Image of Mother Collected from the Songs

Abstract

This article aims to describe the image of mother that appeared in 131 mother-related songs. Among these songs, verbs of the mother as subject of the sentences were found 504 times. These verbs were divided into 45 groups relating to three phases of life cycle : 1) before birth – birth, 2) after birth - before death, and 3) death - after death. The framework applied for describing the image of mother was based on three principles of the Buddha's teachings : Six-Disa (six directions), Sangahavatthu (bases on sympathy), and Brahmavihara (sublime states of mind). Consequently, three aspects of a mother's image were identified : a responsible mother, an irresponsible mother, and a mother who was harmed by either a father or child. The mother's image which was collected from songs suggested that mother was an incomparable person, and she was also granted 10 special statuses. Therefore, everyone should listen to mother-related songs. Socially, responsible organizations should arrange a place and time for playing those songs. This would be one approach for cultivating and instilling a sense of gratitude to the mother in every child.