“Gangamma Bommai embraced the Sharana culture without caring for profit or loss”

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Haveri: Those who look upon their parents as God are always good human beings and Smt. Gangamma S. Bommai embraced the Sharana culture without caring for profit or loss, said renowned cardiologist and writer Dr. Vijayalakshmi Balekundri.

She was speaking as the chief guest at the award ceremony for outstanding literary works organised by the Smt. Gangamma S. Bommai Trust.

“A woman is nature, a mother, culture itself. Gangamma was someone who internalised vachanas (saintly sayings) in her life and lived by them. She adopted the Sharana way of life without worrying about gains or losses. To gently shape a child’s mind, two people are essential — a teacher and a mother. Nowadays, even educated mothers are becoming peculiar in their ways. Lighting a lamp is meant to dispel ego. When girls light lamps, it is for the well-being of the whole household. Those who revere their parents as God will grow into good individuals,” she said.

People without knowledge of literature, music, or fine arts are like barren trees, she remarked. “Today, instead of making children Marxists, we must instil good thoughts and turn them into virtuous citizens. We must fill them with values. Whatever we do should be pleasing to God.

Once, a blind man went to a temple. Someone mocked him, asking why he had come when he couldn’t see God. The man replied, ‘I may not see God, but God can see me, and that belief changes my life.’

Gangamma Bommai was a woman who saw her husband become Chief Minister and later her son become Chief Minister as well,” Dr. Balekundri said.

Speaking about some of the works that won awards that day, she mentioned Ahilyabai Holkar, who fought 28 battles and won them all, and who developed temples from Kashi to Tamil Nadu. Ahilyabai was known to always hold a Shiva Linga in her hand. Once, her son Vikna Santosh carelessly drove a bullock cart over a calf, killing it. She ordered that the same punishment be given to him — that a cart should be driven over him. When no one else came forward, she herself prepared to do it, but a cow stepped in to stop her cart. “This is why we worship the cow — it is greater even than a mother,” she said.

She recalled that Akkā Nagamma was an inspiration to Basavanna. “When she lacked the values he believed in, he left home. During the Kalyana revolution, Basavanna resigned his ministerial post and returned. The Chalukyas carried out the killing of King Bijjala, but the Sharana saints were blamed, leading to the massacre of ten thousand Sharanas. It was Nagamma who preserved the Sharana vachanas,” she explained.

To instil wisdom in a child’s mind, stories and a mother’s words are essential, she said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s act of washing the feet of sanitation workers came from values his mother instilled in him. In another example, when a boy named Narendra said he wanted to become a horse-cart driver, his father beat him harshly, but his mother caressed his shoulder and told him, “My son, be the charioteer for the whole world.” That boy later became Swami Vivekananda, who went to America, addressed the audience as “Brothers and Sisters,” and gave the world a new message of spirituality. “The values given by a mother are the most important in life,” she said.