The Glory of Motherhood — Swami Bhaskarananda

Recorded at the Vedanta Society of Western Washington on November 11, 2012.

In this talk, Swami Bhaskarananda reflects on the glory of motherhood as honored in the Vedantic tradition. Beginning with traditional chants to the Divine Mother, he explains why the scriptures place Matri Devo Bhava—“regard your mother as God”—as a primary instruction. He relates this reverence to the Vedantic understanding of the Divine as beyond form, time, and limitation, while also showing how the human mind naturally approaches the formless Reality through personal relationships such as mother, father, friend, or beloved. From this perspective, viewing God as Mother becomes a way of expressing love and intimacy with the Divine, without claiming that the Infinite is literally confined to human categories.

Swami Bhaskarananda illustrates the unselfish power of maternal love through stories and examples, including the instinctive sacrifice of a mother protecting her young and the tradition’s insistence that a mother does not forsake her child even when faults are present. He also draws on the lives of great spiritual figures—especially Sri Sarada Devi, revered as the Holy Mother—to portray universal motherhood as compassion that embraces all, without distinction. The lecture concludes by emphasizing gratitude toward one’s mother, the spiritual value of honoring womanhood, and the aspiration to cultivate purity, humility, and awareness of inherent divinity through this sacred ideal.