Mathru Chaya

The word "Mathru" means "mother"; and "chaya", an evocative synonym for more than two shades of meaning in the Sanskrit language, means "shadow" and "shade". So "Mathru chaya" is Sanskrit for a very beautiful expression indeed: "in the shadow of the Mother" and/or "under the restful shade of Mother". When we were children, we knew of no greater happiness, no greater security and no greater self-fulfillment than to live and walk in the "shadow of our mothers". The whole world hinged around her. We could conceive no heaven whose bliss equaled that which experienced when we lay our head upon the maternal lap. Mother's words were music to our ears and tonic to the soul. Like new-born chicks scampering to huddle under the shade of mother-hen's wings for both safety and comfort, we too as children lived and basked under "Mathru chaya", the maternal shade or shadow, that we took for granted as our birthright. A mother's soft touch and loving glance are indeed the true refuge and haven of a child's life. Mother gives us life. More importantly, she gives us self-belief too -- the belief in ourselves to go forth in life, to thrive and prosper as good human beings. It is from our safe and warm nest in the Mother's shadow ("chaya") that we first saw in the distant horizon the sunrise of personal growth and destiny that Life ahead promised us. It is the glowing shadow ('chaya') cast upon the soul by the earliest of our childhood memories and the most tender of impressions of motherhood, carried deep within ourselves, that made everything inside of us that could be said to be noble, compassionate or good.

If all this world could be somehow clothed and wrapped in the mother's shade, or enveloped somehow by her shadow ("maatru chaya"), would Man ever need to pine for the everlasting love and rest in the high Heavens?

Long after our mothers have left it, if we made it possible to give one another in this sorry world, here and now, that very same love, kindness, care and sympathy that our blessed mothers once gave us, so freely and unselfishly, would not Heaven itself be wrought upon earth?

If there were but one religion and faith in this world... the very same religion or faith by which every mother in this world abides while rearing her child.... if such a religion were to replace every other living religions of the world, would there be need at all to ascend to the heavens to seek other-wordly paradise?

If Motherhood was one large awning -and if it could somehow be unfurled and stretched like one giant canopy over this big world -- would it not cast the cool and gentle shadow of human love over all peoples in it....Like some giant "Mathru chaya" of maternal sweetness?

If a mother's shadow can bring heaven upon earth, it should then be possible for human effort to turn it into a faith and a people's movement?

If people of the world everywhere are proud to call themselves votaries of faiths like Hinduism, Christianity, Islam or Buddhism, surely they should be prouder to say they are inspired by the 'religion' of their mothers i.e. "Mathru chaya"? After all, it was the "religion" their own mothers lived and swore by in order to rear them into robust men and women of the world. Surely it should be easy for everyone to embrace this "religion" that seeks nothing else but to realize, in its own small, humble, practical way -- much like any mother -- the high ideal of Universal Brotherhood through universal motherhood?

If "Mathru chaya" were to be a Mother's Manifesto of Love, surely, all men and women of the world, having received the blessing of motherhood, would surely embrace its inspiration?

The inspiration of Motherhood - "Mathru chaya" - is what lies at the heart of Mathru Chaya Foundation (MCF), a movement or creed that seeks to convert the noblest of maternal virtue and the tenderest of motherly instincts into a larger program of social and community action and charity.

The MCF has no formal organization, constituted as it is simply by an anonymous but closely-knit membership of several hundred like-minded persons who believe in the 'mantra' or 'siddhantha' of "Mathru chaya" -- i.e. who simply believe in "becoming mothers" and doing for the community at large everything good a mother would do for her child, wholeheartedly, vigorously and without the least expectation of return or reward.


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