Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c7.2

v1.c7.2

In Mahābh., i, 196.16 we find: “Of all guru the mother is the highest guru”; in xii, 342.18: “There is no higher virtue (or: no higher law) than the truth, no guru to equal the mother, a greater thing for weal than the Brahmans is found neither here nor there” (cp. xiii, 63.92); in xiii, 105.14: “Above ten fathers or even the whole earth in worth (gaurava) stands the mother; there is no guru like the mother”¹ (cp. 106.65). Cp. iii, 313.60; xii, 301.44. For all curses there are means of averting and destroying (pratighāta, moksha), but for the mother’s, and hers only, there are none (i, 37.3-5).² Indeed, xii, 161.9 states: “ ‘There is no pious exercise either in the world or in the ascetics’ forest that can stand above the mother (nāti mātaram āçramaḥ).’” Yudhishṭhira in xii, 108 asks Bhīshma: “What is the highest of all duties (virtues, law precepts, dharma)?”; and he gets the answer: “The honouring of mother, father, and teacher (guru) I set high; whoso is diligent about these enjoys the worlds of heaven, and high renown.¹ And the task that these bestow, be it the law, or opposed to the law, that must be done.² What they allow is what is right; they are the three worlds, they are the three spheres of duties in life (āçrama), they are the three Vedas, they are the three holy fires. The father is held to be the gārhapatya fire, the mother the southern fire, the teacher the āhavanīya. This fire trinity is the most important. If thou givest the proper heed to these three, then thou shalt win the three worlds; of this world thou wilt unfailingly be master through the rightful behaviour towards thy father, of the world beyond through that towards thy mother, of the Brahma world through that towards thy teacher. Whoso cares for these three has won all three worlds; but whoso cares not for them, his holy deeds are all barren. Whoso does not at all times hold these three venerable ones in high esteem, for him there is no salvation in this world or the other.³ The mother stands above ten fathers, or even the whole world, in worth (gurutva), there is no guru to equal the mother.”⁴