Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c7.3

v1.c7.3

¹ The spiritual master (ācārya) stands above ten private teachers (upādhyāya) in worth and dignity, the father above a hundred spiritual masters, but the mother above a thousand fathers. Manu, ii, 145; Vasisṭha, xiii, 48. Cp. MBh., xii, 108.16 f.; K, xiv, 110.60. Also according to Yājñav., i, 35 and Gautama, ii, 51, the mother stands at the head of the venerable ones (guru), and above priests and religious teachers. To the “golden rules which the teacher gives the disciple to take with him on life’s way” belong the following in the old sacred Upanishad: “Honour thy mother like a god. Honour thy father like a god. Honour thy teacher like a god. Honour the guest like a god.” (Taitt.-Up., i, 9.1, 2; Deussen, *Sechzig Upanishad d. Veda*, p. 222.) The mother comes first here also, as, indeed, in the Sanskrit compound it is always; “mother and father”, and never “father and mother”. If the two are united by “and” then, on the other hand, it is oftener the other way. The mother is more venerable than the father because she has carried the child, and had to suffer pain. K., vol. i, p. 212, line 1.