The Tamil Book 'Sri Sarada Deviyin Suvaiyana Charitam' is probably the first book of poetry in Tamil on Holy Mother Sarada Devi. This is an attempt to consider the Life of Holy Mother along the same lines as Swami Saradanandaji considered Sri Ramakrishna's Life - as a play of Bhava. These 150 Plus poems consisting of 1500 plus lines were written in Lalgarh between 2003 December - 2004 January, during Mother's 150th Anniversary. They have come out in book form now during Swami Vivekananda's 150th Anniversay in 2012 - 2013.
The following is a (very) rough translation of some of the first 22 poems. Hopefully the rest will follow.
May Mother be gracious to all of us !
1.
I bow down to Thee Mother !
Thou art for ever, beginning-less and endless
Thou art Time, pervading unto minutest moment
Thou art the Boundless Being
Thou filleth the Vast Space
With diverse Worlds and them with
Variegated beings, who throb
In diverse moods and tones.
Thou Create, Nurture and End their Play.
I bow down down to Thee, My Mother!
2.
Walking by the Banks of Kasai
As a dear little girl,
You shamelessly asked to wear on your arms
A pair of conch-shell bangles
You did merry mischief, not paying your dues,
Asking the poor seller to take it from 'My Father, the King',
Who, being a daughter-less wretch, became enraged,
Smote him hard, and said, 'show the Girl now
or else .. '
Hearing the piteous entreaties of the bangle seller,
Thou did show thy beauteous pair of hands
Springing out from the waters,
Adorned with fairy white bangles.
Oh, mind, look at those waters , sparkling sands !
You might get a glimpse of Her, if luck be with you.
3.
He to whom, the gods of heavens go
with their troubles
Goes He to Her, when he is in a fix.
He will bless me here
to write this poem.
A spring of honey he will shower
He with Radha at his side !
4.
The Great Primordial Shakti
who took very many forms as
Vach the Vedic Rishi,
as Gargis, Maitreyis of Upanishads,
as Sita, Her Life and Soul in Rama,
Radha, the Lovelorn, Love burst,
Mother Maria The Immaculate,
as Goda, Mira, numberless such forms,
Male and Female,
Who is praised in heaven and earth,
that Great Shakti,
out of boundless Grace
as if embodying Herself in a limited body,
covering our being and binding our vision
with her wondrous Maya
Plays Her enchanting play!
Let's see that with devotion!
5. In the boundless ocean of Brahman,
By the cooling breeze of Bhakti
diverse Divine Forms appear
Singly, in twos, threes or more
Wise would see them,
others slowly wake up.
In the present age,
As Ramakrishna Sarada,
Two in One, One in two
They have come
To show us the way
to us, roaming direction-less
in dense woods.
The one who came,
Virtuous deeds many
must have been done
in Her two house-holds,
in Kamarpukur and Jairambati,
the one who answered to the name 'Ma',
Her story shall we narrate here.
6-9
Great fortune Earth had
To see the Primal Source of All
Crawl as a baby on its lap
Great and immaculate was
Shyamasundari Devi
Who carried in her womb
Mother of all mothers.
Virtuous was Ramachandra
the father of little Sarada
Cozy, colourful, was Jayarambati
Mother's Own Village
Adorned by the sparkling lace Amodar,
Green fields, lotus pools, big and small,
Healthy, hard-working, good folks,
Temples, gods were duly honoured,
Graceful dances, joyful plays,
Such were the stuff that
Mother's Jayarambati was made of.
10. Unto good times came the Eternal Time
The Birthday of all birthdays arrived
Kali (the dark times) had kali and went away
Satya Yuga (the good times when Truth prevails)
Came truly good
The Mother of all mothers came unto the Earth
Descended the divine band
that takes food
to the very mouth
of unspeaking hunger
Margazhi the Holy month
became holier.
On a cold Thurday
Seventh day of the Dark fortnight
December 22, 1853,
The Resplendent Moon,
Blemishless, in Fullnes,
descended into the dark Earth
as the Star Uthiram
proudly shone along
Way opened up
for the lad Gadadhar
nearby
for the lad Gadadhar
nearby
A conch boomed
its auspicious soft strains,
its auspicious soft strains,
'Peace be unto you,
mothers and children!'
mothers and children!'
Bhava Lila :
11. There is a State of Being called Bhava
Good for us if we know it
On the Great Ones who take the form
of a human being
is seen this layer of Bhava
Heaven and Earth, they see as One
Binding our eyes with multiple folds,
they play with us, kidding us along.
They take to our ways, our guises,
To show us to walk the road well.
Many such great ones
walked ahead of us.
Great gains be for us
Considering the Two before us
A river of nectar flows between
This divine duo's lives.
The other day,
Elder brother Saradananda
Witnessed the Bhava of One.
Here in this narration,
Mother's Bhava is sought
to be unlocked.
12. Bhavas She put on with an easy assurance
Flip-flop she would, She the Self-Willed
Flower-Fruit or Fruit-Flower, cared she not.
As Ramakrishna together wore
The Bhava of a pure Sadhaka Bhakta
and that of an Avatara
So did Sarada
He was Guru to the Sadhika Sarada,
the object of her meditations,
the Guru whose divine Form
glowed in her heart day and night.
Glory be to the Sangha Guru -
May your light flood the Earth !
Glory be to the Mother of the Sangha!
Thy Grace filleth the Earth !
