The Seed of Abundance

Shrim is the seed syllable (bija mantra) of Lakshmi and of abundance, and among the most used of the goddess seeds. It is one of the relatively few bijas transparently connected to an ordinary word, shri, meaning auspiciousness, splendour, prosperity and the goddess Lakshmi herself, and it is treated as the sound-form of fortune and well-being.

In Shakta and Vaishnava practice it is recited on its own in japa and incorporated into longer mantras of Lakshmi and other goddesses associated with prosperity, invoked for flourishing in both material and spiritual senses. Like the other seed syllables it functions as pure, potent sound rather than as a sentence, understood to carry the concentrated power of the deity it names. Its close tie to the everyday language of auspiciousness makes it one of the more accessible of the goddess seeds, and it is very widely employed in household and temple devotion to Lakshmi.