manasā devī cālīsā

A Hindi chalisa to Manasa which opens, unusually for the form, by printing her mantra before a single verse of praise. The name is then worked for what it means: manasa is the mind and what the mind wishes, so she is called the fulfiller of wishes and the one who takes on the worry of everyone who worries. She is addressed as Padmavati and as the remover of fear, and her power is compared to the wish-granting cow. What it asks her for is set out in a plain domestic list — wealth and comfort and peace, and advancement in business — and one verse says that whoever she takes into her own shadow she makes free of disease. It belongs with the hill shrine at Haridwar rather than with the eastern serpent tradition, and it does not mention the snakes at all.