09 Feb 2005
[The scriptures say that one should treat one’s mother as God. When God enters one’s life, the mother may lose Godhood but not her motherhood. Then God will be God and mother will be mother. In such a case one’s responsibility towards his mother cannot vanish. So, one’s mother cannot be left when one takes sanyasa. What do You say?]
If your question is correct, Shankara should not have left His mother, especially when His mother was without any alternative assistance. Therefore when God enters, the mother loses not only her Godhood but also her motherhood. Then God becomes the only mother for a realized soul. Your mother is only a co-actor in this life-drama. As soon as this drama dress (gross body) is left, [in death] the actors become disconnected from each other. They go to the Producer [God] of the drama for the remuneration and for the appointment in the future drama. When souls leave their bodies in this world, they become disconnected and go to the Lord to receive their remuneration which is the good and bad fruits of their actions. After that they will come to the next life with different connections. Therefore for a realized scholar, the Lord alone becomes the mother, father, wife and children. The realized scholar is related only to the Lord through all the bonds. The Lord brings the soul to this world like a seed soaked in the field by the farmer. Thus the Lord becomes the father. The Gita says the same (Aham Bija Pradah Pita). The Lord created the five elements and thus the gross body of the soul that is formed in the mother’s womb is also by the power of the Lord. Therefore, the Lord is the real mother. The child is delivered only by the will and force of the Lord. Therefore, God becomes the real father and the real mother.
For an ignorant person, his mother is both the mother and God because he is under the illusion of this dramatic ‘Maya’. He forgets that the soul of his mother is acting as a mother as per the written rigid script of the drama called as ‘Vidhi’. The actors should behave as per the script of the drama. Therefore, the love of the mother is not real. If it were real, she should not have forgotten her son after her soul left her body. But the Lord remembers all your previous births because His love for you is real. The Gita says the same (Tanyaham Veda Sarvani Natvamvetta). This means that the Lord remembers all the births of the soul. But the soul does not remember even a single birth. This proves that the love of the soul is unreal since it is dramatic. When Abhimanyu died and went to heaven, the Lord took Arjuna to heaven. Arjuna was the father of Abhimanyu. But Abhimanyu could not recognize his father. This proves that the feelings of these dramatic bonds disappear as soon as the soul leaves the gross body, which is only the actor’s dress. Such an ignorant person is a type of atheist who treats his mother as God. In the second stage, one treats his mother as mother and God as God. He puts his two feet in two different boats. In the third step he treats God alone as mother. These three stages constitute the entire spiritual journey or sadhana.
Unless these bonds are broken, the bond with God cannot be formed. Unless one is relieved from the old institution, he cannot join the new institution. The bonds of this world are many, like parents, wife, children, money etc. But the bond with the Lord is only one as said in the Gita (Eka Bhaktih Vishishyate). The breakage of the old bonds in this world is called salvation (Moksha). The formation of the new bond with the Lord is called as Union with God (Saayujya).