Shri Lalitha Sahasranamam: Namam 7: Shri Chathur Bahu Samanvitha (OM chaturbAhusamanvitAyai namaH)

The meaning of this namam is that the Divine Mother holds four hands to direct help and supports her devotees in their process of graduating to a higher level to reach the Almighty to be merged in it.

Chathur means four and Bahu can mean arms or  hands in Sanskrit.

We humans have two hands with which we do lots of things in our life. Even if any one of our hands gets hurt thereby putting it out of operation even for a short duration, we humans find it difficult to get on with our day today activities. The Divine Mother has four hands with which she is helping her devotees on many great things

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In Hinduism, for various reasons behind them, certain deities are said to have more number of hands. For example Lord Muruga is said have six faces and twelve hands to support his devotees. Similarly a five faced Vinayakar is worshipped in Nepal. There are instances of four faced deity in our religious front. On same sense, it is said that the Divine Mother is having four hands to support and save her devotees.

These four hands can be representing four time based yugas, the ancient Hindus had systemized, namely Krutha, Therothana, Thuvarpara and Kali yugam (we are supposed to be in Kali yuga now).

These four hands can also represent four basic directions namely, north, south, east and west.

In human activities, there are also four essentials such as Aram (justice), Porul (materials), Inbam (enjoyment or happiness) and Veedu, refers to Moksha. These four hands represent such four activities in human beings.

The Divine Mother uses her four hands in all these functions. All great things are happening to all souls through the use of these four hands of the Divine Mother.

C N Nachiappun
Singapore, 31 January 2020.