Shri Lalitha Sahasranamam: Namam 955: Shri Dhara (ōṃ dharāyai namaḥ)

The Divine Mother is Mother Earth. Dhara means Support.

The Divine Mother is in the form of Earth, which is one of the five key elements. Earth is our place of living. Whatever we can visualize are the Divine Mother’s glories. Humans can use the Earth properly or improperly. Being patient, the Earth bears these two groups of people within it.

Earth or here the Divine Mother is the one who bears all of us. As the Divine Mother is bearing the whole universe, She is called ‘Dhara’. Earth is also called Dhara. She is also in Lum beja form. Patience is the key aspect of Earth. The Divine Mother is in that patience form being Dhara.

The Earth is one of the five elements the Divine Mother created to help universal beings. The Divine Mother is the support for all five elements. We can recall that the position of the Earth element (Prithvi tattva) is the Muladhara, which is the support of all. Just as the Earth supports everything, the Divine Mother bears the comic bodies in Her fingertips, merely as a sport. Hence, She is Dhara, the one who carries the whole universe.

According to mantra sastra, this Nama means, the Divine Mother who is in the form of syllable ‘la’. Bhaskar Acarya, an expert on Shri Lalitha Saharanama meanings and explanations, quotes from Jnanarnava: “The syllable ‘la’ is the Goddess Earth, with mountains and forests, the essence of all the holy places of pilgrimage and blessed with fifty Shakti Peethas.”

The Divine Mother is Mother Earth

C N Nachiappan

Singapore, 05 September 2022; updated 28 October 2025.

References:

1.The Thousand Names of the Divine Mother published by Mata Amritanandam in California, USA, with Commentary by T. V Narayana Menon

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

3. The Lalitha Sahasranamam published in Tamil by Shri Ramakrishna Thapovanam, Thiruipparaithurai, Trichy District, Tamil Nadu, India with commentary by Shrimath Swami Sith-Bavandar.