Motherhood
Swami reminds us here of our supreme duty and obligation to our mother. In these days of varied cultural mores, people often forget that they owe their life to their mother. Swami upholds and elaborates on the value of being pure, and He exhorts us to set an example to others through our own life.
Sloth and dullness (tamas) fog the mind and prevent the acquisition of knowledge. A passionate and extrovert nature (rajas) prevents the growth of humility and devotion. Only the serene (satwa) can win wisdom. The Indian way of life encourages serenity and equanimity; it fosters the ideal of satwa, and helps man to overcome sloth and passion, that is to say, rajas and tamas.
That is the reason why that way of life and the culture that promotes it have stood the test of time, the ravages of history and the reverses and triumphs of movements and personalities. The consummation which that culture aims at is the attainment of bliss through the cultivation of self-confidence, meaning confidence that the self or atma is the very core of one’s reality. This cultivation is to be undertaken through various prescribed sadhanas (spiritual practices), which prepare the mind and heart for the planting and growth of love until the harvest of bliss is gathered. Atma is but another name for the spark of God in you; that spark is the light, the love, the energy in every cell, and atom of every being and thing in the whole universe.
The Vedas (scriptures) have laid down the injunction that one should revere the mother, the father, and the preceptor as Divine. This is an inescapable duty. The vilest criminal and the wisest monk, the poorest mendicant and the most affluent billionaire, the lowliest serf and the most autocratic ruler have all come into this world causing suffering to the mother, having fed on her blood, fondled by her arms, and toddled under her watchful eyes. But children there are in plenty who neglect and torture her most ungratefully, making her days a nightmare of hunger and fear.
Treat your mother with care and consideration; God will treat you with affection. So, make her happy to the best of your ability.
There are many plans afoot to make the country advanced and progressive. From every platform and on the pages of every newspaper we hear and read accounts of these schemes and plans. But many of these are devised without proper diagnosis of what ails the people and a proper study of the history and present trends and attitudes of the vast majority of the people. India must remain India after the treatment by these doctors. They should not be allowed to equip it with brain, brawn, mind, and heart imported from other countries with different trends of culture. Brushing history aside is not a profitable or desirable step. To discard ideals and practices that conferred peace and happiness to countless generations is not wise. Transplanting foreign modes of thought and action will cause social dis-ease and upset peace and contentment.
The attempt must be to resuscitate and recondition the Bharat (India) that is. Competition, greed, violence, and autocracy—these do not fit in with the ideals of this land. The accumulation of trivial things or the acquisition of transitory knowledge is not encouraged. The acquisition of discipline, devotion, and duty has been held up as the richest treasure for the people. Peoples of other times and climes have themselves found these codes of conduct and goals of progress not wholly effective, if not positively harmful. Then how can they be borrowed with any confidence? Artificial lives led on borrowed levels of behavior can yield only artificial happiness and prosperity. The Indian way is to walk in the path of truth and morality. It is to handle all problems and situations from the solid foundation of one’s reality, namely, the immortal, ever-pure atma, which is above all the tantalizing dualities of good and bad, profit and loss, victory and defeat.
The Indian knows that nature is God’s vesture. He does not talk of conquering nature, exploiting nature, or commanding the forces of nature. He moves from nature quickly and easily to nature’s God. We are but short-term tenants on God’s estate. There is no justification for claiming ownership or mastery or the spoils of conquest. Not exploitation, but love, not mastery, but reverent homage is the Indian reaction to nature and her mysteries. Love is the spiritual exercise; love is the lesson; love is the instrument; love is the gain, the goal. Truth and love are the two wheels of the chariot of life.
Truth and love are already in the human heart, but they have not permeated, sweetened and sanctified every thought, word, and deed. Just as stirring with a spoon will render the entire water in a glass sweet by persuading the sugar at the bottom to saturate the water, the spoon of buddhi or intelligence must be used to perform the sadhana of stirring, so that you can realize divinity in every particle, cell, or atom in the entire cosmos. Isavasyam idam sarvam: All this is enveloped by God, say the Upanishads (scriptures).
When the level of water in the well goes down, things at the bottom are seen more clearly. When the level of desire falls, God, who is the unseen spring in everything, is cognized clearly. So, man must try to reduce attachments that clog and confuse, desires that agitate and confound. Less luggage, more comfort makes travel a pleasure, as the Railway Administration advises. Travel through life with less luggage.
Every one of you must spread this message by example and precept through the activities of the Samiti [organization]. Not individual but collective effort has to be encouraged, so that pride and greed may be eliminated. A single strand is too weak to bind an ant; but a 1000 ants becoming a rope can hold an elephant in restraint.
The individual while in the tamasic stage is like the mango when it has just emerged from the flower; it is bitter in taste. Later, when man becomes rajasic, he is like the grown fruit, sour and not very welcome. But when the fruit ripens, it is like the satwic person, desired and revered by all.
Do not seek the faults of others; seek rather your own. And if you are not able to discover any good points in you, hasten to shed the faults and cultivate sathya (truth), dharma (right action), shanti (peace), and prema (love). That is the message I am giving on this day when the mother and the motherhood are remembered with gratitude.
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, June 1976
