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#Kanakdhara stotram #Goddess Mahalaxmi#worship
#Kanakadhara Stotram (Sanskrit: कनकधारा स्तोत्रम्, kanakadhārā stotram) is a hymn (Stotra) composed in Sanskrit by Adi Shankar. kanakadhārā means "stream" (dhārā) of "gold" (kanaka), and the hymn is called by this name since legend has it that when Adi Shankar recited it, Goddess Lakshmi appeared in front of him and unleashed a stream of gold.
The hymn was written in the 8th century CE by Adi Shankaracharya a revered Hindu philosopher and theologian. Shankara took Sanyasa (renunciation) at the age of eight.
One day, as a young boy, he was on bhiksha for alms to prepare his lunch and happened upon the doorstep of a very poor Brahmin lady. Having nothing edible in her home, the lady frantically searched her house, only to find a single AANWLA (Amalak, gooseberry) fruit which she then hesitantly offered to Shankara. Shankara was so moved by the incredible kindness and selflessness of this woman that he burst forth into poetry and sang 21 stanzas in praise of Goddess Lakshmi. Pleased by the beauty and power of the hymn, the Goddess appeared before him and asked him why he had remembered her. Shankara pleaded with the Goddess to reverse the fortunes of this lady's family by granting her riches. At first, Goddess Lakshmi refused to do so, saying that the lady had not been charitable in her previous birth and was bound by the laws of karma to have a fate bound to poverty in her current birth. Shankara implored the Goddess that the lady's act of absolute selflessness should absolve her of her sins of the past and that Lakshmi was the only one capable of changing the fate of someone by erasing or changing the writings of the future made by Lord Brahma. Goddess Lakshmi was so pleased that she instantly showered the lady's house with goose berries made of pure gold.