All sacred texts including the Vedas and the Upanishads extol the position of the mother. The mother is the creator; she carries us in her womb for nine months, and goes through unbearable pain to bring us to this earth. But a mother is not merely a biological entity and neither is motherhood merely a biological phenomenon.
‘Motherhood’ is a concept highly sacred and pure in its appeal. Paradoxical as it may seem, being a mother transcends gender difference. A creative mind like Michelangelo might have mothered the idea of painting for more than nine months before it was finally delivered.
A mother epitomises human conscience. She nurtures us with her milk, blood, sweat and tears. She is our sole/soul security in a world surrounded by uncertain fears. It is the mother who tells us that we should move from ignorance to light and when the darkness of despair drowns us in frighteningly unfathomable depths, she is there to assure us that even the darkness will show us the stars.
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Does the influence of a mother ever stop? Just like a true devotee of the Bible, the Gita or the Koran uses the pearls of wisdom in these scriptures as the guiding light throughout their lives; a man with the right values uses his mother’s values to evolve spiritually as a human being. History bears testimony to the fact that great warriors on the battlefield of life have been deeply influence by their mothers’ teachings.
The great Maratha warrior Shivaji, the fiery freedom fighter from Bengal Jatin Mukherjee, the gentle prophet of a non-violent revolution Mahatma Gandhi, the great educationist and reformer Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and the well-known educationist Fr John Bosco, were deeply influenced by their mothers.
Looking at the surroundings in a broader perspective we need to accept that a motherly touch is what is extremely essential in today’s world. We should not allow the basic values of fife and the constructive, creative instinct nurtured by our mothers to die a silent death. Dr Ian Stevenson, former Head of the Department of Psychiatry, University of Virginia, once commented (while researching reincarnation cases) that Indian children remembered names of their parents and relations from past lives more than European or American children did.
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He said that this was because in India, family ties are stronger. We can further argue that our Indian culture is such that neither a mother nor a father ever dies. Our parents continue to live in us through their ideas and values and thus the work of a mother and a father continues forever. It should not come as a surprise. Could you imagine what would happen if Mother Nature decided that her work was over?