ஶ்ரீ தீபலக்ஷ்மீ ஸ்தவம்

A hymn to Lakshmi as the lamp, and almost all of it is preparation rather than praise — the verses describe, step by step, the making of the place where she will be invited to sit. Inside the house, on a fine platform of gold, the sweeping and the smearing done, incense set out by rule, and a rangoli of five-coloured powder laid down in a pattern. Then the lamp itself: like a deep and brimming lake, its middle filled with cow's ghee, its wick made of lotus fibre, garlanded with flowers, lovely with a mark of sandal. The lamp is not a symbol of the goddess here but her seat, and the last verse says what her look does from it: health of body, lordship, the end of the enemy's side, happiness — none of these is hard to get for those her glance has fallen on.