ନକ୍ଷତ୍ର ଶାନ୍ତି ସ୍ତୋତ୍ରମ୍

Twelve verses that walk the whole circle of the constellations and ask each quarter of it for peace. The count begins at Krittika, as the older Vedic reckoning does rather than at Ashwini, and takes seven at a time: Krittika to Ashlesha standing in the east, Magha to Vishakha in the south, Anuradha to Shravana in the west with Abhijit counted among them, and Dhanishtha round to Bharani fixed in the north. The hymn calls them the mothers of the constellations, adorned with garlands of light, and its refrain is the same in each quarter — that they are able in the worship of Mahadeva, that their minds are fixed on Shiva alone, and that, moved by him, they should grant the reciter peace at all times. Recited against affliction from one's birth star.