Sri Mahalakshmi The Universal Mother & Sri Parashara Bhattar's Sri Gunarathna Kosha

This book is an important one for me as I had been harbouring a feeling for sometime that I had not written any book on Sri Mahalakshmi, the Periya Piratti. Of course one of the reasons is that the crop of writing on Her is not much and the number can be counted on hand. Yes, there is the general feeling (and pramaanas also declaring) that whatever and whenever we talk about the Lord, it also applies to the Goddess. The book Gunarathnakosha by Bhattar is indeed a treasure house filled with Periya Piratti's "kalyana gunas" justifying the name.

Look at Lord's declaration in Sri Vishnu Sahasranama:

"When I got married, I declared to all, the secret that the Supreme Reality is indeed a couple and not merely either Narayana or Lakshmi alone. Further, I let it be known that very much like Myself, Lakshmi has no beginning, that is, the eternality of both. We have embraced each other and we are always together- She is Prakrithi, the Universal Mother".

('Lakshmeevaan' is the 363rd name for the Lord in Sahasranamam. The bhashyam given above is extracted from Sri Parashara Bhattar's "Bhagavath Guna Darpana"- translated into English by adiyen).

I have covered a set of four well-known sthothras two of which with 'full moola text'- the four slokas are Alavandhar's Chathuslokee, Koorathalwaan's 'Sri Sthavam', Bhattar's 'Sree Gunarathnakosha' and Vedantha Desikar's 'Sri Sthuthi'.

**Contents and Sample Pages**