A man learns to give respect to all women when he first learns to love and respect his mother. — Napoleon Bonaparte
Recently, a few portals and publications declared that famous actor Deepika Padukone is expecting, as if it’s breaking news or some sort of an apocalypse! She and her hubby, Ranveer Singh, are going to be parents this September. The actress is being described as the hottest mommy-to-be! What a perverted thought process! Hot mother! This is outright disgusting. Of late, there’s a detestable and abhorrent trend of showing off a baby bump in a bikini to flaunt “hot motherhood”. Remember Bipasha Basu sharing a “stunning” picture from her pregnancy journey a couple of years ago. Do these celebrities know and value the importance and significance of motherhood, the most sublime and sacred phase in a woman’s life?
Amrita Pritam, who lost her mother at a tender age (she was barely 11 at that time), once asked Sahir Ludhianvi, who was very close to his mother (Sardar Begum), what defines and epitomises a woman. Sahir told her that it was her motherhood that encompasses a woman’s whole persona. “Aurat ki shakhsiyat ke tamaam pahloo ma ke kirdaar mein nihaan ho jaate hain” (All the facets of a woman’s persona are enshrined into her role of a mother). So very true! There’s a very poignant saying in Hindi: Stree janm se maa hoti hai (A woman is a born mother). In fact, giving birth to a child is just a biological manifestation of this adage. Otherwise, motherhood is embedded in all women and this motherhood truly defines her entire persona. It’s not for nothing that in Sanskrit, the four most (also, foremost!) sublime human qualities, Daya, Karuna, Mamta and Preeti are considered as feminine words (having a feminine gender). Even if we associate them with men, the yardstick of measuring the compassion of an individual is always with respect to that of a woman.
The finest human attributes stem out of a woman’s intrinsic and implicit motherhood. It’s because of innate motherhood that women become Mother Teresa, Florence Nightingale, Sindhutai Sapkal (the mother of orphans) or Sri Aurobindo’s revered Mother. Motherhood comes to a woman as spontaneously as the fragrance to flowers. Osho Rajnish urged man(kind) to develop this natural motherhood of a woman to make this world a desirable place to live in. Once we understand and imbibe the all-encompassing motherhood of all women, there’ll be no scope for wars, hatred, ill-will, violence and bloodshed because motherhood has a calming influence on all.
Nature has bestowed motherly instincts upon all living creatures, not just upon humans. Even a non-living entity like earth is called mother earth as it accommodates all so munificently. This very trait of accommodation and acceptance makes the female species so special and emotionally so superior to men. So, when an expecting mom is defined as a “hot” mom, it’s the denigration of all mothers and women across the globe. It’s not a compliment, but an insult to her. A mother must be kept away from all sexual and erotic insinuations. She’s not a commodity. She’s nature’s masterpiece (Shahkaar-e-Qudrat). Respect her intrinsic and embedded sacredness as a mother as well as a woman.
These publicity-hungry actors should also desist from uploading pictures, flaunting their baby bumps and wearing minimum clothes. Learn to respect womanhood and motherhood. Remember M K Gandhi’s words, “By respecting one woman, we respect all women and by respecting a mother, we pay our respects to all mothers in the past, present and to come.” Invaluable words indeed, but do we ever care to ponder?
Sumit Paul is a regular contributor to the world’s premier publications and portals in several languages
