An EMBODIMENT of DIVINE MOTHER

MOTHER is a very powerful word for people who understand what Mother means to them, what she does for them and what role she plays in their lives. Every successful person owes a better part of his or her success to one’s Mother.

Every human being is indebted to three Mothers:
1. Mother
2. Mother Nature and
3. Motherland – Our Birth place (tUeHkwfe)- the country we were born in that is our motherland.

When we think about Mother, practically unlimited thoughts come to our mind ! It starts with love, kindness, affection and then overflows into sweetness, security, protection, nurturing, selflessness, sacrifice, strength, helpful, support, understanding, courage, responsibility etc. For a child, the mother is no less than the God. There is a myth that while creating a being and then the human being, the God thought about protecting and nurturing it HIMSELF all the times until it gets on its own feet. But then HE thought it would be too much for HIM to do it all by HIMSELF so he thought about delegating that sacred task. To accomplish this, God created a very powerful force that we all know as the Mother or the Motherhood. Thus the Motherhood is considered a very sacred entity.

In this whole world, there is no one who gives you unconditional, unlimited selfless love all the time except your mother. Her love flows equally to all her children without any consideration for their physical, mental, intellectual, social, political, financial status or their achievements or lack of it or any limitations they might have. She gives and gives and gives and keeps on giving without expecting anything in return. She gives same unconditional love when her children are nice to her because she may be young, strong, pretty, powerful, educated, influential and resourceful. She gives the same unconditional love when her ignorant, and stupid children are indifferent to her because she may be old, weak, simple, unassuming, non-controlling and un-resourceful. But she still gives the same un-conditional love when her stupid children are abusive to her because she may be old, feeble, uneducated, weak, powerless, poor, dependent, helpless. Children may have conditional attachment with their mother, but mother has nothing but limitless, unconditional love for each of her children. There is no parallel to mother’s love, affection, sacrifice and her well wishes for her children. To a mother, there is nothing more important in her life than to see her children happy no matter what happens to herself. This is a tremendous sacrifice which is built into the Motherhood ! This is why one of the greatest Hindu philosophers and a great Vedantic Master Jagadguru Shri Shankaracharya has very profoundly proclaimed:

कुपुत्रे जायते, क्वचिदपि कुमाता न भवति।

“KUPUTRO JAYET, KWACHIDAPI KUMATA NA BHAVATI”

It means, a child may turn out to be a bad, undeserving child but a mother will never be a bad mother.

Our scriptures and the Vedas sing glory of The Divine Mother and the Mother Nature as the dynamic force in the whole Universe and this force is known as MAYA which, through the play of The Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent Ishwar, Bhagawan or God, manifests in the form of various objects and beings in this Universe and facilitates all the worldly experiences. Omnipresent Ishwar through HIS Maya or Mother Nature facilitates HIS ongoing Lila of Sukha (Happiness) and Dukha (Unhappiness), of good and bad, of mine and yours, of birth and death for all objects and beings. ParamKrupalu Parmatma, through the divine mother in the form of Shakti (Power or Strength – physical as well as intellectual capacity to differentiate between right & wrong and then to do what is right at any cost), shows us a way to realize the uselessness or the futility of our attachment to the materialistic Sansar, the Jagat (world) that is ever changing and endless journey which becomes a blockade of our path to realizing or attaining the eks{k (end of Birth and death cycle). If we do the right thing at any cost without any expectations, then with the blessings of the Divine Mother and grace of God we should be able to overcome Maya and attain the eternal Truth which is eks{k – Freedom from Birth & Death cycle.

We can say that The Divine Mother is a force created by The God to guide us towards attaining the Eternal Truth. Because of this distinctive virtue of the Divine Mother, our scriptures are praising
her by worshiping her in the well-known Pauranic Prayer of mother worship from Chandipath (p.MhikB) that thunders with devotion to Mother:

या देवी सर्वभूतेषु मातृरूपेण संस्थिता,
नमस्तस्यै नमस्तस्यै नमस्तस्यै नमो नमः।।

YA DEVI SARVA BHUTESHU MATRU RUPENA SAMSTHITA, NAMAH TASYAI, NAMAH TASYAI, NAMAH TASYAI NAMO NAMAH.

It means, “O, Goddess, O, Divine Mother, you are always residing in this universe, around us in the form of our mother, taking care of all of us and for that I Respectfully Bow Down to you (my salutations to you) again and again and again to express my appreciation and thanks to you.

Mother is full of Devine qualities and because of that she sees God in all her Children and loves her children unconditionally.
When our mother dies and merges herself with God and is no more around us physically, we realize the value of, the importance of our mother being with us physically. When our mother is no
more, we miss her so much but when she is around us, we don’t show our appreciation for her unconditional love and her total devotion to our wellbeing and happiness.
We are eternally indebted to our mothers for sacrifices she makes for our happiness and well-being which majority of us fail to acknowledge to her. We missed our chances to sit at her pj.kdey (feet) to realize divine truth and our real self.

We all are indebted to Mother Nature who provides us essential elements to sustain our lives such as Air, water, food etc. without which we can’t survive. We all need to be responsible human being and take care of our environment, protect the Mother Nature. Let’s do our part for the well-being of our future generations.

Also it is truly said that:
जननी जनमभूमिश्च स्वर्गादपि गरीयसी।

JANANI JANMBHUMISCH SWARGADAPY GARIYASI

It means: The Mother and the Motherland (tUeHkwfe) are greater than the Heaven.

I am greatly indebted to my Motherland for supporting and helping me until I migrated to USA. I am immensely indebted to my new, adopted Motherland for supporting and taking care of me
for more than last 40 years. I have gained a lot from this land, from people of this country. It is impossible to pay it off, but I am trying my best to return the favor as much as I can by way of helping those who need help.

At this point I would like to acknowledge my immense indebtedness to my beloved loving mother. I salute and thank my beloved mother for everything she has done for me. Whatever I have achieved so far is because of her blessings, because of her sacrifice for me, because of her continued concerns and hard work to improve my quality of life. It is beyond my capacity and ability to pay back to her in full. But I must try to do whatever I can, in that direction. I hereby convey my utmost regards to her and ask for her forgiveness, if I ever did anything that could have hurt her in any way.

Let us all pray to the Divine Mother that She may give us all the insight and strength to appreciate what our Mothers have done for us and be worthy of it.

Harish G. Bhatt, based in Chicago, is a prolific writer and published many articles on various topics.