On the occasion of Mother’s Day, Acharya Balkrishna, the trusted voice behind Patanjali Ayurveda and one of India’s most widely followed wellness leaders, shared a heartfelt message on Facebook that quickly moved people across the country.
“Maa is the word that carries the most importance in every person’s life,” he wrote. “In this universe, a mother’s love is both the beginning and the end of all affection. On this auspicious occasion of Mother’s Day, I offer my heartfelt wishes and salutations to every mother.”
Simple words. But for millions who read them, they landed with the full weight of lived experience.
Also Read: Mother’s Day: A heart-wrenching story of a daughter who carried her mother’s bier barefoot to perform her last rites
A word that needs no translation
The word maa (mother) is perhaps the most universally understood word in the Indian subcontinent. Say it in any dialect, in any corner of the country, and it needs no explanation. It is a child’s first word and, often, a person’s last comfort.
Acharya Balkrishna’s message touched on something most people feel but rarely find words for: that a mother’s love is not just one kind of love among many. It is the original form, the one from which all other love learns its shape.
Why Mother’s Day matters more than one Sunday
Mother’s Day is observed on the second Sunday of May every year across much of the world. While some see it as a greeting-card occasion, for many families it is a rare prompt to say out loud what often goes unsaid.
In India, reverence for mothers is deeply rooted in culture and faith. The concept of ‘Matru Devo Bhava’, the mother is God, appears in ancient scriptures and continues to shape how Indian families think about care, sacrifice, duty.
A mother is not simply a parent. She is, in many traditions, the first teacher, the first home, and the first glimpse of the divine.
The science behind what we already know
What culture has long understood, science has begun to confirm. Research in developmental psychology shows that a mother’s early physical presence, voice, warmth directly shape a child’s brain development.
The bond formed in the first months of life influences emotional resilience, the ability to trust, and even how a person handles stress well into adulthood.
There is also the matter of invisible labour. Studies consistently show that mothers, particularly in South Asia, carry a disproportionate share of unpaid care work. Cooking, nursing, teaching, organising, comforting; much of it goes unrecorded and unrecognised.
Mother’s Day, at its best, is a moment to make some of that invisible work visible.
More than a gift, a moment to reflect
Celebrating a mother need not be expensive or elaborate. A phone call to a mother living far away. Sitting with her without checking your phone. Asking about her own life, not as a mother, but as a person. Listening, fully, to the answer.
Acharya Balkrishna’s post carries a quiet reflection beneath its warmth: we tend to realise the depth of a mother’s presence most when we imagine its absence. There is no substitute is not a poetic flourish.
It is a plain fact that most people discover, one way or another, across the arc of a life.
Mother’s Day comes once a year. But the love it asks us to express (patient, steady, expecting nothing in return) is something worth practising every day.
As Acharya Balkrishna put it: heartfelt wishes and salutations to every mother. Not just the celebrated ones. Not just the ones who are still here. Every mother.
That, perhaps, is the most human thing about the message.