Animal Planet and Shankara.

The documentary on Animal planet showed how the great migration takes place every year on the plains of Africa. There it focused on a calf that could not make the crossing, which the mother wilder beast could . The lonely calf, stuck on the wrong side of the river, was trying to be a friend with the lonely deer which also had lost its mother on the river crossing. There were hungry cheetahs that were lurking nearby. The mother watched for her calf on the other side of the river and when she could not find it among the teeming masses that crossed...it did the seemingly unthinkable. It actually crossed the river again looking for here calf, braving the powerful crocodiles waiting to pounce on her. (Finally they both make it to the other side, after a brief encounter with a cheetah)

The other day, I watched a child in a railway station. the child was playing with something at a distance from her mother. Soon, with a thundering noise, a train came on to another platform. The child both confused and afraid, left all the toys and ran back to her mother and held on to her.

I was reminded of the meaning of a hymn that Adi Shankaracharya had written in the praise of divine mother .
He said," O mother, there are bad children in this world but a bad mother..the world has seen none."
In another verse,
"O mother! I do not know any sacred chants nor do I perform any holy rituals. I am not well versed in the philosophical intricacies or the language of the intelligent. I just know that whenever I face difficulties, whenever I am afraid, I can run to you with outstretched hands and you will protect."
I think I had a fleeting glimpse of the depths in these verses of shankara.
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