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Source: The Hindu (http://www.hinduonnet.com)

 

Mother, the most revered person on earth

 

CHENNAI, SEPT. 24. Our spiritual directives advise us to offer

our prostrations to enlightened, elderly persons who have gained

Divine knowledge and maintain equanimity. The blessings of such

eminent and pious personalities will help us to cultivate

humility and remain calm. How to identify such outstanding

representatives has been explained by God-incarnate Himself in

the Bhagavad Gita. Those who possess the faculty of treating

everyone alike and visualise the eternal existence of the Supreme

Lord in every entity, whether in a learned man or in a person

living on dog's flesh, or in an elephant or in a cow or a dog

belongs to this category.

 

In the Mahabharata, when the special rite was performed by the

Pandavas to establish their supremacy, the question of according

prime honour to one who was ``distinguished'' arose although

there were veterans like Bhishma in the august assembly. The

ultimate choice fell on Krishna as He was the personification of

all excellences - generosity, admirable qualities, valour and

strength. The purpose of obtaining the good wishes of men of

merits was that they were greater in all respect than us,

particularly in education and paying homage to them will fetch us

success.

 

All the sacred utterances clearly lay down that the mother who

sacrifices her entire life to bring up her child is to be revered

most. In the Mahabharata, during the exchange of ideas between a

celestial (Yaksha) and Yudhishtra, the former posed a question,

among numerous others, as to who or which is bigger than the

world. As no one can surpass ``Mother Earth'' in her tolerance

and in supplying valuable items of wealth (like gems and

diamond), Yudhishtira's reply was that a mother indeed should be

held as more precious than the universe as she bears the child,

which when it grows in the womb, gives her pain and discomfort.

After birth, she pays her entire attention to see its progress.

There can be no parallel to her sacrifice. In the other epic, the

Ramayana, when at the conclusion of the war in Lanka, Vibhishina

urged Rama to stay for a day with him, the latter said apart from

meeting Bharata who would not brook any delay in His arrival, He

said ``I cannot keep Myself away from My beloved mother and

others. I must pay My respects to My preceptors. I should be back

at My motherland''. In a discourse, Sri Sakatapuram Sankaracharya

explained how God-incarnate Himself had given an exalted status

to His mother and also to the land of His birth, which is of

greater importance and value than even heaven.

 

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