Sri Bharatamata

Ashtottaram 47

 

47) OṀ MĀTRU BHŨMYAINAMAH:

            OṀ (AUM) - MAA - TRU - BHOO- MYAI- NA--MA- HA

 

           (Mātruh: means-Mother; one who is honored or worshipped)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The land that gave us the birth is our mātrubhōmi. Just like one of the five elements of the nature, our bhōmi gave us our gross body and that's why with love and affection we call our bhōmi-'bhōmata'. We worship her as goddess 'bhōdevi'.  Kaliyuga god- Sri Venkateswara Swam kept her on his chest along with Sri Laksmi. Bhōmāta has the same tolerance and forbearance like our own mother who gave birth to us. She bears all our mistakes and provides everything that is necessary for our lively hood from food to fruits. We stand on her, step on her, urinate on her and throw garbage on her and do so many unmentionable things to her but still she does not keep any grudge, anger or hatred towards us. We build skyscrapers on her and she stands still without shaking except when there are earthquakes due to movements within the earth's crest and then the buildings collapse. We do not realize that nature has its natural built in phenomena and we cry over the natural calamities. With greed and selfishness we dig and drill the earth for oil, gold, diamonds and valuable minerals and despite that our mātrubhōmi provides us with 'annam' -the food without which we cannot survive and keep our lives together.

 

Our ancient seer and sages recognized and realized the sacrifices bhōmi makes for our survival just like our mother and praised her with hymns and mantras. Even today, as soon as we get up from the bed and before we put our feet on the ground, some of us pray to bhōdevi with a hymn 'samudramikhile devi, parvata sṭhanamandalī, Vishnu patnēm namasṭhubhyam, pādasparśa kshamasvame' meaning- 'having the ocean up to your waist and mountains up to your chest, Oh wife of Vishnu! My salutations unto you; Oh Bhōdevi, please forgive me for putting my feet on you!' On the face of that bhōmāta we spit, urinate and evacuate our bowels, kick her with our feet, but still with so much patience she is carrying us on her chest, and she is our bhōmāta!

 

That's why in schools, even today, before they start their regular classes, children offer the morning prayers to our bhōmāta with 'vandemātaram, mātaram.......vandemātaram' meaning-Oh mother! Our salutations unto you...our salutations and 'jaihind'. Now adays, this may not be happening in every school in India but when I was a child, this was my daily practice at school.

 

The only land in the world which treats the earth as 'Bhōdevi', 'Bhōmāta', is our motherland and hence, it is 'Mātru Bhūmi'.