shree kubera stotram'

Seventeen or so verses addressing Kubera as Dhanada, Shrida, Rajaraja and Dhaneshwara, as the beloved of Dhanalakshmi and the protector of the afflicted and the poor, holding a conch and shining like the young sun. The closing verse begins pratah kale pathet stotram shuchirbhutva, recite this in the morning after bathing. Kubera is the lokapala of the north.

Significance

One epithet settles how the rest should be read: deenarti-jana-rakshaka, protector of the afflicted and the poor. Set it beside Dhanada, giver of wealth, and the stotra stops sounding like a request for a windfall. It is addressing an officer who is answerable for the people who have nothing, which is a different job from handing out money to whoever asks.

His story supports the same reading. He is a yaksha king, son of Vishrava, half-brother of Ravana, ruling Alaka in the northern mountains, and his Pushpaka vimana was taken from him by force by that brother. A wealth deity who was himself robbed and displaced is an odd patron for a get-rich scheme, and these verses do not offer one.

The other thing the stotra keeps doing is putting him next to Lakshmi. He is called the beloved of Dhanalakshmi, not a source independent of her. The household logic of that is worth spelling out: Lakshmi gives, Kubera keeps and guards. It is why south Indian Deepavali poojas place them together, and why a Kubera pooja standing on its own is uncommon.

The direction follows him everywhere. As lokapala of the north he is the reason shop safes and cash drawers are set to open northward and the pooja corner sits in the north-east. Whatever one makes of that, it is a real and observable practice in Karnataka shops.

Say clearly what the text does not say. Nobody who recites this is promised a sum of money. Anyone selling a Kubera mantra with a count and a guaranteed return is selling something these verses do not contain.

How and when to chant

The closing verse fixes the time: morning, after bathing, in a clean state. That is all the procedure the stotra asks for. A lamp facing north and a few flowers are enough if you want to make a pooja of it.

Dhanatrayodashi, on the trayodashi of the Ashwayuja Krishna paksha, and Akshaya Tritiya in Vaishakha are the two days most associated with him. Regional honesty is due here: Dhanteras is a much larger observance in north and west India than in Karnataka, where Naraka Chaturdashi and Bali Padyami carry the weight of Deepavali. In Kannada districts the Kubera pooja is more often kept in shops, with the account books and the cash box, than in homes.

Where families do keep it, the lamp is lit at dusk on Dhanatrayodashi and a coin or a piece of silver is placed in the pooja rather than bought new. Lakshmi is invoked alongside, which is the ordinary form.

If you are reciting because money is tight, recite it, and also do the practical thing the same week. The tradition that gave Kubera the title protector of the poor did not intend the stotra as a substitute for action.