ശ്രീ ദക്ഷിണാസ്യ പഞ്ചരത്ന സ്തോത്രമ്

Five verses, each closing on the line I contemplate the south-facing one. The first recalls an old act of rescue — a being oppressed by maya and swollen with pride, whom he held by a single hair of the knotted lock and gladly protected. The second has him served by hosts of yakshas, gandharvas and vidyadharas and shining among them, calls him the great lord whose understanding reaches the subtlest purport of things, and the giver of the highest bliss. The last verse is the gentlest: seated in the portion of the generous god, he gives prosperity to those who take shelter at his lotus feet, and gladly gives speech to children — a small domestic mercy set beside the metaphysics, and a good indication of how this figure is actually approached.