‘The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world’-----William Ross Wallace
Posted on May 08, 2022 | Author COLONEL SATISH SINGH LALOTRA
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Mother is an English word, not an acronym. It is a noun, which specifies a woman who is in relation to a child, to whom she has given birth. Since the word is not an acronym, so it does not have any full form too but over the years people created their own full forms to show their creativity, love and respect for mother. Be that as it may, the full form of mother which I thought comes nearest to defining her in totality may appear somewhat like this---
M---Million things she gave me—O—Specified only that she is growing old—T—Tears she shed to save me—H—Heart of purest Gold—E—Eyes with long lasting love—R—Right ,she means and always right.
As we come upon another ‘Mother’s day’ on 08th May this year, William Ross’s words rings so true. There is no way that we could be the person that we are today without thesacrifices, motivation and love from our mother.She has had a significant influence on the successes that we have been able to achieve.How does one then describe mother or rather encapsulate all her being in such a short article? It is impossible to write down the emotions that can be etched on a human’s mind regarding the issue.
Life starts within them and each life is raised with warmth, affection and unqualified love of mother. A mother may have different names like mommy, mom or mama but every mother has the same role in our lives. She is the caretaker and defines gratitude and inspiration in her children with unrequited attention. She is the pillar of hope for every member of family. The first mother’s day internationally was celebrated by Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia, US in the year 1908. On 12th May 1908 to be precise she held a memorial for her late mother in the church of Grafton, West Virginia. Anna Jarvis wore all white carnations on the occasion, but as the custom developed over a period of time people started wearing red or pink carnations to represent a living mother and white carnations for a dead mother.In the year 1914 US President Wood row Wilson declared ‘Mother’s day’ as a national day.This went on for many years and was replicated from the western world to the rest of the world as such.
While In India mother’s day is celebrated on the second Sunday of May, it is celebrated in different countries across the world with different time lines and dates. In the UK it is celebrated on the 4th Sunday of March to honour the ‘Mother church’ in the Christian month. As for the Grecians of Greece, they celebrate the festival on 02 February every year. As a country with Hindu religion as its mainstay, India has always placed its mothers /women folk on a pedestal. Almost all names of Hindu Goddesses are either prefixed or suffixed with the word ‘Ma’. We have example Ma Durga ,Ma Luxmi and Ma Sarswati etc keeping the position of the word Ma as per the spoken convenience of the people with that of the deity. This lends credence to the fact that Indian civilization was honed on the anvil of sterling qualities of head and heart of its countless mothers who were the harbingers of their son’s future course of actions in the world. According to the philosophy of ‘Sanatan Dharma’, the institution of ‘Motherhood’ is given the pedestal position as stated earlier in a Hindu society. For a Hindu every day is a ‘Mother’s day”. Unlike others Hindus respect, worship, celebrate and give highest recognition to 5 mothers in their everyday life. The ‘Mother earth’, the Cow, religious texts, the divine mother, and the biological mother in that order stand the religious conviction of a devout Hindu. These have been considered as the sources of life that provide sustenance for the continuity of humanity and hence offering admiration, worships and making provisions for their continuity are a few of the duties of their earthly children.
The word ‘Maa’ in Hindi language comprises of a consonant ‘Ma’ and a vowel ‘Aa’. This consonant pertains to the heart which evokes the emotion of love, joy and happiness while the vowel relates to ‘Anand shakti’ or the power of bliss. So one’s mother is a treasure house of all the bliss, love and success. As stated earlier in the Hindu religion, Ma Durga’ is considered the ‘Ichhashakti’(power of will) , Ma Saraswati as Kiriya Shakti (power of activity), Ma Lakshmi as the Arth Shakti (power of wealth) and so on.Hence the earthly mother strives hard to make sure that her children are well nourished, their activities are directed by her will and they acquire proper knowledge to be of some value to her as well as the world at large. Therefore the key role of a mother in a child’s development. Even in the world of Islam, a mother is elevated to the highest pedestal of human existence one can fathom of.
