Prayer to our True Parent

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Prayer To Our True Parent :

 

Tvameva Ma Ta ca pita tvameva

Tvameva Bandhusca Sakha tvameva

Tvameva Vidya Dravinam tvameva

Tvameva sarvam mama Devadeva.

You alone are the father

You alone are the mother

You alone are the true relative

You alone are the true friend

You alone are the source of true knowledge

You alone are the source of true wealth

You are my all, O! My God of all gods

 

Once Bhagawan was visiting the primary school at Puttaparthi. For reasons known to Him alone, he picked out a boy and asked him: "Who is your parents?" The boy perhaps thought that Swami might be the good and great God but not that good in English Grammar. So he began to answer: "My parents are …", Swami stopped him short and again asked: "Who is your parents?" with added accent on the 'is'. The boy was feeling uneasy and again began answering. "My parents are…" Again he was cut short. Then with great love Swami told him: "I am both your true mother and true father. Yet I am not two but one. So I have deliberately used 'is' instead of 'are'!" How truly it is said in the Upanishad that gods are fond of telling things indirectly (Deva paroksha priya).

 

Bhagawan is also known to have often asked devotees, "Where do you come from?" repeatedly until the right answer "from You, Swami" is elicited. Indeed, Bhagawan is the true begetter and the so-called parents are only receivers, keepers and caretakers. This is brought out beautifully in the Tamil language by the word 'petrore' which means 'receivers'. The sooner this is realised the better it will be, for the children as well as the parents of their physical bodies.

 

In the ancient scriptures it is advised that we must regard the mother and father as gods. Indeed Bhagawan often exhorts his students to do so. But He does not fail to point out to the elder devotees that they are not exactly good examples to their children: Either they set bad examples of behaviour without much regard for the five human values or they pamper them with too much (comforts etc) to live with and too little (aim or ideal) to live for. Parents must try to give more time, love and care to their children than money and material comforts and further they must not hesitate to chide and punish the children when they make mistakes. How well our true parent (God) does it! He calls us Dhunna pothus (Buffalos) and rowdies with a show of anger when we do things wrongly and 'bangaru's (golden ones) when we repent and resolve to set right our courses. So in the present times it will be more appropriate to say: Regard God as your mother and father!

 

 

In the second line, the devotee calls the Lord as his true relative and friend. True in the sense that He will be with us through thick and thin and not only when we are fine and full of felicity; that he will not only praise our good deeds but also criticise freely when we go wrong. Anyone with enough experience of life will know the validity of this statement for human/physical relatives and friends are fair-weather mates more often than not. Inspired by Bhagawan's example, so many devotees have showered affection and care on the people who come to our medical camps and other service camps that the people often exclaim: "Even our relatives could not have shown so much care and affectionate regard as you have done".

 

In the third line of this prayer, it is proclaimed that the lord is the source of knowledge and wealth. We gain knowledge through direct observation and experience (pratyaksha), through inference using our reasoning mind (Anumana) and through the words of others and the words conveying ideas received through intuition, insight or divine revelation (sabda). The truest and the most important source of knowledge is 'sabda' which is not only informative but also transformative.

 

Similarly, wealth is not synonymous with lots of money. One can be happy and healthy and very useful to others with less lucre and more love, less gold and more of good values of life; if wealth is regarded as a source of happiness the latter will be more so than the former. Since love and values of life originate in the Lord's love for us and in the teachings that He imparts, He then is the real source of knowledge and wealth indeed.

 

The last line is a summary of all that is said above. Yet another meaning too can be read in it. God is in parents, relatives, friends and the circumstances of our life that we now have, in or behind all of them. Through them God allows us to experience the results of our past and present deeds: Through good parents He teaches us with good examples worthy of following; through the not-so-good or bad ones, we are taught how not to think and do things. Through the facilities we have, the lord rewards our meritorious acts; and through the problems we face the Lord helps us to learn where we went wrong. So behind and in front and all around us there is God facilitating our growth in the understanding of our true self and concomitant wisdom and happiness. We are indeed the children of God, heirs to the legacy of His love, wisdom and bliss.

 

Om Sai Ram

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