A TRIBUTE TO A DAKINI ON MOTHER’S DAY

She was ill from the beginning, unable to eat like other days,

Unable to sleep in comfort, turning and rolling all night,

Legs swell and ache in standing and walking, yet chores had to be done,

To dig and weed and wash and cook everyday to warm the house,

Often dizzy and dazed, hungrier and thirstier from day to day,

‘Is it boy or is it girls? Is he normal or is she not abnormal?’

‘Can I survive the final day to see my child come to light?’

Week after week into nine months everyday these thoughts haunts,

Amidst hidden smiles, between joy of hope and worry of misfortune,

She begins to change from a youthful girl into a woman,

Changed in skin tone and physical shape, weakened in strength and health,

And in a state of pain and fear, hope and haze at its zenith,

A child is born to mark the beginning of another chapter of adventure-

Laced in joy none can know how it feels to be Mother,

Laced with sweet worry none can know how it feels to be woman,

To care and feed and wash and nurse through years of nights and days,

Another sleepless years, another painful recovery from blood and tears,

The wasted days like a dream, the waited days like a memory,

Only a mother can can know, only she can understand what it means to be,

To become mother, to cherish the victory, to honour the gift,

Only mothers will know the magical feelings of love and bondage,

Upon a child she carried and birthed.

A woman is never a mother, a mother never a woman,

And a man never stronger and celestial than a woman can be,

A man will never know what it feels like to be a mother,

Perhaps, a man can only boast what it must feel like to become mother,

Can make words of motherly pain and worry, hope and joy,

Can only believe his hug and words and help is equal her motherhood

To give birth and become this divine being who has the sacred gift.

O’ Men, O’ Children

Know thus, that mother is a divine lotus, 

A human beyond men,

A dakini, a deity, a divine being,

A symbol of strength and vigor, 

An epitome of Love and Beauty,

Of compassion and care,

Of tenderness and tranquility,

Of happiness and hope.