Krishna - My Mother (Kannan Pattu) Bharathiyar

A special thanks to Thiruvaiarru Bharathi Iyakkam – Bharathi Illakiya Payilagam’s blogger Link.

https://ilakkiyapayilagam.blogspot.com/2010/04/blog-post_3522.html?m=1

'Kannan Pattu' is one of the songs of the great poet, Mahakavi Subramaniya Bharathiyar. It is one among the 'Three Great Songs'. The other two are 'Panchali Sabadham' and 'Kuyil Pattu'.

In ancient times, people like Manickavasagar, Andal, Nachiyar etc. used to compose songs in which God was the leader and all other beings were the heroines. God is one. There are many beings. To reach that one God, all songs were composed with the ways to get rid of sins of the hero and heroines. But the great poet Bharathiyar avoided that old tradition and paved a new path. Here Bharathiyar has sung in various ways, using himself as the leader and God as his beloved, lover, servant, king, minister, and companion. This helps us see him as a revolutionary poet. We should study "Kannan Pattu" in a way that appreciates this revolutionary spirit.

Bharathiyar has composed 23 songs under the title 'Kannan Pattu'. He has composed these as follows: Kannan as a companion, mother, father, servant, king, disciple, teacher, child, playmate, male lover, female lover, father, and family deity.

My dear, she came as my mother. They call her Krishna. She is the universal form! She would carry me, as a child, in her two arms. She called the sky and then placed me on Earth's lap. The Earth rocked me, nurse me with life and feeling, and told me many stories that would make my heart happy.

Krishna, the mother used to tell different kinds of stories. Stories that bring joy, stories that bring rise and victory, stories that are filled with sorrow, stories of failure and fall, stories that are appropriate for the seasons of my life. My mind would be immersed in ecstasy.

What kind of games would that mother show me, the child? A toy called the moon, from which comes sweetness and the taste of nectar, a very beautiful toy with a wide range of clouds. What gives sweetness to the earth is rain. A toy called the cloud that gives that rain, the light of that sun's face is beyond words to describe! The constellations of stars, like silver beads scattered across the sky, I have tried to count them and but ended up in vain. The mountain toys, sitting motionless in the dense forest, as if deep in love. The beautiful rivers, they run and play all over the country. Slowly playing, they fall into the vast ocean; that ocean toy is so vast. I cannot see any limit to it. The waves that blow on it play a song, that song rings in my ears with 'Om'.

How many oases are there on the earth; forests; how many colorful flowers in them; how many kinds of fruits on all the trees, how many toys are there for me. Foods to eat, songs good for the ears; good companions to associate with.

The birds that roam the sky; The Mother has given me so many kinds of companions, such as the animals that roam the land, the fish that inhabit the entire sea. No matter where I look, what a pleasure it is! It is impossible to even think about it. The Mother has placed millions of kinds of scriptures, and the wisdom to know them, and in between these, I have created false Vedas, religious murders, the clownish antics of kings, the lies of some elderly people, and the worries of the young.

The Mother will give me everything I need; She will make it possible for me to get them before I think I need them; She will give me shelter and support; She will make me like Arjuna; I will sing of that Mother's grace forever; She will shower me with a long and glorious life and unparalleled glory, while I continue to do so.