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224
THE WAY OF LIFE
Maharajashri: How long does it continue? Well, a great poet has said this:
आस्तन्यपानाजननी पशुनामादारला भावधिचाधमानाम् । आगेहकर्मावधि मध्यमानमाजीवितात्तीर्थमिवोत्तमानाम् ॥
(Among animals or the brute creation, the affection for the mother continues upto the time the young ones need their mother's milk.) Among men of low moral level the love for the mother continues until the men are married and until their wives come to their houses. Among men of average moral level or the middle level, men love and respect their parents as long as they can do household work, but, men of virtues and nobility or men of the highest moral and ethical excellence, love and respect their mothers throughout their lives and they worship and serve their mothers as if they are thirtharupas (or the very forms of beautitude). In other words, noble men think that worshipping the mother is as great an austerity as visiting a holy place.
Now, you think for yourselves and you see to which class you belong; whether you belong to the lowest class or the middle class or the highest class of moral excellence. After realizing it you must try to attain the highest class of ethical excellence; mustn't you? Never forget the benefactions of your mother. Your mother may be uneducated or illiterate; she may be irritable. She may also commit some mistakes; but, a mother is a mother, a divinity in human form. She has borne you for nine months in her womb; and this is a benefaction which is invaluable.
Gratitude means not forgetting the benefactions of your benefactors. This virtue is an absolute necessity for those who desire to walk upon the path of dharma. This supreme virtue is present in all noble souls. In fact, it is present as a mental virtue in those souls. The virtue of gratitude was present in Aryarakshit naturally. He never forgot in his life the great benefactions that his parents had bestowed upon him. Throughout his life, he showed the highest regard to his mother and father. His father sent him to Pataliputra so that he might study and become educated; and accordingly he went there and
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