When you have to take a reference of a character from the Indian mythology pages, an epitome of the Vatsalya Preeti or mother’s love is undisputedly Yashoda. Foster mom to Krishna, she stands as the definition of what a mom should be. Alas, evolving patriarchal society and simplifying stories and characters and current modern-day annoying TV dramas and cartoons has completely diluted this woman who is a much-needed role model for mothers across ages. She gives you these 5 major Mom goals.
1. You are not just a mom: Clearly with recurring episodes of Krishna stealing from home,or the other ladies having to wait for Yashoda to return home to complain about Krishna, you get a sneak peek that this woman was not a domicile resident, but had her fair share of chores, responsibilities to tend to. An epitome of mother’s love, she however did not make motherhood her sole purpose of life. In contrast, we find mothers today obsessing about their children even into their adulthood and the emotional blackmail that is potent enough to ruin their kids forever is their choice of weapon. As women, we can not have ourselves just defined by our relationships, but also need to find a purpose of our own.
2.Nurturing the intellect: Mothers are universally known for and often joked for their single point agenda of focusing on what their kids eat. While the physical need is more tangible, it’s critical that the mother also nurtures a child’s intellect and feed their character development too. For Krishna to have gone on to become a legend nothing less than a God, she surely has cultivated his mind with high wisdom. It’s a rarity to now see parents giving a moral upbringing and spending valuable time with their kids. Everyone is working extra hard to make bucks to pay for the fancy schools and holidays, and in the family outings the kids are with the most expensive tablets and phones and completely devoured of any kind of a moral upbringing.
3.Freedom to discover: Krishna is always far away from home and far away from Yashoda where he is always putting his various antics to test. If sometimes he is saving a situation, other times he is the situation. But importantly he moves around freely and spiritedly finding his own amusements and accumulating experiences he can call his own. And kudos to Yashoda again for not binding him by her always and not trying to fit him into a mold. A critical lesson for all of us to learn, where we are projecting our wishes and ambitions onto our kids and forgetting that they are individuals with their own emotions. Hence the rate of depressions that you see in young kids is on an alarming rise. We need to let them explore the environment around them while being a safe net that they can fall into (if at all they fall).
4.Defining the limits and the positive no: O Yashoda loved Krishna,but was never in two minds to break his leg or hand when his mischief reached the heights. Punishing kids and saying the positive no is critical for their own character development. But today parents make way for “presents” over“presence” and their guilt is seen when they come to the quick defense of the kids menace. It is impossible for them to acknowledge that their kids could be wrong further watering the weeds in their kids head and worse, giving them a false sense of security and assurance.
5. To let go: Your child is not your property. He/ she is a citizen of the world and you need to prepare them to be independent and resourceful. As a mother/ parent you have a duty till a certain point – beyond that you need to let go. Only because you bore a child in a womb (and increasingly now in a test tube) or you nursed them with formula milk and changed their diapers,and even when you were sick made maggi for dinner does not give you any right on them. And this is where Yashoda stands as an epitome for motherhood for me.She never stopped Krishna from leaving Mathura and neither did she bind him to herself for him to come back. Once he leaves Mathura you never get to hear what happened to Yashoda. Krishna was able to accomplish and focus on what he deemed important and was surely guided by the liberating love of Yashoda!
Yashoda!You rock star!
Aishwarya Omprakash 