Vande Mataram and Divine mother

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Happy Independence Day to all of you!

 

Dear Indians and Indophiles,

 

 

 

Composed by Bankim Chandra, this song appears in the Bengali novel Anand Math. The English translation of Vande Mataram rendered by Shree Aurobindo, is considered to be the "official" and best. According to Bhavan's book, Vande Mataram by Moni Bagchee (pg. 66), "Bankin Chandra composed the song in an inspired moment, Rabindranath sang it by setting a tune to it and it was left to the genius of Aurobindo to interpret the deeper meaning of the song out of which India received the philosophy of new Nationalism."

Here is the entire song. Only first two stanza of this song are considered to be national song. (Did you know that even Jana Gana Mana...is much longer, and that only first two stanzas are recognized as National Anthem) In fact, I find some of the later stanza much more powerful and inspirational. Please note, only translation is by Shree Aurobindo.

 

vande maataraM sujalaaM suphalaaM malayaja shiitalaaM sasyashyaamalaaM maataraM || shubhrajyotsnaa pulakitayaaminiiM pullakusumita drumadala shobhiniiM suhaasiniiM sumadhura bhaashhiNiiM sukhadaaM varadaaM maataraM

|| koTi koTi kaNTha kalakalaninaada karaale koTi koTi bhujai.rdhR^itakharakaravaale abalaa keno maa eto bale bahubaladhaariNiiM namaami taariNiiM ripudalavaariNiiM maataraM || tumi vidyaa tumi dharma tumi hR^idi tumi marma tvaM hi praaNaaH shariire

baahute tumi maa shakti hR^idaye tumi maa bhakti tomaara i pratimaa gaDi mandire mandire ||

tvaM hi durgaa dashapraharaNadhaariNii kamalaa kamaladala vihaariNii vaaNii vidyaadaayinii namaami tvaaM

namaami kamalaaM amalaaM atulaaM sujalaaM suphalaaM maataraM || shyaamalaaM saralaaM susmitaaM bhuushhitaaM dharaNiiM bharaNiiM maataraM ||

Meaning of the verses:

 

Mother, I bow to thee! Rich with thy hurrying streams, bright with orchard gleams, Cool with thy winds of delight, Dark fields waving Mother of might, Mother free.

Glory of moonlight dreams, Over thy branches and lordly streams, Clad in thy blossoming trees, Mother, giver of ease Laughing low and sweet! Mother I kiss thy feet, Speaker sweet and low! Mother, to thee I bow.

Who hath said thou art weak in thy lands When the sword flesh out in the seventy million hands And seventy million voices roar Thy dreadful name from shore to shore? With many strengths who art mighty and stored, To thee I call Mother and Lord! Though who savest, arise and save! To her I cry who ever her foeman drove Back from plain and Sea And shook herself free.

Thou art wisdom, thou art law, Thou art heart, our soul, our breath Though art love divine, the awe In our hearts that conquers death. Thine the strength that nervs the arm, Thine the beauty, thine the charm. Every image made divine In our temples is but thine.

Thou art Durga, Lady and Queen, 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, Rich with thy hurrying streams, Bright with thy orchard gleems, Dark of hue O candid-fair

In thy soul, with jewelled hair And thy glorious smile divine, Lovilest of all earthly lands, Showering wealth from well-stored hands! Mother, mother mine! Mother sweet, I bow to thee, Mother great and free!

 

 

 

Bankim chandra is said to have got the inspiration for the song thinking of Divine mother Durga.

And there has been no turning back since then. It is like Goddess Durga Herself initiating the process of India's freedom from the tyranny of the British rule.

But my dear members we must be spiritually free too. Let us pray to our Mataram Rajarajeshwaree for this.

Ammaye' Bhagavathy!

Country is just a collection of minds but what about the individual mind? How do you free it from the tyranny of your body and senses which is the great ruler.

In this even the British too can join me and shout

Ammaye' Bhagavathy to beseech Rajarajeshwari Devi to free them,infact the need is greater in the west for this call because the people are in the grips of materiality more the east.Though this equation is fast changing.

People in the west seek love,true love. So many broken families and some young people do not even know who their mother is!

One popular saying in the west is "My children and your children are playing with our children"(Referring to the spate of divorces and remarriages confusing and wrecking havoc on the young minds who do not know whom to relate)

Those who seek for love are the real beggars. India might be a poor country. But it is rich in Love,the true asset of God. Go to any village in India be it Tamilnadu or Kashmir and ask for a meal and you will get it even if the village is suffering from famine! ( I have my own personal experience in this regard ). However these days young people in India are aping the west. I remember my grandfather saying to me you did not get this country free you have our blood on you Dattu! That struck me and stuck to me, his stories on how my forefathers ( From my mother's side fought for freedom for the country in Tamilnadu...even from my father's side in Andhra . They were gave up everything including their brahmanical thoughts...Maybe if one has a common enemy one will lose all caste feelings and work for the divinity. )(He said he or other family members did not even claim for even freedom

fighter's quota as they did not want to set any price for their father's or forefather's fight for freedom) These are indeed high ideals.

I then thought what can I do in free India? How can I learn,live,love and leave a legacy without claiming any recognition or fame.What is the enemy number 1 these days? Is it a foreigner or the white man? Or is it someone inside us? How does one start with the image which one sees in the mirror? Is it through something physcial or metaphysical. I then realised then that everyone in this world needs freedom from the prison of one's body and then of even the mind for there are higher things than mind, and I have been striving for the same since then by trying to conquer my inner enemy and have faced various difficulties and have even thought of commiting suicide(when one calamity happened when trying to do kundalini sadhana to me through srividya ) Finally I hit upon my Guru and my upasana devi.

How can I reach for something holy. Holier than even the ''Indianness'...holier than even ''worldliness''?..these questions beset my mind and I decided to help without anyone knowing about my identity(Internet helped me a bit in this)(I always used to help people without their knowledge about help as a child by say placing Rs.100 in the bag of a poor man with a note saying that Lord Dattareya has given them! and used to face the brunt of my father's scoldings for taking money out of his purse who used to suspect me of some misuse of the money and I never used to say anything. I do a thing and forget it. Yes, I 'misued' the money...i 'missed' the real use of the money in dragging me into more maya.

 

Hope I have washed atleast a few drops of blood of my forefathers on me.

When will you all clean the stains?

Vande Mataram!

Shreeram Balijepalli

 

 

 

 

 

Purity, Powers, Parabrahmam...

 

 

 

 

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