Thread by @jeysundhar_d

On the occasion of #HappyMothersDay, shall we look at #MathruPanchakam, a set of five stanzas composed by Adi Shankara upon the demise of his mother?

Mathru Panchakam is one of the most moving compositions on the role of a mother.

It is also probably (correct me if wrong), the only composition of Sankara dedicated to a mortal.

Mortal - a word with its origin in Latin "mort"-cognate with Sanskrit Mrityu - implies death.

As much as we sidestep thoughts of mortality, ours as well as those close to us, it happens when it has to.

And when it does happen to those closest to us, the sense of loss overwhelms us.

Having lost his father at a much younger age, his mother Aryamba is all Sankara has known.

Sankara too is overwhelmed by the loss of his mother, even if he has taken up Sanyasa.

As he had promised her in his Purvashrama (before taking up Sanyasa), he returns to her in her last moments.

His outpouring of pain upon her departure takes the form of what has come to us as Mathru Panchakam.

It has 5 stanzas of 4 verses each. We'll look at a paraphrased translation in English. #HappyMothersDay

Sankara holds her head, as she would have once held his as a child, and talks about all that she has gone through to bring him to the world.

He talks about the fatigue she would have felt carrying him around for months. Garbha Bharam, he says.

And the tastelessness caused by imbalance during those months - Nairuchyam- that would have made her thin and weak.

The unbearable pain she bore as a mother to bring him to this world, and the year that she spent in the same bed as him, with his feces and urine.

All this, he says, is something he cannot compensate her for, no matter how great he becomes.

This is a direct contrast with what Tiruvalluvar says, "A mother feels happier, not when a son is born, but when she hears him being called learned".

Sankara recalls the moment Aryamba came running to his Gurukula. In tears, she described how in her dream, Sankara had become a Sanyasi.

The entire Gurukula wept with her, in communion with her misery.

Well, that was to come nevertheless.
Sankara, not objecting to her cries, had then fallen at her feet in namaskara.

He recalls that as he has returned to her, but as a Sanyasi.

"In labor, you called to Mother, to Father, to Shiva, to Krishna, to Hari and to Mukunda.

But Mother, with you gone, I have nobody else to cry to. Please accept my Anjali"

Sankara laments about the duties of a son that he has failed at.
He was not around to even bring water in her final moments, no final ceremonies on the day of her passing, he has not even chanted the Taraka mantra in her ears as she departed.

He has arrived late...too late to perform any of that.

Guilt overwhelms him.

You sang to me calling me your Muktha (pearl), Mani (gem/jewel), you called me as your eyes (nayanam), as a king and as your life...

But in return for all that, all I give you is dry rice in your mouth.

It is important to note that contrary to the norm, Sankara does not deify his mother in her death.

She is not God in the form of his mother, nor his mother who is now a God to him.

The love is very, shall we say, human and real.

His mother was like all of us, a fragile human being, given to pain, fear from dreams, love and affection.

Sankara, in his moment of loss, is no different. His sense of guilt, from having failed in his duties to her, breaks his resolve.

So, in the final moments that he shares with her, he laments at all that he has not done and offers his last anjali to the Janani who brought him to life.
#HappyMothersDay

A rendition of Mathru Panchakam.

Perhaps, it should be set to tune. #HappyMothersDay

Thanks for reading. @threadreaderapp Please compile.