SĀKTA SONGS
RĀMPRASĀD SEN
I. THE CHILD'S COMPLAINT OF HIS
MOTHER'S NEGLECT
Tell me where I may stand, Mother Tārā.[1] I am alone, O Śaṅkarī.[2] A mother's love brings the father's with it. But the father who dallies with a stepmother,[3] vainly does his child look to him. If you forget all kindness, shall I go to my stepmother? If a stepmother take me in her lap, will my mind's disquiet cease?[4]
Prasād says: In our scriptures this is written. He that names your name, Mother, wins for reward a garland of bones, and robes in tatters.
II. SHE IS UTTERLY INDIFFERENT
Is motherhood then a mere word of the lips? Bringing forth does not make a mother, unless she can understand the griefs of her child.
- ↑ Star: a name of Kālī.
- ↑ Saṅkarī: Wife of Sankara ('He who does good,' Śiva).
- ↑ Literally, 'The father who holds a stepmother on his head.' The reference is to 'Śiva,' who, in the purānic mythology, broke the fall of the Ganges from heaven to earth, by receiving the flood on his matted hair. Ganges becomes also co-wife with Kālī. So Rāmprasād says: Śiva's affections wander and are divided, and the worshipper of Kāli cannot look to Kālī's lord for affection, which he has given elsewhere.
- ↑ There are variant readings of most of Rāmprasād's poems, for they have gone from mouth to mouth for a century and a half, long before they were printed. In this line, we have taken the most intelligible reading.
