Treat your mother as God’ (Mathru devo bhava), says the Taittiriyopanishad. Mother worship is as old as the Upanishads. Both father and mother are held in great respect in Sanathana Dharma, for it is from them that one learns life’s first lessons, including one’s mother-tongue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is, indeed, the glory of Sanathana Dharma, in which the Upanishadic dicta are not confined to recitation and reading only. There are people, even today, who practise them. And that is what gives strength to the Eternal Religion. One such recent instance is worth our consideration in this context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kailasagiri, then a small boy in Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh, once fell from a tree and seriously injured himself. He was rushed to a doctor, but there was little chance that the young lad would survive his injuries. His mother did what countless mothers across the world do — she prayed to God. She prayed to Shiva, her chosen deity, to save her son and promised to undertake a journey on foot to Rameshwaram, a place 2,000 km. away. To her surprise, as also of the doctors’, the boy recovered soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vow Unfulfilled<\/em> But the young mother, like most people, could not fulfil her vow. Worldly duties kept her busy. She grew old. Added to it, she developed vision problem and slowly became blind. She was repentant for not keeping her words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once she shared her grief with her son. He heard her patiently, and assured that he would help her fulfil her vow. But how could the old lady, now blind, walk such a distance?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, he was too poor to organise a vehicle, but he was rich in truthfulness and grit. He remembered Shravana Kumara of the Ramayana fame, who carried both his parents on a large bamboo balance on his shoulders. Kailasagiri decided to follow the example of Shravana Kumara. He put together bamboo and rope and made a similar carrier. On one side of the balance, he placed a cushion for his mother and, on the other, he kept a water container, cooking stove, kerosene, a few provisions, vessels, etc. The whole thing, including his mother, weighed approximately 135 kg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Nine-year Journey<\/em> Thus started a journey of nine years. They first completed Narmada parikrama, a treacherous stretch in central India, around the river Narmada–an act considered to bestow great religious merit. It took them three years to complete these 3000 km. Then they went to Chitrakoot, Prayag, Ayodhya and Varanasi–all places deeply venerated by the Hindus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On their way, they visited an unbelievable 9000 temples, small and big.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They reached Ramesvaram, their destination, in May 2005. The temple authorities, along with hundreds of devotees, gave them a befitting reception. Everyone was touched by the mother-son ordeal, their single-minded devotion to God, and the son’s earnestness to fulfil his mother’s wish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Moved by this exceptional event, many devotees offered air\/ train passage and even an air conditioned car for them to return to their house, but it was politely declined, for, according to the mother, the vow was taken to walk both ways. The newspapers in Madurai widely covered this event, but the two remained their modest selves, untouched by the publicity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kailasagiri visited the Ramakrishna Math at Madurai when they visited the city after visiting Ramesvaram and met the monks there. Later, the mother-son duo went their self-designated way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Daily Schedule<\/em> Kailasagiri, now in his early forties, and a bachelor, was asked how he spent these nine years. He recalled that his mother and he would generally get up at 3 am. The son would help his mother to complete her morning ablutions. Then she would do her daily puja before they left on their walking schedule by 6 a.m. Kailasagiri would walk five or six km. and stop at a convenient place for rest — a roadside temple or a mandapam. Then he would cook and they would have their food. They would rest till sunset and then walk another two or three km. before it became dark. Hence, on an average, he walked 8 km. daily. A weight of 135 kg. is not easy to carry. Kailasagiri would keep down his load every 100 meters, do a parikrama around his mother, bow down to her, and move on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their basic needs were met by whatever generous people offered them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The likes of Kailasagiri are rare, indeed. In this age where money and material comforts receive priority over everything, such examples are hard to come by. How often do sons, though young and rich, turn their parents to old age homes and here is a case of singular devotion to mother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One recalls how Swami Vivekananda, too, confirmed this hoary tradition of respect for mother by fulfilling his mother’s vow of rolling on the ground of Kali temple in Kolkata. This was a long while after he had become well-known as a spiritual luminary and an international figure. May the tribe of the likes of Kailasagiri ever multiply and spread!<\/p>\n\n\n\n [The ideal woman in India is the mother, the mother first, and the mother last. The word, woman’ calls up to the mind of the Hindu, motherhood; and God is called Mother.] ……………<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inspired by the teachings of great Rhishis..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Treat your mother as God’ (Mathru devo bhava), says the Taittiriyopanishad. Mother worship is as old as the Upanishads. Both father and mother are held in great respect in Sanathana Dharma, for it is from them that one learns life’s first lessons, including one’s mother-tongue. This is, indeed, the glory of Sanathana Dharma, in which…CONTINUE READING<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":244,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-relationship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.rvnair.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.rvnair.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.rvnair.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rvnair.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rvnair.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=243"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rvnair.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":245,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rvnair.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions\/245"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rvnair.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.rvnair.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rvnair.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rvnair.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}