Shri Lalita Devi is an aspect of the Universal Mother Goddess Adi Parashakti, the Supreme Power of existence, omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, and completely perfect. She is a form of the wife of Shiva; but She is also Self-willed and completely independent, a condition upon which She accepted Shiva in marriage. She is famously known by a thousand names, listed in the Shri Lalita Sahasranama, one of the most revered sacred chants in Sanatana Dharma. Lalita means “She who plays”, referring to the fact that all of existence is a game She plays for Her own amusement. She is the very life force of the cosmos, often called Lalitambika, the Playful Mother, or She Who Gives Birth to Reality By Playing. Some of Her other most well-known names are Shodashi, Tripura Sundari, Kamakshi, and Kameshwari, the Empress of Desire. She is the quintessence of beauty and desire, and exquisite beauty flows from Her like a river, resplendent as the rising Sun. Her loving, healing glance is cool as moonlight, and Her eyes are said to always be shimmering with moisture as if She is just on the verge of shedding tears from the sheer compassion that She feels for all beings.
She is well known for destroying Bhandasura, the demon of shame and destructive, distorted desires without regard for the sovereign rights of other beings, the corruption of the life-affirming impulses of nature, born from the ashes of Kamadeva - one of the most powerful and dangerous demons in all of Hindu lore. Their truly epic war is described in spectacular detail in Her main scripture, the Lalitopakhyana, a beautiful masterwork dozens of chapters long, which is found within the Brahmanda Mahapurana. The many details of this conflict, and lots of other phases of the Lalitopakhyana as well (such as the elaborate descriptions of Her celestial city, its mansions and antechambers and inner compartments and so on, representing the holy Shri Chakra), brim with Yogic symbolism in dozens of ways, with Indra here representing the archetypal Yogi, practicing Kundalini Yoga to its culmination and attaining the Darshan of Shri Lalita. Her army of Shaktis represent all the innate energies of the subtle body, their chariots the various Yantras, and their activities encode Yogic teachings on the application of Pranayama and other techniques.
On an outer level, people worship Her for prosperity, protection, vibrant health, virtue, fame, loving spouses, devoted children, trustworthy friends, courage, and a life of fulfillment, and because when our senses are offered to Her and our thoughts directed to Her, our life becomes sweet and fragrant. On an inner level, people worship Her because She represents the perfection of Yoga and the attainment of the highest Moksha, at which the soul soars into Her infinite rapturous ecstasy. We pray for Her Divine grace to destroy those obstacles which are beyond our capacity to overcome.
She is the main deity of Shrikula Shakta Dharma, one of the two main branches of Shaktism, the Family of Lalita Tripurasundari. Thus She is also the main deity of Shri Vidya Tantra, practiced by the initiatory priesthoods in many of the great Goddess temples of South India. The core mantras of Shri Vidya Tantra are quite literally secretly encoded within Lalita’s hymns such as the Lalita Trishati Stotram, also contained within the Lalitopakhyana.
She is the very source of desire itself. Indeed Her own desires for play and beauty and the interaction of forces give rise to the infinite universes. People worship Her because it is not possible to annihilate or suppress the force of desire within ourselves; this force arises from Her and is unstoppable. But it is possible to redirect it back to Her, its source, and thus bring it into healthy Divine attunement.
Her iconography is abundantly diverse. When humanoid, She takes the form of a beautiful young woman. Sometimes She holds a pot of honey, various weapons, etc. Sometimes She holds the sugarcane bow and the five flower arrows of Kama, representing the mind and the five senses respectively. But the Shri Yantra is also Her form, and the very knowledge of Shri Vidya Tantra itself is also identical with Her, as is the true Satguru who teaches it.