True Motherhood embodies love, sacrifice, forbearance and selfless service

True Motherhood embodies love, sacrifice, forbearance and selfless service

According to Hinduism, God manifests, maintains and contracts the universe, but the power with which these functions are performed is called Shakti, (Divine Energy) – the Divine Mother. This is the origin of “Mother worship” and, thus, the idea that the human mother is worthy of reverence and worship just as the Divine Mother or Shakti. The saying, “Maatri Devo Bhava”, i.e., ‘regard the Mother as a god,’ is therefore, a maxim that speaks to the seemingly boundless, endless and all-encompassing power of the earthly or biological mother, a power that equates with that of Divinity.

In Hinduism, a mother is the one person who is considered to be the most exalted and worthy of respect and service. The unparalleled love possessed by a mother for her children are the subject of praise and reverence in numerous stotras and other scriptural verses. No doubt, mother is the very embodiment of qualities such as love, sacrifice, forbearance and selfless service to her children.

The role of the Mother in the home as the Teacher of the children must be restored. This world is like a school and we learn each and every day here. But the first thing that a child learns is from his mother. A child learns the basic principles of life first at his home and then from surrounding. It becomes a building block of his life. Mother has a great impact on a child’s progress; positive teachings play a big part in child’s life. A child learns speaking, interacting, moving, and all basics from his mother. The character of a child more often depends on mother’s teaching and his first school, that is, his home.

The Mother, more than anyone else, is the upholder of spiritual ideals. Every mother must share in this effort – to expand and bring out the divinity latent in every child. We should be able to learn something about how precious the role of the mother is in the home by asking those who have been fortunate enough to have truly great mothers. All great Leaders, Gandhi, Swami Yogananda, Yukteshvar Giri, etc., attest to the influence of their mothers in molding their lives; they learnt the lessons of life in their mothers’ lap.

A mother’s divine role is cherishing and teaching her children.  There is no one perfect way to be a good mother.  Each situation is unique. Each mother has different challenges, different skills and abilities, and certainly, different children. Some women are able to be ‘full-time mothers,’ while some may divide their lives into periods of home, family and work, but what matters is that a mother loves her children deeply and, in keeping with the devotion she has for God and her family, prioritizes them above all else.

Among the most important roles of a mother is the call to nurture. A mother’s nurturing love arouses in children, from their earliest days, an awakening of the memories of love and goodness.  Because our mothers love us, we learn, or more accurately remember, that God also loves us.

If you are a mother, you participate with God in His work of creation – not only by providing physical bodies for your children but also by teaching and nurturing them. It has been said that God could not do everything; so He created Mothers. Who can justly measure the righteous influence of a mother’s love? What enduring fruits result from the seeds of truth that a mother carefully plants and lovingly cultivates in the fertile soil of a child’s trusting mind and heart?

Hindu values, inherent in its religion, culture and tradition have to feed these roots, strengthen these foundation pillars and fertilize the growing crops. The rishis (saints) of old knew the value of our culture and the deep peace and security that the heritage of that culture can give in times of turmoil and strife. They prescribed the three disciplines for every one – young or old. They declared: Maatru devo bhava, Pitru devo bhava, Aachaarya devo bhava. So long as a nation grows up with these three noble ideals, it can never be pulled up by its roots and get dried up. For, adoration of the Mother as Divine, of the Father as God, and of the Guru as God will make the growing generation cherish the heritage, which is then handed down by them to future generations.

Hinduism, long ago, stood forth as the teacher of humanity, thanks to the virtue, the fortitude and the moral strength of the women of the past. We have to maintain these qualities and foster them so that she may hold her head high among the nations of the world.

The importance of the  mother in her role as educator is aptly summed up in the following scriptural quote from the Manu Smriti: “From the point of view of reverence due, a teacher is ten-fold superior to a mere lecturer, a father a hundredfold to a teacher and a mother a thousand-fold to a father.”

(Pandit Ramdial Balbadar is a prominent Aachaarya (Teacher) of Hinduism in Guyana. He is the compiler and author of many titles and has over 30 years experience in Pandits’ Training across Guyana. He is currently the President of the Sanatan Vaidic Dharma Pandits’ Sabha, Region 3).