This mantra is addressed to Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, fortune, abundance and sovereignty, in her exalted form as Mahalakshmi. Its seed is the syllable Shrim, which the tradition treats as the sound-form of Lakshmi and of prosperity itself, shri being an ancient word for auspiciousness and splendour, framed by Om and the salutation "to great Lakshmi, homage." It is recited by devotees seeking well-being and abundance, both material and spiritual, and is especially associated with the worship of Lakshmi on Fridays and at the festival of Diwali, when she is invited into the home. Lakshmi's fortune in Hindu understanding is not narrowly financial but encompasses beauty, harmony and the flourishing of life, so that her mantra is used with an eye to prosperity in the broadest sense. It is among the most popular of the goddess mantras and a staple of household devotion.
The mantra follows a standard formula found across a great many personal-deity invocations in Hindu devotional practice: Om, the deity's own bija, or seed syllable, here Shrim, the goddess's name in the dative case, Mahalakshmyai, to great Lakshmi, and the closing namaha, salutation or homage. Shrim is treated in Shakta and Tantric literature as Lakshmi's own bija, carrying her essential vibrational quality independent of any accompanying words, so that the syllable alone, repeated, is held to invoke her presence in a way the surrounding Sanskrit words make explicit but do not themselves supply.