"Hārītī is invoked today for the health of children and for an easy birth. In India she was originally a demon who fed on small children. Legend says that grieving villagers appealed to the Buddha to deliver them from her, and so the Buddha hid one of her ten thousand children from her. Mad with grief, Hārītī searched frantically for the missing child and then, unable to find it, went to the Buddha for help, believing him omniscient.

"Here you are," said the Buddha, "grief-stricken because one of your ten thousand children is missing. How do you think the villagers, who have only two or three, feel when they lose one?"

Hārītī then awoke to the extent of her wrongdoing and became a deity that protected children."

Akira Sadakata