Some thoughts on 3rd stanza of Adi Sankara's maathru-panchakam

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In the 3rd stanza of the “maathru-panchakam†Sri Adi Sankara recollects the

terminal moments spent with his mother on her death-bed.

 

It is a verse of heart-breaking lamentation. But more importantly it contains an

implied but fervent appeal to every son in the world not to fail in his duty to

perform last-rites for a deceased mother and to ensure she receives the honor

and dignity deserved in death that perhaps in some measure, for reasons good or

otherwise, might have been denied in life.

 

The great Vedantic “achArya†after having left home as a mere

boy-“sannyAsi†returned after several years to his little non-descript

village of Kaladdy (Kerala) as a world-renowned Vedantic “jagadguruâ€. The

“sankara-digvijayam†is the standard biographichical text on the life of Sri

Sankara BhagavathpAdA and it describes this homecoming in some detail.

 

The text speaks of how Sankara who was busy with his mission while sojourning in

North India, one day had a clear premonition of his mother’s impending death

and so hastened to his village to be by her side in the last mortal moments.

When Sankara arrived his mother was already in the throes of death. The

biographical details are rather shrouded in inconsistency. One account of

Sankara’s last meeting with his mother is that she breathed her last after he

had chanted into her ear the sacred “tAraka-mantraâ€. But if one goes by the

3rd stanza of the “maatru-panchakamâ€, we cannot help inferring that when

Sankara arrived at her death-bed, his mother had already passed away. He clearly

does express regret not having arrived in time to administer the final

“mantra’ to the departing soul.

 

Anyway, whichever version is true the pathos of the moment itself and the pain

that swelled up in Sankara’s heart is very vividly portrayed here in the 3rd

stanza of the “AchArya’s†“maathru-panchakamâ€. We must remember that

the circumstances surrounding the death of Sankara’s mother were extremely

unfortunate and tragic. Since Sankara was a “sannyAsiâ€, he could not perform

for his dead mother the traditional last-rites since it was against age-old

brahminical codes (the “sAstrAsâ€) for “sanyAsins†to have anything to do

with Vedic “fire-rituals†and his mother’s obsequies necessarily involved

them. Sankara was hence compelled to run from pillar to post in the village to

find a relative who could act as his proxy and perform the obsequies but then

none was willing to oblige.

 

Even in the days of Sankara as it seems now performing death-rites in the manner

prescribed by sacred custom was never without its difficulties. The community

did not cooperate willingly and the necessary means were not easily available.

Even close kith and kin baulked and in general everyone grudged the effort and

expense. Any convenient excuse or pretext that could be found to avoid

volunteering help to those bereaved was readily claimed by everyone. Sankara the

“sannyAsi†had over the years gained both fame and notoriety as both a

trail-blazing and an iconoclastic philosopher and radical reformer

(anti- " mimAmsaka " . In Kaladdy particularly he had come to earn local enmity

amongst the village orthodoxy. They simply turned their backs on him in his hour

of grave need and gave him the proverbially haughty and imperious brahminical

cold-shoulder.

 

The body of his mother thus lay unattended for a long while before some

sympathetic neighbors eventually came forward to make amends for the lapses of

Sankara’s erstwhile kith and kin. This bitter and traumatic experience must

have left a deep and permanent scar on Sankara’s mind and we see evidence of

it in the anguished words of the celebrated 3rd stanza of the

“maathru-panchakamâ€:

 

na dattam mAtastE maraNasamayE tOyamapi vA

svabaddhA bA nOdEyA maraNadivasE shradha-vidhinA I

na japtO mAtastE maraNa-samayE tArakamanuh:

a kAlE samprAptE mayi kuru dayAm mAtaratulAm II

 

(meaning):

" In your final moments, O mother, I regret I wasn’t around

To able to hold you in my arms, help quench your parched throat

With those morsels of water

Every son pours into the lips of a dying parent

As last farewell gift.

The vows of ‘sannyAsa’ I embraced, O mother,

Held me back from the rites of “shrAddha†meant for your soul;

Nor could I administer thee, as every dutiful son should,

The words of the sacred chant of “taraka-nAma mantra†as you breathed your

last.

I turned up late, so very late, O mother of mine,

To bade farewell.

Show me kindness, a mother’s kindness,

In your very last act of forgiveness for a son that failed " .

****************

 

From the time he finished his Vedic “gurukula†studies at the age of 8 years

only to formally renounce the world as a “sannyAsi†until the time he

returned to Kallady to be at his mother’s deathbed, Sri Adi SankarAchArya had

already gone around India twice on foot, had founded a great philosophical order

and 4 monasteries in the 4 corners of the country which still survive and

flourish to this day as pre-eminent centers of the Advaita Order; he had also

written about 80 books, dissertations on Vedantic philosophy and numerous

devotional hymns in purest Sanskrit; he had restored the Brahmin-Hindu tradition

of India which had been almost submerged in what was at that time popular

Buddhism and, finally, he had safely established his reputation as undeniably

the foremost scholastic philosopher of the millennium in this part of the

world….

 

And yet .... yet, ironically, when such a man of herculean accomplishments,

finally, arrived at his mother’s deathbed, he found to his deepest chagrin,

dismay and regret that there wasn’t any way he could himself perform or

otherwise arrange to have performed the customary last rites that would convey

his beloved mother’s soul from this world to the other. The great philosopher

who preached a whole great philosophy that prided itself upon having solved the

mysteries of the human soul, its true nature, purpose and destiny... such a

great one found himself helpless at Kallady in his efforts to see his mother's

soul off from its earthly abode!

 

IN the brief lifetime of 33 years that the AchArya spent on earth he could not

have spent but more than a few years –- 5 or 6 at the very most -– in the

company of his dear mother. The bond of love between mother and son in those

very brief and fleeting years might have been rich and intense but then it could

never really have been seen by either one to grow and endure very long in life.

She as a hapless widow might not have been in a position to give or demonstrate

care and affection in the true measure she might otherwise have felt in her

heart for her one and only son. And he too, when he embraced “sannyAsa†at

the tender age of 8 and went away from home on his life’s mission, could

scarcely have had time thereafter to spare very many moments for an affectionate

thought for his forlorn mother languishing back in the village of Kallady…

 

Such a man as Sankara, yet, when he arrived at his mother’s deathbed to see

her breath her last, was moved to speak these heart-rending words :

 

“na dattam mAtastE maraNasamayE tOyamapi vA

svabaddhA bA nOdEyA maraNadivasE shradha-vidhinA Iâ€

 

Of what value or worth my monumental accomplishments in life as a

“sannyAsiâ€, as a philosopher, as a “jagadguru†--- Sankara seems to be

saying in this stanza in the “maathru-panchakamâ€--- of what merit is all

this if at the moment of your passing away, dear mother, there is no way I can

offer you the due courtesies and honors that I know you deserve and which a son

must show his mother's departing soul?

 

This soul-stirring verse should indeed make us all sit up and reflect deeply: If

the great Sankara showed no mercy to himself and, in fact, severely castigated

himself for it and took no shelter or defense behind any lame or valid excuse

for failing to perform the obsequies for his departed mother, how can we, we who

are indeed less-than-ordinary mortals by comparison, ever venture to think that

we may, after all, be able to find amidst the vast vagaries of our busy, modern

and sophisticated lives those convenient excuses we eagerly seek in order that

we may be able to shirk the sacred duty we owe to our departing mothers?

 

Best Regards,

daasan,

Sudarshan MK

 

 

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