The Motherhood of God: A Trace of History

The Motherhood of God: A Trace of History  

Although the idea of the Motherhood of God is today a specialty of Hinduism, it had wide prevalence in the ancient world. The religions of Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Greece and other centers of civilization had their Mother Deities and systems of worship connected with them. But these ancient religions were swept away by the forces of modern faiths. So ingrained is the idea of a male God that many are repelled by the notion of their Deity being represented by a Woman. The problem is exacerbated by the doctrine of the incarnation. The choice of a male, rather than a female body seem to indicate that God must also, somehow, be like a man.

Every religion can be analysed into a composite pattern of thought and life consisting of three elements – a philosophy, a mythology, and a system of rituals, inclusive of methods and practices for attaining communion with the Divine. While philosophy deals with principles, mythology elucidates and illustrates those principles through symbolic accounts of gods and god-men through legendary history.

In the ancient world, people took it for granted that God or the Sacred could never be experienced directly, but always in something other than Itself. One of the earliest icons of the divine was a female.

In Europe, Asia and the Middle East, hundreds of statuettes/images, dating from the early Neolithic period were unearthed and which clearly represent the Great Mother Goddess. Some of the earliest religious artists instinctively depicted the creator of heaven and earth as a naked, pregnant woman. At that time, when agriculture was beginning to transform human life, the fertility of the soil was experienced as a sacred force. The earth seemed to produce plants and nourished them in the same way that a mother gave birth to a child and fed it from her own body. Later, when man began to build cities, more masculine qualities were revered as manifestations of the divine force. Male Gods then started to personify the sacred. But even then people did not forget the Great Mother.

She appeared alongside the male deities in the various pantheons in the ancient world. She was Inanna in Mesopotamia, Ishtar in Babylon, Anat or Asherah in Canaan, Isis in Egypt, and Aphrodite in Greece. She was still revered as the source of life, and since there can be no life without death, she was also the Lady of the Underworld. In the ceremonies symbolizing these spiritual truths, women served as priests as a matter of course as the earthly representative of the Great Mother.

Hinduism, like the other ancient religions, constantly reminds us that the Divine can never be confined to any one human expression. The mystery which underlies the fragilities of life is pictured in Gods and Goddesses who resemble human beings – images that express a sense of affinity. She is seen as potent – not passive – and just as capable as the Male in the constant attempt to bring new life out of darkness and death. Such a multi-faceted vision of the Sacred is still preserved in Hinduism.

The Hindu idea harmonizes with the modern scientific conception of God, which traces the whole universe back to the state of eternal Energy. Science has disproved the theory of “creation out of nothing” through the fiat of an extra-cosmic God, and has shown that something can never come from nothing. Science teaches that the universe existed in a potential state of that Energy. We call this self-existing, intelligent, eternal cosmic Energy the MOTHER of the universe. She is the source of infinite forces and phenomena. A Vedic verse says: “Thou art the Creative Divine Energy of the Supreme Being. Of Thee is born everything; therefore, Thou art the Mother of the universe.” She is LAKSHMI by name.

Writing in the Stabroek News on 30–12 – 2001, Eusi Kwayana said, “In Guyana, we come from more than one tradition where goddesses are worshipped. The Goddess Maat, signifying justice and righteousness, the same as the Hindu “Dharma,” was worshipped in Egypt. But it is the Hindu who constantly reminds us in practical ways of the presence of Divinity in womanhood, and thus adds to our civilization. Most recently, their Festival of Lights extolled Maha Lakshmi Devi, goddess of wealth and abundance. Keane Gibson’s recent book shows how some Guyanese African theologians include Her in their pantheon.”

A creator, when deprived of his creative power, is no longer the creator. The Hindus have understood this Eternal Energy as the Mother of the universe more than anyone else and have worshipped Her from prehistoric times up to today. It is not Nature worship.

Rev. Dr. Janet Wootton, an English Theologian, in an interview with the Sunday Chronicle in Sept. 1983, on “Reclaiming the Mother principle in the Godhead,” said, “A steady growing army of feminist theologians in the developed world is shaking the foundation of the Churches with their view that God, who for millennia has been seen as a White, patriarchal, male figure, is actually a Woman, a Goddess, a Giver of Life.” Remember, the male ‘begets’, but the female ‘gets.’

In all religions, the Father element is predominant. But if God can be called Father, it is equally legitimate to call that God Mother, too. It is from out of the earthly mother that all the offsprings come. So, accordingly, the concept of Motherhood is more appropriate to describe the Power of the Supreme Absolute Being, out of whom the world-offsprings have come. In the procreation of all species of life upon earth, the male is the seed-giving father, while the female is the conceiving mother. God is, therefore, both the Father and Mother of the universe. God is the seed and womb of the universe. The Spirit of God fertilizes our lives and makes them what He wants them to be.

(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).