The Mother Figure in Marathi Bhakti Literature : 5

            The Mother Figure in Marathi Bhakti Literature : 5

The blog article today is going to leapfrog almost by a century. For one thing, ours is a article series that is theme-driven. It is not exactly a chronology consistent narrative that I am presenting in this blog. To better understand the mother figure in the bhakti tradition, I do think that  let us understand its depiction by Kanhopatra, though, of course, this fast forward is sure going to travel back in time so that we understand the motherly feel in the writings by other great saint-poets.

Why this sudden introduction of Kanhopatra? Who was she? She was the outcast of the outcasts as she belonged to the world's oldest profession. Her beauty was her bane. Her plight shows how in this man's world, a woman is judged by her appearance, and not through  her soul, her inner being.

For Kanhopatra, hence, Vithoba is the ultimate refuge. The way a mother's saree pleats are the best and safest retreat for a child of three or four, Vithoba and the temple premises are her ultimate asylum. As she is being dragged to an unfortunate destiny, she wasnts one final duologue with her God. Granted that wish, she dies at the Lord's feet.

So the Lord is her saviour, the way a mother's hug is a child's ultimate sanctuary. A baby finds the ultimate safety in the mother's arms. Similalrly, Kanhopatra's real retreat is the lotus feet of the Lord.

No wonder, in her Abhanga, Vithoba is addressed not as "Are", but as "aga", a feminine vocative signifying intimacy incarnate. Yet another of her central image is Pandhari as her maher, her maternal home and Vitthal-Rakhumai as her parents, the way they have een for ages, for all the downtrodden. 

Her famous most image is the ultimate of the mother love. To describe her plight, she compares it with the tense, helpless feel of a doe whose fawn is in the paws of the terrible tiger. So repeatedly, she passionately appeals her only and real mother, God, to help her out. It is this intensity of her passionate appeal to the Lord as the mother, the h(e)aven of safety, freedom and safety from all her trials and tribulations that made me fast forward and present her motherly image of the godhead. For her god as mother is not a mere word, it is her very world! 

pratima @ mother as the safest h(e)aven