VII. THE WORSHIPPER COMPLAINS OF THE INEQUALITY OF LOTS

Let us have a word or two about the problem of suffering. Let us talk about suffering, Tarā, let me express my mind.

Some say that you are humble and full of kindness.

Yes, Mother, to some you have given wealth, horses, elephants, charioteers, conquest. And the lot of others is field labour, with rice and vegetables.

[35]

Some live in palaces, as I myself would like to do. O Mother, are these fortunate folk your grandfathers,[56] and I no relation at all?

Some wear shawls and comfortable wrappers,[57] they have sugar and curds as well as rice.

Some ride in pālkis,[58] while I have the privilege of carrying them.

Mother, through what grain land of yours have I driven my plough?[59]

Prasād says: If I forget you, I endure the burden of grief that burns. Mother, my desire is to become the dust of those Feet that banish fear.

FOOTNOTES:

[56] Naturally the most honoured in a society whose inner sanctities are those of immediate ancestor-worship.

[57] A kind of shawl, in itself a luxury.

[58] Palanquins.

[59] The worst of offences in an agricultural country.

The commonest form of this poem is much briefer, bitterer, though less elaborately sarcastic:

'Well do I know thy kindness, ah! too well! Some go hungry after the day's toil; others carry rice in their belly, gold in their shoulder-cloth. Some ride in pālkis, others take the pālki -poles upon their shoulders. Some wear costly shawls, others rags and tatters.'

VIII. KĀLĪ'S SERVICE HAS MADE HIM A MENDICANT

No longer shall I call you Mother: countless ills have you sent me, Mother, countless ills are sending. I had home and dear ones, but you have made me a mendicant.[60] What worse can you do, O Long-Tressed Goddess?

I must go from door to door, begging my food. Even though the mother dies, does not the child live still? Mother, I cry, and yet again, Mother, but you are deaf and blind. While the mother lives, if the child suffers so, what is the use of his mother to him?

Rāmprasād says: Is this a mother's way—being the mother, to be her child's foe? Day and night I muse, [36]what shall I do? You will make me endure the pangs of birth again and again.[61]

A very famous song. There are variant readings.

FOOTNOTES:

[60] Sannyāsī;: He is said to have practically become one in his last years.

[61] He desires to be set free from the cycle of rebirths. The reference in this last line is to the belief that during the pre-natal period the child suffers intensely in the womb.