Kanakadhara Stotram

This is one of the earliest hymns composed by Adi Sankara.

Adi Sankara, as we all know, was one of the great saints of India. Born in a poor brahmin family, he got the upanayana performed at a very tender age. According to the practice at that time he was asked to beg alms for his lunch. One day when he was begging for alms he reached at the house of a brahmin lady. The lady was very poor and didn’t have anything in her house to offer to him. After looking everywhere, the only thing she found was a single fruit of gooseberry and she hesitatingly offered it to Sankara.

Sankara was so touched by her gesture that he sang 21 melodious hymns appealing to Goddess Lakshmi and praying for the removal of the poverty of the lady. Pleased by his prayer, Goddess Lakshmi then showered riches on the brahmin lady by showering golden gooseberries into her house. These 21 slokas have thus become sacred and popular as Kanakadhara Stotram, the word Kanakadhara meaning ‘the rain of gold’. The stotram is recited or heard for the welfare of anyone suffering from poverty.