What is known to all of us from the moment we are born is crying, and after that, drinking our mother’s milk. Among mammals, every creature lives and is nourished by its mother’s milk during the first few days of its life. Until now, however, we have generally thought that a mother nurses her child simply to satisfy its hunger. But recent scientific research has revealed many astonishing facts. This is not merely one-way traffic. What the mother gives is not simply milk. When a baby nurses at its mother’s breast, the baby’s saliva enters the mother’s body and is examined. In this way, any nutritional deficiencies or ailments present in the baby are detected, and the milk produced subsequently is modified with the nutrients required by the baby and substances that help counter those conditions.
Scientists have so far identified more than a hundred different nutrients and other components in breast milk. Yet they say that this is only the tip of the iceberg and that several thousand more substances remain to be identified. Recently, a mother collected her breast milk under various circumstances—when her baby was perfectly well, when the baby had a fever, and when she had been away from the baby for several hours because of work and the baby had become dehydrated—and shared clear videos on social media showing the changes that occurred in her milk. At best, artificial milk may perhaps be supplemented with two or three kinds of nutrients, but who can manufacture milk that changes continually according to the condition of a particular baby? Sri Gurudevulu would likewise compare the experience received by those who, when the right time had come, came on their own and sought refuge in the Guru to the mother’s milk; whereas he compared the experience of those who came before the right time, either at someone else’s prompting or out of hesitation or social obligation, to artificial milk.
All other animals either get up and run soon after birth or remain dependent on their mother’s milk for only a few days or weeks. Human beings, however, are destined by God to grow under the care of their mother for almost a year. During this period, the mother’s milk contributes greatly to the development of the child’s intellect. After all, what is it that God has bestowed exclusively upon human beings, and not upon other creatures—the faculty of intellect! Yet this development of intellect takes place primarily in worldly matters. For true spiritual evolution to take place, one must drink deeply of the milk of wisdom from Gurudev. An ordinary mother is unaware of the extraordinary processes taking place within her own body. The entire process of assessing the child’s health and changing her milk accordingly happens without her having the slightest awareness of it. In the case of Gurudev, however, all this takes place with complete awareness.
Gurudev constantly perceive whatever thoughts arise in the mind of each disciple and, not only provides instruction appropriate to those thoughts, but also anticipate the thoughts that may arise in the future and the wrong paths the disciple may be about to tread, and incorporate the appropriate remedies into His teachings. Not only that—even a single sentence heard in Gurudev’s teaching during a gathering may be understood differently by each of the hundreds of disciples seated there, and may become the means of bringing about profound transformations in their respective lives. This is something that all of us have experienced, is it not? As Sri Gurudev has said, His is suffering with knowledge, while ours is suffering without knowledge. Therefore, the best course for us is to surrender ourselves completely to them and follow, without the slightest deviation, the path He has shown us.
As long as a baby drinks its mother’s milk, it remains free of fear, bondage, and limitations. From learning to turn over on its stomach to learning to walk, it learns everything through tremendous effort. Yet nowhere does the thought arise, “Will I be able to do this?” But as it gradually becomes accustomed to outside food, its fears and limitations begin to increase. There is fear when speaking in front of others; fear when learning something new; and countless limitations when stepping into a new field. Similarly, when a disciple continually drinks only the milk of wisdom offered by Gurudev, the disciple has no fear and no limitations. For such a disciple, there is nothing that cannot be accomplished. But for the disciple who listens to the Guru’s teachings while allowing the mind to run after worldly matters, everything becomes a source of fear and limitation.
When a mother nurses her child, both mother and child remain deeply absorbed in looking at one another with complete concentration. At such a time, the mother will not tolerate any disturbance. Among animals, in particular, if another creature approaches while a mother is nursing her young, she may ferociously attack it. Gurudev too is equally grave and focused when imparting crucial spiritual instruction to the disciples. As disciples, we too must cultivate such concentration if the knowledge contained in the Guru’s teachings is to become assimilated within us.
Yet, because the sacred cow is considered a gentle animal, our people sometimes touch the hindquarters of the mother cow and offer their salutations even while the cow and calf are eating, or while the mother is nursing her calf, simply in the hope of earning religious merit. If we disturb a mother’s concentration at such a crucial moment, whether the result is merit or sin is something each person should contemplate for themselves.
Similarly, consider Nandishvara in a Shiva temple. Unable to take his eyes away from his Lord, he remains perpetually absorbed in Him with unwavering concentration. We ourselves cannot look at the Lord with such attention even for five minutes, yet we move Nandishvara, stroke his hindquarters, place our fingers upon his horns, and whisper all sorts of wishes into his ears. How must that feel to him? Is it not enough simply to stand a few feet away and behold Shiva through the space between his horns?
A disciple who completely forgets the world around him and, allowing nothing other than Gurudev to enter the mind, drinks continuously and with such concentration the milk of wisdom bestowed by Gurudev, depends upon that wisdom alone for his life, and lives by putting those teachings into practice every moment of his daily life—that disciple lives comfortably and fearlessly, without any burden or anxiety, just like a child resting in its mother’s lap.
Here, when we say “Mother,” we need not think only of a divine being in female form. In truth, the Divine has neither difference of form nor difference of gender. In the Bhagavad Gita, the Lord declares His own motherhood:
“I enter the earth and, by My power, sustain all beings. Becoming the moon, whose essence is nourishment, I nourish all the herbs and plants that constitute food for living beings.”
The very Jagajjanani—the Mother of the entire universe—who is glorified by names such as Vishvamātā (the Mother of the entire universe), Ābrahma-kīṭa-jananī (the Mother who gives birth to all, from Brahma the creator down to the smallest insect), Jagaddhātrī (She who holds the entire universe in Her lap), Prasavitrī (She who is perpetually giving birth), and Viyadādi-jagat-prasūḥ (She who gives birth to all the worlds, from the heavens and beyond)—has manifested directly, out of Her boundless motherly affection, in the form of the Guru and as the embodiment of the Guru Mandala, the lineage of Gurus. She bestows upon us Her milk of wisdom and grants us the state of Kaivalya, in which there is no longer any need to drink the milk of another mother—“Jñānād eva tu Kaivalyam”—liberation through knowledge alone.
There is one more matter that should be mentioned here. When a baby is in its mother’s womb, if the mother contracts any illness, the baby sends its stem cells into the mother’s bloodstream and attempts to alleviate that illness. Likewise, by breastfeeding her child, a mother receives considerable protection against various diseases such as certain cancers, diabetes, and heart disease.
In the same way, although Gurudev is in truth beyond the limitations of the physical body, He appears to suffer physical ailments by taking upon Himself the karma of those who have sought refuge in Him. Yet those ailments, which do not subside despite medicines and various medical treatments, astonishingly begin to ease when a true disciple approaches His presence with an intense yearning to attain genuine knowledge and, through sincere questioning, continues to draw more and more of the Guru’s teachings from Him. This is something we have all directly experienced in the case of Sri Babuji Maharaj and Sri Mataji.
Indeed, this is the greatest service a disciple can render to the Guru. Let us therefore continually drink the milk of wisdom that flows from Gurudev and make our human births truly fruitful.
