The Mothers Run Like Cows Returning at Dusk to Their Calves
Uttara Kanda, Chhand 3
Doha 6 · Movement 2 of 3
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The mothers rush toward their sons like cows compelled to leave young calves at home while grazing in a distant forest. All day the separation remains inside the body even while the herd wanders far from the stall.
At evening the cows turn home. Milk streams from full udders and lowing breaks from them as they run, no longer able to move with the measured pace of the pasture.
So Kausalya, Sumitra, Kaikeyi, and the mothers reach Rama and the brothers in overwhelming love, pouring out gentle words of every kind. The terrible sorrow of separation disappears and unnumbered happiness takes its place. Tulsidas chooses no celestial image for this meeting. The primal rush of a mother toward her young holds more truth than grandeur, and Ayodhya's queens become a herd coming home at dusk.
Fourteen years end in the sound of mothers running homeward, their love as ancient and unstoppable as milk flowing toward a calf.
Read the passage from the Manas
जनु धेनु बालक बच्छ तजि गृहँ चरन बन परबस गईं। दिन अंत पुर रुख स्त्रवत थन हुंकार करि धावत भई।। अति प्रेम सब मातु भेटीं बचन मृदु बहुबिधि कहे। गइ बिषम बियोग भव तिन्ह हरष सुख अगनित लहे।।
Like cows that have left their calves at home and gone to graze in distant pastures, who at day's end turn homeward with milk streaming from their udders, lowing as they run: just so, all the mothers rushed to meet their sons with overwhelming love, speaking tender words of every kind. The terrible anguish of separation vanished, and they found joy and happiness beyond all counting.