Ten months and ten days a mother endures sorrow. But now, though I am hungry, my Mother does not ask where her child is. Earthly parents correct their sons, when they have offended.
Though you see Death, that dreadful ogre, coming to slay me, you are untroubled.
Twice-born[1] Rāmprasād says: Where did you learn this conduct? If you behave like your father,[2] do not take upon yourself the name of World-Mother.
III. HE WILL TURN TO HIS STEPMOTHER, SINCE
HIS MOTHER IS APPARENTLY DEAD
Mind, call no longer Mother. You will not find her. Had she been alive, she would have come. But she is dead, and lives no longer.
Now go to your stepmother's bank there burn an image of kuśa-grass; when the time of mourning has finished, leave on the bank your lump of rice. Then let us go to Kāśī.[3]
- ↑ A member of the higher castes, the three that are 'twice born,' Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaiśyas.
- ↑ Himālaya. The reader will find Rāmprasād frequently taunting his goddess with being stony by origin and stony by nature. Umā or Parvatī, child of Himālaya, is identified with Kālī and Durgā.
- ↑ In despair, he threatens to turn to the popular religion of ceremonial and pilgrimage, which he has so often scoffed at as useless. Ganges in Rāmprasād stands for this religion. Since his Mother Kālī is dead, he will perform the Śrāddha ceremony for her. This includes an offering of a lump of rice (piṇda) to the departed spirit, after the first period of mourning, which lasts (in the case of Brahmins) for ten days. The Śrāddha rites are partly ordinary funeral ones, partly those of ancestor-worship. The eldest son must perform them, which is why it is of such importance to Hindus to have a son.
When a person has been untraced for twelve years, his death is assumed, and, since his body is not available for the pyre, an image of kuśa-grass (Poa cynosuroides) is burnt.
