India My Mother, Amma

India My Mother, Amma

 

India my Mother

Bharat my Amma

I feel you well

Deep inside you dwell

In all of us

Who sleep in your arms,

I see you in our songs,

And in the crowds that throng

To offer prayers

Be it a temple, church,

Mosque, Gurudwaras

Riverbed, or Bo tree

And abodes they feel holy!

Crowd, crowd

Masses of people,

For anything we have

Market or a theatre

Death or a birth

They throng in throng

That is Your Energy

That is Your Thought

 

The noisy music

Before sunrise,

From the Hindu temples,

And many simple homes,

And the call to the believers

From the holy mosques,

Sounds of the birds,

And of the servant maids

Who go for work

To earn their breads,

Sounds and noises,

Of hawkers, cars, autorickshaws

Film music from petty shops,

Marriage processions,

Election meetings,

Protest marches,

Bells from churches,

Gurbani from gurudwaras

Melodious music

That’s so classical,

Sounds of ‘ OM’,

And deep silence,

Many modern noises

From televisions, discos

And factory machines

And aircraft flights,

Occasional shootings

And ambulance hoots,

And horn sounds

From the cars of nouveau riche,

And you find

Beggar’s pleadings

Policemen’s warnings

Also the calmness

From fields and rivers,

And openness of the rural lands,

Flowing rivers

And the coastal waves…

Giggling of children

Hisses of snakes,

‘Mows’ of the cows,

Bleatings of goats,

No end to the diversity

For the things noisy…

Indian mother rejoices in sounds,

Bharat Amma enjoys her voice!

 

Beyond the crowds and noises

My Amma does many wonders,

In modern knowledge

And the resultant businesses,

The centuries’ old agriculture

And artisanal skills;

Her sons are often lazy

Some of them are crazy!

Her daughters are always bust

Their lives aren’t that rosy!

Still they adorn their homes

Come out with their costumes

To find their fun in the festivals!

Women’s face are the new symbols

For media competing for market share,

There are people talking of culture

Blaming modernity for all the ills

But enjoying fully all its frills!

 

Olden versus modern,

Frugal versus rapacious

This world versus the other,

Tolerant versus explosive,

Gentle versus crude

Sincere versus hypocritic

Ritual versus spiritual

Analytical versus non-rational

Plural versus parochial

Innovative versus obscure

Creative versus repetitive

Well dressed versus uncouth

All you find in canvas single

Don’t you realize how they mingle!

Fierce ’n kind, angry ’n friendly!

Blood dripping from a cut head

But Mother cares for the whole world!

Along with the angry dance

Takes the children on her laps!

Versus disappears in inclusiveness

Opposites merge in Her singleness

Appearing as an endless continuum

Of beautiful diversity and infinitum!

 

When the mind is emptied

Of crude ‘yes’ or ‘no’ digitized,

When the mind is ready ’n open

To see the life’s texture and span

Of breadth, length and depth

Of time and change, in a single sweep

Mother India smiles with love

The Amma lifts you like a wave

To place you on her laps

To caress you with her taps

With her gentle fingers on you head,

To give a vision supreme

Of an Indian life so sublime!

 

 - Y.S.Rajan

 Completed on Vijayadasami Day

23 October 2004