“Motherhood must be establ must be established in everything not only in one’s self.”
Mother once explained what universal motherhood is and when it can be considered to be perfectly manifested. That is the point which this state- ment conveys.
What Mother seems to imply is that it is not enough if one is able to consider that all creatures are one’s offspring and is able to treat them with love; one must also perceive Motherhood in all and perfect Mothernood includes both.
First of all of course one must be able to look on all creatures at one’s own off spring with love and care. This in itself is a very sublime state; for it implies the transcendence over likes and dislikes, the attainment of perfect patience and compassion; in its final stage it implies the realization of one’s identity with God whose off spring the whole creation is. But even this is not the final state. The realization of oneness with God that a perfected saint might get either in nirvikalpa or savikalpa samadhi is short lived and not permanent and unbroken; when one is in such a state of samadhi, one becomes oblivious of the world outside; such a one is still not capable of dwelling in the duel consciousness i.e; in the simultaneous existence in both the planes of absolute and uninterrupted oneness with the Absolute and the awareness of the world outside as a manifestation of the Absolute. This is said by some to be the state of Sahaja Samadhi the perfect Jnana.
Perfect Jnani, said Ramana Maharshi, never distinguishes between himself and others; he does not consider himself, a liberated one and others to be bound and unenlightened. He finds perfect divinity in all. Hence it is that such a one does not feel anyone to be his inferior or disciple; such a one does not specially instruct anyone by word.
This perfect Divinity or Reality is what Mother seems to mean by the expression ‘Motherhood’. She defined the word ‘Amma’ (Mother) as meaning the eternal, the infi- nite, basis of Existence’ and it is significant that those are the very same words with which the Sage of Arunachala defined Reality. Realizing per fect Motherhood is realizing the Real. This naturally in- volves not only realizing one’s oneness with the Reality but also realizing the oneness of all forms with the Reality i.e., perceiving the Reality that underlies all forms. Mother used the expression ‘Mother hood’ for ‘Reality’. She expli citly stated that Motherhood in no sense implies woman- hood; she said ‘Mother is not the one who is merely sitting on a cot in Jillellamudi; Mother is that which is without a beginning and without an end; it is the Beginning and the End’.
In short perfect Motherhood is chiefly characterised by two things (a) Realizing Mother-hood of all creation in oneself (b) Recognising the Mother hood underlying everything in creation.
Illustrations of the first cha racterstic abound in her life. As a girl of five- She addressed even elders just as a mother addresses her children; and strangely enough, to their own astonishment, almost all those who came into contact with her even in her childhood found themselves addressing her a Mother! Rangamma herself was several times sur prised to note that she used such an expression in spite of herself; Even to day young and old recognise her Mother hood and are bound forever by it to her lotus – feet.
The second aspect needs illustration i. e., recognising the Motherhood that is in all forms. Once, as a girl of five or six years, She was sitting in her house and was gazing at a cow that is being milked, The noice of the milk-jet stri king the milk in the brass vessel was continuously reach ing her. Soon Mother started feeling that the milk in the vessel is crying ‘Mother! Mother! At first she actually felt that she was being called herself as the UniversalMother; later, she felt that the univer- sal Mother is calling Herself; still later she felt that the milk is the mother of the noice; the udder is the mother of the milk; cow, of the udder; the earth is the mother of the cow; the sky is the Mother of the earth and so on infinitely. She felt the identity of Motherhood and Adhara’ (the Basis, Origin, Support). Thus everything becomes the Adhara for everything i. E-, the one becomes the Adhara for everyone.
How did this little girl know this profound truth? Because She is That, she needed no study of Sastras. For as she said the study of sastras can not bestow experience, where as the experience is the origin of all Sastras.
Thus in Mother we find the perfect fulfilment of both the conditions of Motherhood.
“Mother, I do not remember You during ordinary moments. You come to my memory only when some pain assails me”
“What does it matter, which way you remember? At least in that form you recognize me”
– Mother.