As per holy Quran surah 17:23–24 “Your Lord has decreed that you worship none but Him, and that to be kind to parents. Whether one or both of them attain old age (while) with you, say not to them a word of contempt, nor repel them, but address them in terms of honor. And out of kindness, lower to them the wing of humility, and say: ‘My Lord! bestow on them Thy Mercy even as they cherished me in childhood’. Also it is reported that ‘A man came to the Prophet and said, ‘O Messenger of God! Who among the people is the most worthy of my good companionship? The Prophet said: Your mother. The man said, ‘Then who?’ The Prophet said: Then your mother. The man further asked, ‘Then who?’ The Prophet said: Then your mother. The man asked again, ‘Then who?’ The Prophet said: Then your father’
Indians do not have to go any corner of the world to seek sterling examples of motherhood guiding them through their lives. Flip through the medieval history of our country and out tumbles the pinnacle of motherhood in the form of ‘PannaDai’, the 16 th century nursemaid to RanaUdaisingh–II, the fourth son of RanaSangha of Mewar kingdom. She was a ‘Khinchi Chauhan’ Rajput given the charge of RanaUdaisingh –II, breast feeding him virtually from his birth in 1522 along with her own son Chandansingh. A widower, she was a close confidant of even Rani Karnawati wife of RanaSanghaoften helping her in negotiating state matters. When RanaUdaisingh was attacked by his own uncle Banvirsingh with a sword with an intention to kill the heir apparent, Panna Dai sacrificed her own son Chandansingh who was sleeping alongside in the palace thus saving the last hope of Mewar. Harshadrai Sakerlal Mehta made ‘ VeerangnaPanna ‘ an Indian silent movie way back in 1934 . In 2014, the then CM of Rajasthan VasundhraRajeinaugurated the Shaheedsmarak and PannaDhai museum as well as boat shaped museum in Goverdhansagar lake. This museum is dedicated to Panna Dai and her sacrifices to Mewar kingdom. The hall also portrays her life in which visitors are shown a 3D movie about her.
We have many more marvelous examples of Indian mothers having cast a profound effect on the formative years of their children’s lives by way of molding them into a steel frame of resolve.Who can forget the role of ‘ Jijabai’ the mother of Guerrilla king ‘Shivaji’ from the Deccan ? She by her single mindedness in her capacity as a regent cum mother raised Shivaji into a formidable force to reckon with in those turbulent times of Mughal tyranny. Similarly ‘Rani Lakshmi Bai’ with her adopted son ‘DamodarRao’ tied and carried piggy back on a horse back in the famous battle of Jhansi against the British is firmly etched in the minds of millions of Indians to have an everlasting impression of what an evolved Indian motherhood is even during war time. Coming to the recent times we have examples of Putlibai Gandhi, Swaroop Rani Thussu, Vidyavati, Kamla Nehru, Premlata Peshawria mothers of Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru, Shaheed Bhagat singh, Kiran Bedi respectively who were icons in themselves for turning their progenies into possessed personalities, having the guts of changing the world in their own little ways for better. The latest to adorn the high pedestal of Indian motherhood is none other than mother of our PM Narender Modi, Heeraben Modi who by her sheer simplicity and style of living a frugal existence has captivated the whole world.
The sterling qualities of head and heart which the entire world is witness to in our PM is no wonder the gift of his mother who instilled in him these pearls of wisdom in his formative years of growing up. Having penned this article on mother’s day I am reminded of my own mother who though having passed away 17 years back has had her teachings still firmly imprinted in my subconscious as a guiding light to steer me from the highs and lows of life. Though we are quick to celebrate such occasions marking as an ode to our parents but in actuality the changing socio-economic mores in our society has had a stressful impact on these relations too. The demands of motherhood on modern upward mobile mothers is far too in excess as compared to their counterparts from the days of yore. But then has anything worthwhile been achieved in this world without digging in our heels?
The modern mothers have to remind themselves the quote of ‘William Ross Wallace’ –‘The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world’ to be of some substance to their progeny as well as in their own eyes and take the idea of motherhood to lofty heights.
(The writer is a retired army officer and RK Columnist. He can be reached on: [email protected])
link :https://www.risingkashmir.com/International-Mother-s-Day--An-Ode-To-Motherhood-106214