Shri Lalitha Sahasranamam: Namam 810: Shri Pasha hasta (ōṃ pāśahastāyai namaḥ)

The Divine Mother holds a noose in Her lower left hand; noose is a loop with a sliding knot for tightening and loosening. This Noose can also be called lasso (used by cowboys).

Pasham is a rope used to hold and tie something. The Divine Mother uses this as a weapon. For universal life, the souls need pasham or attachment. For all creations, there is a close attachment between their biological mother and them. Each universal living being matures with these attachments. On reaching their mature level, they can visualize that these attachments ought to drop off. When they gain the ability to handle their own affairs, these attachments slowly get away from them. Humans after going through all universal experiences, need to separate from this life cycle to reach Brahman. To understand this aspect, humans have gone through many birth and death cycles. They aim  achieve four key attributes, namely, Dharma (righteous), Artha (wealth), Kama (desire), and Moksha (liberation). After humans go through such maturing experiences, the Divine Mother releases Her Pasha held in left lower hand, from Her devotees to reach Brahman.

Please see earlier Nama 8 “Ragasvarupapasadhya” for more description on noose. The Divine Mother has four, eight or thousand arms; this means four directions, eight directions or one thousand directions, to mean the whole universe is under Her watch; this shows Her sovereignty over everything in this universe.

            The Divine Mother holds a noose in Her hand

              to release Her devotees to Brahman.      

C N Nachiappan

Singapore, 13 April 2022; Updated 28 June 2025.

 

References:

1.   The Thousand Names of the Divine Mother published in English by Mata Amritanandamayis Aparna San Ramon, California, USA, with Commentary by T. V Narayana Menon

2.   Shri Lalitha Sahasranama Stostram published in Tamil by N. Ramaswami Iyer charities’ societies, Trichirapalli, India, with Commentary by C. V. Radhakrishna Sastry.

3.   The Lalitha Sahasranamam published in Tamil by Shri Ramakrishna Thapovanam, Thiruipparaithurai, Trichy District, Tamilnadu, India with commentary by Shrimath Swami Sithbavandar