all the deities are
gratified. Whatever words are pronounced by the sire become blessings
that attach to the son. The words expressive of joy that the sire utters
cleanse the son of all his sins. The flower is seen to fall away from the
stalk. The fruit is seen to fall away from the tree. But the sire,
whatever his distress, moved by parental affection, never abandons the
son. These then are my reflections upon the reverence due from the son to
the sire. Unto the son the sire is not an ordinary object. I shall now
think upon (what is due to) the mother. Of this union of the five
(primal) elements in me due to my birth as a human being, the mother is
the (chief) cause as the firestick of fire.[1205] The mother is as the
fire-stick with respect to the bodies of all men. She is the panacea for
all kinds of calamities. The existence of the mother invests one with
protection; the reverse deprives one of all protection. The man who,
though divested of prosperity, enters his house, uttering the words, "O
mother!"--hath not to indulge in grief. Nor doth decrepitude ever assail
him. A person whose mother exists, even if he happens to be possessed of
sons and grandsons and even if he counts a hundred years, looks like a
child of but two years of age. Able or disabled, lean or robust, the son
is always protected by the mother. None else, according to the ordinance,
is the son's protector. Then doth the son become old, then doth he become
stricken with grief, then doth the world look empty in his eyes, when he
becomes deprived of his mother. There is no shelter (protection against
the sun) like the mother. There is no refuge like the mother. There is no
defence like the mother. There is no one so dear as the mother. For
having borne him in her womb the mother is the son's Dhatri. For having
been the chief cause of his birth, she is his Janani. For having nursed
his young limbs into growth, she is called Amva. For bringing forth a
child possessed of courage she is called Virasu. For nursing and looking
after the son she is called Sura. The mother is one's own body. What
rational man is there that would slay his mother, to whose care alone it
is due that his own head did not lie on the street-side like a dry gourd?
When husband and wife unite themselves for procreation, the desire
cherished with respect to the (unborn) son are cherished by both, but in
respect of their fruition more depends upon the mother than on the
sire.[1206] The