May 08, 2008

Mother’s Day is celebrated all over the world, with the day falling on different dates but generally observed on the second Sunday of May. Perhaps it began during the Roman era (circa 146BC-6AD). During those days people used to pay respects to their mothers, presented gifts and even paid tributes through songs in their praise, for instance:
 

                                      “There is no love like a mother’s love,

                                       No stranger bond on earth,

                                       Like the precious bond that comes from God,

                                      To a mother when she gives birth.”

In the eastern cultures, the love and respect for a mother is unfathomed; it is expressed in all forms -- from songs to rituals. But with the eastern mystic poets, this emotion takes a different and unique form. Apparently, these mystics take popular love stories, legends and folk tales, and their characters as their symbols to express their mystic thoughts. These contemplations become a source of philosophic expressions. Almost all their characters symbolise one or the other aspect of life, such as connotations of love, pangs of separation and a struggle for attaining the ultimate objective of union.

The most commonly used simile is that of the mother. In fact, the mother represents the world’s traditional system dominated by certain forces which tends to be against any change. The daughter reflects the character of a force that wants change in the system, to bring new values, ensuring love for all. Deriving their lives from the same culture, almost all the mystic poets of the subcontinent have used: a) the similes communicating similar connotations, and b) expressing the same kind of intensity of love, grief and longing for union. A more important emotion is that the seeker is the woman and man, the beloved one. Occasionally, the poet speaks to the mother, who shares the feelings of separation and depth of love with some advice aimed at adhering to new realities. This gives the poetry a philosophic intonation, only found in the eastern mystic thoughts.

There are many poets but looking into our immediate past, we’ll speak about a few in the subcontinent.

Being earliest in the line, we first take Shah Hussain (1539-1599). He says:

“Allow me a frolic, O mother,

For none will come again,

To play a game.

My heart is all in a tremble,

So small I be,

And such is the height of His vision,

The groom is all beauty and virtue,

He may or may not like,

To clasp me to His bosom.”

Another great poet is Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai (1689-1752). He used this simile inspiringly, thus:

“O mother, I saw them who saw the Beloved,

I may not be able to speak about them. (S.A.)

He kills, when cares, when he kills fast,

Mother! sufferings come from Him and He is the soul’s solace.”

Sachal Sarmast, remembered as Mansoor-i-Saani ((1739-1829), addresses the mother in this way:

“May I live and not die,

Until my eyes on the Beloved lie,

O mother, until my last day,

This is my desire , I pray.”

Another great Sufi poet, Ghulam Farid (1845- 1901), says:

“The moment I was born, my desperate mother dispensed me medicine of sorrows,

And also gave such food of grief that I still languish from it.”

The treatment of the mother’s character in mystic poetry may be very unique for those not akin with this thought but as a simile it is unique, wonderful and a source of solace.