Happy Mother's Day!
A mother's love isn't meant for just a single day of celebration. But as we come together to honor what our mothers do for us -- as my mother does for me, and as my wife does for our children -- it is a day of unlimited gratitude and love toward the women who gave us life, nourished us through every trial, endured more than we will ever know, and never stopped loving us through it all.
In Sanskrit literature, the highest form of reverence is expressed by invoking the divine feminine -- Durgā the fierce protector, Lakṣmī the gracious sustainer, Sarasvatī the patient teacher. Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay's immortal hymn "Vande Mātaram" (1882), though composed as a song to the motherland, draws on exactly this imagery. And that is why these verses speak just as powerfully to the woman who raised you -- because every mother is all three:
कमला कमलदलविहारिणी
वाणी विद्यादायिनी,
नमामि त्वाम्
नमामि कमलाम्
अमलां अतुलाम्
सुजलां सुफलाम्
मातरम्॥
kamalā kamaladalavihāriṇī
vāṇī vidyādāyinī,
namāmi tvām
namāmi kamalām
amalāṃ atulām
sujalāṃ suphalām
mātaram
With her hands that strike and her swords of sheen,
Thou art Lakshmi lotus-throned,
And the Muse a hundred-toned.
Pure and perfect without peer,
Mother, lend thine ear.
Mother, mother mine!
Mother sweet, I bow to thee!
-- English translation by Sri Aurobindo (for Vande Mataram)
To every mother reading this: you are the protector, the nurturer, and the quiet teacher, all at once. Happy Mother's Day.