Srimati Carrie
Speaks on "Behold, your Mother"
Sunday, May 8, 20116 at 11:00am
Mother’s Day and the ideal of Divine Motherhood present us with the blessed meditation on the attributes of Godliness in self-manifestation. It also represents the glorious ideal of discipleship. One example is found in the death of Jesus of Christ-Consciousness—when upon his death he said in the presence of his mother, Mary, and his disciple, 'Woman, behold your son.' And to his devoted disciple, he said, 'Behold, your Mother.' Her motherhood expanded beyond her own blood and kin… her love was elevated to spiritually encompass the souls of those on the path of God-realization. Sharing the purest love is the way of true discipleship and the life of a devotee of God.
—Srimati Carrie
From the Gurus and Swamis: AUM
“What does the word 'mother' mean? It comes from matri in Sanskrit which is the basis of all languages. From this root was derived the Latin mater. Matri means 'to measure' so the mother was the 'measurer.' Is it not true that the mother measures or manifests all the divine attributes and offers the standard by which we come to realize selfless love, patience, understanding, forgiveness and other godly qualities?”
—Swami Premananda, "Seven Mystic Holydays"
“My first home in this world was in the sacred sanctuary of my mother’s womb. Each soul, without exception, is accorded the most heavenly home on earth within the living temple of its mother’s body. In it the law of origin, growth and protection is identically the same in the case of each and all souls.”
—Swami Premananda, "14 Questions on Reincarnation"
“Thou Perfect Giver of Bountiful Life.
Open my mind and heart to Life
That I may be ever mindful of the blessedness of human birth.
Thou hast given me this life to realize Thy Life,
This mind to channel Thy Light,
This Heart to offer Thy Love.”
—Swami Kamalananda, "Reflections on Still Waters"
“I am Prakriti, ordained to creative Nature.
I am the current of the Absolute in the ocean of life.
The Mother of Earth, generating endless harmonies and hues in splendorous profusion.
I fill the skies with endless invitations to awaken the soul from sleep.
Awake, then, from thy slumber of unknowing to discover thy cosmic inheritance of infinite domain in my wondrous emporium.”
—Swami Kamalananda, "Frontiers of the Spirit"
Noble Thoughts
"We are born of love; Love is our mother."
—Rumi
"Giving birth and nourishing; having without possessing; acting with no expectations; leading and not trying to control; this is the supreme virtue."
—Lao Tzu
"So the soldiers did these things, but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, 'Woman, behold, your son!' Then he said to the disciple, 'Behold, your mother!' And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home."
—John 19
“The Blessed Lord said:
I will again declare unto thee the supreme wisdom, which is above all knowledge, by knowing which all the Munis, (self-enlightened individuals), after this life attain to the highest perfection.
"Living by this wisdom and becoming one with my being, they do not come to birth during my cosmic manifestation, nor are they affected in the course of my universal absorption.
"O descendant of Bharata, the great Prakriti, the cosmic Nature, is my womb; in that I place the substance of objective manifestation; from thence is the birth of all beings.
"O son of Kunti, in whatsoever wombs whatever forms are produced, the cosmic Nature is the womb of all.”
—"Srimad-Bhagavad Gita," 14th Chapter, translated by Swami Premananda