In this tightly technology-driven age, life has undergone a drastic change. Maddening materialism has become the Alpha and Omega of modern man’s life. Truly speaking, this abominable transition has, in actuality, deprived humanity of most of its kindred affinities and tender feelings like love, brotherhood, kindness, compassion, devotion, dedication, and so on. This onslaught of confounding materialism has indeed taken a heavy toll on man, rendering him absolutely emotionally bankrupt. In this age of emotional insolvency, when most of the versions of true and selfless love have disappeared and taken to their heels, the one form of love that has still safely kept the emotional quotient of mankind intact and in good health is mother’s love alone. It is a manifestation of love that is absolutely pure and loaded with divine beauty. There is no second thought to the view that a mother’s love has nothing mundane as it has successfully transcended all the boundaries of this ephemeral world. Thus, it can neither be called into question nor viewed with the spectacles of doubt and scepticism. This is the only sublimated form of love that remains perpetually beautiful and everlasting. Even the worst of storms cannot extinguish the flames of a mother’s love.
If, in the course of his entire life, a man critically evaluates all of his relationships with his comrades and other fellow humans, he will be able to draw the apt conclusion that the stature of a mother is loftier than that of God Himself. He will realise that in all his relationships, there have been moments when the beastly side of man’s inherent nature overpowered the bonds of love and subverted the fabric of attachment. Man’s bond with society does not hold much water in the face of rabid and rampant greed. In sooth, this thread that connects him to others is quite weak in strength and thus breaks easily. But thoroughly contrary to the nature of selfish and fleeting love, the thread of a mother’s love has never been tenuous. Since time immemorial, the love of a mother has been beyond the ravages of time and thus can never be annihilated. Therefore, it will also not be hyperbolic to articulate that the doctrine of mortality, which otherwise governs all the elements of the universe, has no applicability to the love a mother’s bosom holds for her children.
Marvellously, the writers and philosophers have glorified this manifestation of love in their own immersive and elegant styles. The poets have time and again regaled us with their panegyrics and encomiums dedicated to the unadulterated love of a mother for her offspring, and the philosophers have rolled out their phenomenally profound treatises on the same sacred subject. Indubitably, a mother’s love is the bedrock of life on this earth.
With this hallowed aspect of love, the world is also fraught with perversity and depravity. One of such malfeasances and maladies that have plagued society is man’s utter apathy towards the one who has been the sole reason for his existence on this planet. Undeniably, no sin can be as heinous as the sin of neglecting your mother, and no crime can be as atrocious as the crime of leaving this symbol of God in the lurch during the twilight years of her life. So, while people are in a celebratory mood on the occasion of Mother’s Day, I turn somewhat pensive and painfully reflect over the malevolent misdeeds of those children who inflict pain on the heart (mother) that has been wholeheartedly just beating for them.
Prof. Shiv Sethi is a noted columnist and literary critic
based in Ferozepur, Punjab
