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