11. There is a State of Being called Bhava
Good for us if we know it
On the Great Ones who take the form
of a human being
is seen this layer of Bhava
Heaven and Earth, they see as One
Binding our eyes with multiple folds,
they play with us, kidding us along.
They take to our ways, our guises,
To show us to walk the road well.
Many such great ones
walked ahead of us.
Great gains be for us
Considering the Two before us
A river of nectar flows between
This divine duo's lives.
The other day,
Elder brother Saradananda
Witnessed the Bhava of One.
Here in this narration,
Mother's Bhava is sought
to be unlocked.
12. Bhavas She put on with an easy assurance
Flip-flop she would, She the Self-Willed
Flower-Fruit or Fruit-Flower, cared she not.
As Ramakrishna together wore
The Bhava of a pure Sadhaka Bhakta
and that of an Avatara
So did Sarada
He was Guru to the Sadhika Sarada,
the object of her meditations,
the Guru whose divine Form
glowed in her heart day and night.
She the sadhika engrossed in
the joy of repeating His Name
Was the Divine Mother Kali whom
the Bhakta Ramakrishna adored.
May your light flood the Earth !
Glory be to the Mother of the Sangha!
Thy Grace filleth the Earth !
15. At Shantinath Shiva temple
Came Sarada when she was three
Beaming with peace and grace
She was seated in the hands of an
elderly lady.
A fair was on and so was a programme
of songs, dance and drama.
16. As Sarada rolled her eyes
and looked around,
'Whom do thy eyes looketh for ?
Thy groom? Tell us, who is he ?'
Readily her tender hands didst stretch
and show the sinless Gadadhar.
The fingers that pointed
Did a ring of light wrap around them ?
The sting so tied,
did Gadadhar happen to notice?
19. Enter, we shall, into the play of Bhava !
See the play between the Lord and Sakthi!
'All the World is my chidren' said She.
Showed that day, Her First Child.
He the Guru of All, said later
'There she waits, the marked one,
the disciple'
Consider this, O my mind,
Do it well
Death will be defied,
the cess-sea of worldliness will dry up.
Living Waters will flow in
Eternity will be attained.
21. All that which befell
a 19th century village girl in India
came upon Sarada too.
A picturesque village.
But no great comforts.
Vast, virgin, lands and sky.
But sister Sarada
had not many games to play.
Green, green grasses.
She's neck deep in water
cutting some for the cattle.
Open spaces, so much, to wander about
but no. she is with her mother
tending the hearth fires.
Loving siblings to play with.
Yes she played
but more an elder sister
and mother to them.
Thus did she put on
a human village girl act.
22. When she did her chores Came Sarada when she was three
Beaming with peace and grace
She was seated in the hands of an
elderly lady.
A fair was on and so was a programme
of songs, dance and drama.
16. As Sarada rolled her eyes
and looked around,
'Whom do thy eyes looketh for ?
Thy groom? Tell us, who is he ?'
Readily her tender hands didst stretch
and show the sinless Gadadhar.
The fingers that pointed
Did a ring of light wrap around them ?
The sting so tied,
did Gadadhar happen to notice?
19. Enter, we shall, into the play of Bhava !
See the play between the Lord and Sakthi!
'All the World is my chidren' said She.
Showed that day, Her First Child.
He the Guru of All, said later
'There she waits, the marked one,
the disciple'
Consider this, O my mind,
Do it well
Death will be defied,
the cess-sea of worldliness will dry up.
Living Waters will flow in
Eternity will be attained.
21. All that which befell
a 19th century village girl in India
came upon Sarada too.
A picturesque village.
But no great comforts.
Vast, virgin, lands and sky.
But sister Sarada
had not many games to play.
Green, green grasses.
She's neck deep in water
cutting some for the cattle.
Open spaces, so much, to wander about
but no. she is with her mother
tending the hearth fires.
Loving siblings to play with.
Yes she played
but more an elder sister
and mother to them.
Thus did she put on
a human village girl act.
a girl looking exactly like her
came to help her.
She came out of the Blue
and disappeared into the Blue.
Compare with the
Divine Play of Krishna.
Compare with Chandi
who became many and One.
Like the Gopis had each a Krishna
we now each have our own Mother Sarada.
23. Hard austerities must have done they,
Who got themselves born as Siblings of Sarada
They played with their Sister
In their home, in the fields,
Learnt Life from her, She the Compassionate one,
She shone like a translucent flower
Amidst weeds and dirt
24. Reaching the age of five,
With thy beloved, you linked arms, high !
Stopping thy lispings and little plays
Entered though into the fields with heavy lays.
Done with playing mother to puppets of wood and sand,
took us up, mud-born of this vast land ?
Play, thou doest with me this day
Happy, smug in thy lap, I lay.
25. Merciful grass to the mouths of dumb bovines
Fraternal moori to the hands of siblings
A full meal, cool
to quench the burning labour at noon
A helping hand to the mater,
feeding one to the pater,
a take here, a hold there,
everywhere
giving, protecting it
Thou didst move about!
Why didst thou?
To show us to work how?
26. Moved by Thy abundant mercy
seeing the masses dumbed down
into materialistic mire
Did you deign to dim your glory
and chose to live within our sights,
us of such low vision
in order to save us from ourselves?
Did you choose deem it the right time
to link your arms with Him
your Playfellow from Kamar Pukur,
As He cried to the Kali in you ?
