Yaad se teri dile dard aashna mamur hai/Jaise kaabe mein duaon se fiza mamur hai. (This aching heart is filled with your memories/Just as the kaaba overflows with prayers) — Iqbal, expressing his love for his mother after she passed away.
The world was proud to celebrate Mother’s Day yesterday. And we were too keen and happy to recount mothers’ contributions towards our health and happiness.
The status of a mother is so haloed that according to one Hadith, “Paradise lies beneath a mother’s feet” and in Hinduism God is seen in the form of a caring mother.
A mother has a sublime status in all religions and in India, traditions hold that the mother’s blessings are important for success in life. If one were to read about the lives of enlightened ones,one would find that their spiritual quest would not have been possible without the sacrifices of their mothers.
Shankaracharya was thinking that he would have to take his mother’s permission to renounce the world. While he was bathing in the river Poorna, a crocodile caught his leg. When his mother came rushing to the bank, he told his mother that the crocodile would release him only if he took up sanyasa. The mother’s sacrifice was important.
It was the same with the Sufi saint Shaikh Gilani when he set out to renounce the world to find the truth. He sought the permission of his mother to visit Baghdad and acquire knowledge and the company of the righteous. His mother wept and stitched his inheritance of 40 gold dinars in the lining of his coat and made him promise that he must ever commit himself to truth under all circumstances.
{{/usCountry}}It was the same with the Sufi saint Shaikh Gilani when he set out to renounce the world to find the truth. He sought the permission of his mother to visit Baghdad and acquire knowledge and the company of the righteous. His mother wept and stitched his inheritance of 40 gold dinars in the lining of his coat and made him promise that he must ever commit himself to truth under all circumstances.
{{/usCountry}}Even today, mothers would do any kind of sacrifice for the happiness of their children. One comes across numerous incidents where mothers donate their limbs and organs to replace the defective ones in a sick child. A mother is the first and the last refuge for any child. She alone has the innocence to see innocence in her child, in all circumstances.