By Acharya Shunya
There is a saying, that "life doesn't come with a manual, it comes with a mother." Most living beings, animals and humans, enjoy the protection, love, and grace of their mother. But what if you had a difficult relationship with your maternal figure? A challenging, toxic, or even dysfunctional relationship with the person who quite literally pushed you into existence is challenging indeed. But as the Vedas say, we don't get to choose characters to play important roles in our life. We get those who take us forward towards the greater journey of our consciousness; who lead to the evolution of our understanding.
It is those characters who bring us such unique pain that allow us to evolve into agents of comfort for others. For example, it is often seen that children who've had disruptive relationships with their parents become the best parents possible. They may at least go to therapy, read books about parent-child relationships, or even ask teachers like me for advice. Their journey in life, with this pain, begets the wisdom that encourages them to transcend this pain. They ultimately reach a place where our Divine Mother wants us to reach — a place of understanding, a place of forgiveness, and a place of acceptance.
Envisioning your biological mother as an agent of this Divine Feminine, an agent of the Divine Mother, can be one major step in healing the maternal wound. The Divine Mother has an agenda; an agenda to give you an opportunity to grow and transcend to be able to mother yourself, and those in your care. In doing so, you are able to bring that care back, and become a nurturing mothering ambassador of the Divine Feminine. You are able to change the narrative of your own pain.
It is such that the Vedas teach us to thank our mothers, at the absolute minimum, for this biological birth. Because of her kindness, you have this life to be alive. Of course that's a mixed bag of happiness and joy, but it's certainly a splendid opportunity to grow, to evolve, to gather more Vedic wisdom, and to accomplish our goals of Dharma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha (goodness, abundance, pleasure, and spiritual freedom).
This life is also an opportunity to understand the roots of that karma that brought you this pain in the first place, and what new seeds can you plant through the karma of compassion through forgiveness. And so — even if ruminating on a difficult relationship with your mother is painful, I invite you to this deeper journey. There is a way to see the Divine Mother's agenda even through this pain.
