Vaidya Mishra's Shaka Vansya Ayurveda

According to the Vedic tradition, mother and father are living gods and goddesses here on earth.

Mother is God.
Father is God.

And I can tell you without a doubt that mother has the greatest importance.

Mother is Respected Even by the Sannyasi

In certain prominent Vedic lineages, a man becomes a sannyasi (renunciate) and loses his family name. In doing so, he gives up his family identity completely. But if his mother comes to visit him, he must pay special respect to her.

Even if he becomes a jagadguru (world teacher) and his parents come to see him, the father will touch his son's feet, but the mother never touches her son's feet.  No matter who he is, the son must come down off his seat to touch his mother's feet.

There is a reason for this show of respect for mother even in a sannyasi. Although father plays a major role in conception and supporting growing up, mother's contribution biologically, emotionally and spiritually is much more than father's contribution.

Importance of Mother in Pregnancy and Before Conception

It starts from before conception. Mother's rituals, prayers and desires for getting a bright soul as a son or daughter has more effect than father's wishes and good actions in attracting such a soul. Even mother's emotional, mental and physical purity matters a lot to invite a bright soul into the world.

The role of mother is, of course, extremely prominent during pregnancy. Only a woman has enough soma (nourishing vibration of nature) to hold and physically develop a fetus into a baby. This is the gift of mother, that she gives us everything we need physically to develop into a baby.

While the fetus is in the womb, mother also plays an important spiritual role. The shastras (ancient Ayurvedic texts) say that after conception the light (sattwa) of the baby's soul starts to interact with the sattwa (light) of the mother's soul. It is called sattwa sambhashan in Sanskrit.

Sattwa means "light of the soul," bhashan means "conversation," and the prefix sam means"together". So sattwa sambhashan can be translated as a subtle conversation or communication between the two lights of the souls of mother and baby. It is the subtlest, spiritual beginning of the first relationship of the child. It is light to light communication.

It is for this reason that pregnant mothers are instructed in Ayurveda to read spiritual books during pregnancy. The fetus absorbs the wisdom from the mother's light into its own light.

The Importance of Mother After Delivery and During Childhood

Even after all that she does biologically and spiritually during pregnancy for the child, mother's role only just begins after giving birth.

Breast feeding is not just feeding any milk to the newborn baby. The mother's breast is giving lots of courage to the baby and emotional connection. There is a saying in India, whenever a person is very strong and bright: "You must have gotten months of milk from your mother."

Growing up, mother is the first teacher. She teaches us everything essential in our lives. She teaches us our mother tongue. In my family, mother teaches OM as the first word for the baby. And most importantly, mother teaches us love.

She is constantly there for us no matter how we behave. She loves without condition.

In India, a compliment about one's mother is considered the highest compliment. Once I gave a lecture at a conference of allopathic doctors in Delhi in 2002. I was speaking about Ayurveda to a large group of doctors who were not necessarily sympathetic to my views. The talk went very well and afterwards an old Bengali man came up to me and said that I must have a great mother, otherwise I couldn't have given such a nice presentation. It brought tears to my eyes.

My Respect to Mothers Everywhere

When I see a lot of autistic kids with Dr. Marianne Teitelbaum in New Jersey, I sometimes feel bad for the mothers of these children. They have to have a lot of patience and courage and hope to handle them. And I have noticed that whenever a mother of an autistic child happens to be a very passionate mother, that child improves on the protocol much more rapidly than other kids. I get hope right away when I see a mother like that. I know that the kid is going to get better sooner.

There is a verse in Chandi Path about mothers.

In this verse, all the great sages and gods have gathered and are expressing their love and appreciation for the Divine Mother. In this verse, they are saying that Divine Mother exists in all mothers in the world. Quite literally, our own personal mother is an expression of Divine Mother.

Caring for Mother As She Ages

Last month I was in Pennsylvania with Linda Rocco seeing patients. I saw in one lady's pulse that she was very bright but her mind was confused. I asked her, "Is there any duality in your mind? Or any doubts about something you are doing?" She said, "Yes, a big one."

She is a nurse. Her mother has Parkinson's disease and her father has Alzheimer's. Both are in their late 70's. She told me that she loves to take care of them, but whenever she talks about it to her friends, they say she's stupid. They say she's ruining her life, and that she should put them in a nursing home and let other people take care of them. But she feels that her parents made her what she is today. She feels good when she takes care of them.

I told her not to give it a second thought. Mother and father are God. We cannot see God with our eyes, but mother and father are God made visible. Keep helping them. I told her that she is very fortunate that God has given her this opportunity in this lifetime. She was very happy to hear this.

Mother is Good

There is a verse from Shankaracharya written many centuries ago in Sanskrit.

The son could be bad but mothers are never bad.

No matter how many mistakes kids are making, mother is full of forgiveness, tolerance and unconditional love. In all ways, a mother stands by her children, even when they take it for granted. This unconditional love is what makes mothers so godly.

One last story about my own mother comes from my dad. One of my dad's very divine patients came for a consult. He was very impressed with my father's health. Even when he was working hard all day, there was always a lot of light on his face. So he asked my father, "Who is your vaidya?" to which, my father replied, "My wife."

But the man persisted, "No, I mean who is treating you when you get sick." My father said, "What sickness? I never get sick." And it's true. I never saw him sick in bed once in my life. My mother took amazing care of him as she did our whole family. She knew very much about Ayurveda and how to make fine adjustments in the diet that kept all of us healthy, happy and spiritually alive.

Here's wishing a very happy Mother's Day to you and your family.

With warm regards,
Vaidya Mishra