortun

The powerful, poignant, bestselling National Book Award Finalist gives voice to a young girl robbed of her childhood yet determined to find the strength to triumph Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a small hut on a mountain in Nepal. Though she is desperately poor, her life is full of simple pleasures, like playing hopscotch with her best friend from school, and having her mother brush her hair by the light of an oil lamp. But when the harsh Himalayan monsoons wash away all that remains of the family's crops, Lakshmi's stepfather says she must leave home and take a job to support her family. He introduces her to a glamorous stranger who tells her she will find her a job as a maid in the city. Glad to be able to help, Lakshmi journeys to India and arrives at "Happiness House" full of hope. But she soon learns the unthinkable truth: she has been sold into prostitution. An old woman named Mumtaz rules the brothel with cruelty and cunning. She tells Lakshmi that she is trapped there until she can pay off her family's debt-then cheats Lakshmi of her meager earnings so that she can never leave. Lakshmi's life becomes a nightmare from which she cannot escape. Still, she lives by her mother's words-Simply to endure is to triumph-and gradually, she forms friendships with the other girls that enable her to survive in this terrifying new world. Then the day comes when she must make a decision-will she risk everything for a chance to reclaim her life? Written in spare and evocative vignettes by the co-author of I Am Malala (Young Readers Edition), this powerful novel renders a world that is as unimaginable as it is real, and a girl who not only survives but triumphs.

The pursuit of Lakshmi, the fickle goddess of prosperity and good fortune, is a metaphor for the aspirations of the state and people of independent India. In the latest of their distinguished contributions to South Asian studies, scholars Lloyd I. Rudolph and Susanne Hoeber Rudolph focus on this modern-day pursuit by offering a comprehensive analysis of India's political economy. India occupies a paradoxical plane among nation states: it is both developed and underdeveloped, rich and poor, strong and weak. These contrasts locate India in the international order. The Rudolphs' theory of demand and command polities provides a general framework for explaining the special circumstances of the Indian experience. Contrary to what one might expect in a country with great disparities of wealth, no national party, right or left, pursues the politics of class. Instead, the Rudolphs argue, private capital and organized labor in India face a "third actor"—the state. Because of the dominance of the state makes class politics marginal, the state is itself an element in the creation of the centrist-oriented social pluralism that has characterized Indian politics since independence. In analyzing the relationship between India's politics and its economy, the Rudolphs maintain that India's economic performance has been only marginally affected by the type of regime in power—authoritarian or democratic. More important, they show that rising levels of social mobilization and personalistic rule have contributed to declining state capacity and autonomy. At the same time, social mobilization has led to a more equitable distribution of economic benefits and political power, which has enhanced the state's legitimacy among its citizens. The scope and explanatory power of In Pursuit of Lakshmi will make it essential for all those interested in political economy, comparative politics, Asian studies and India.

A vivid memoir of food and family, survival and triumph, Love, Loss, and What We Ate traces the arc of Padma Lakshmi’s unlikely path from an immigrant childhood to a complicated life in front of the camera—a tantalizing blend of Ruth Reichl’s Tender at the Bone and Nora Ephron’s Heartburn Long before Padma Lakshmi ever stepped onto a television set, she learned that how we eat is an extension of how we love, how we comfort, how we forge a sense of home—and how we taste the world as we navigate our way through it. Shuttling between continents as a child, she lived a life of dislocation that would become habit as an adult, never quite at home in the world. And yet, through all her travels, her favorite food remained the simple rice she first ate sitting on the cool floor of her grandmother’s kitchen in South India. Poignant and surprising, Love, Loss, and What We Ate is Lakshmi’s extraordinary account of her journey from that humble kitchen, ruled by ferocious and unforgettable women, to the judges’ table of Top Chef and beyond. It chronicles the fierce devotion of the remarkable people who shaped her along the way, from her headstrong mother who flouted conservative Indian convention to make a life in New York, to her Brahmin grandfather—a brilliant engineer with an irrepressible sweet tooth—to the man seemingly wrong for her in every way who proved to be her truest ally. A memoir rich with sensual prose and punctuated with evocative recipes, it is alive with the scents, tastes, and textures of a life that spans complex geographies both internal and external. Love, Loss, and What We Ate is an intimate and unexpected story of food and family—both the ones we are born to and the ones we create—and their enduring legacies.