Lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth, is also called as Shri or Sree. She is the avatar of Lakshmi and consort of Lord Vishnu. The goddess Shri Lakshmi is generally depicted seated on a lotus, decked in golden jewelry, draped in a red saree, with a pot in one hand and flanked by white elephants. Most businessmen and Hindus in India have their establishments and homes adorned with an image of Goddess Lakshmi. This Hindu deity is believed to be the goddess of fertility, wealth, beauty, luxury, fortune and auspiciousness. The term Shri has been given a general meaning of ‘prosperity, grace, wealth, splendor, affluence and beauty’.
Shri is an Indian word also transliterated as Sree or Sri and used to denote prosperity and wealth. It is used as a honorific, primarily. The term Shri is used widely in Kannada, Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam and Tamil languages.
Shri Yantra is a popular mystical diagram or ‘yantra’ used to worship the goddess of wealth. The term Shri or Shrimati is a polite form to address someone, in the same way as Mr. or Mrs. is used in the English language.
The term Shri is often used as an epithet of some of the gods in Hinduism. Shri is also the one of the names of the Hindu God of Prosperity – Lord Ganesha. The title Shri is also used for a number of Hindu deities like Saraswati, Rama, Durga and Krishna. It is common practice in Hinduism to write the term ‘Shri’ as a centralized word in the first line at the beginning of a document. Shri is also used as a prefix or postfix in musical motifs (ragas), for example as Dhanashree, Shree, Jayantashree, Malashree, Shree Ranjani, Rageshree and Bageshree.
