Gurumayi’s poem for Mother’s Day opened my heart not just to the love of my own mother, but to the love that creates and supports the universe. It sharpened my awareness of the value of human love and how it is intimate, precious, and eternal. It made me aware of the miracle of a mother’s love, which is passed from one individual to another and transforms whatever it touches. It connected me to the space where love lives, supremely pure and replete with happiness.

I deeply appreciate the way that Gurumayi loves me and loves everything that God has created, and her love makes me appreciate and honor the life that I have been given.

Vancouver, Canada

Each word from Shri Gurumayi moistens my heart with gratitude for my mother’s continuing efforts in guiding her adult children toward the right path. Her forgiving nature and her ability to understand others without harsh judgment are a great inspiration for me.

Since our childhood, she taught my siblings and me the importance of offering seva. She has always led by example, and to this day, she continues to remind us of the blessings that come from performing good actions and staying steadfast in sadhana. Her devotion to and love for Gurumayi, and her unshakeable courage in challenging times, have shaped our lives.

I feel truly blessed to have such a wonderful mother. When I speak to her daily and tell her I love her so much, her face lights up with so much love.

I am grateful to Gurumayi ji for her continuous guidance on the path of dharma and for her teachings, which have helped me to refine my understanding that loving and caring for my elderly mother is my duty. This family seva has been a profound blessing.

The Houghton, South Africa

I love how Gurumayi describes Mother’s Day: “An otherwise ordinary day / is transformed by noble purpose, / by the added impetus / to dip your awareness / in the soothing pond of memory, / as you invoke and honor mothers / and their many superlative qualities.”

The phrase the soothing pond of memory stood out to me. Although in my adult years I have experienced a lot of challenges in relationship to my mother, in my early years we were very closely connected. This year, as I wrote a Mother’s Day message to my mom, I recalled so many sweet, generous, and valuable things she did for me in my childhood, how many wonderful opportunities she made available to me. As I wrote about them, I felt myself sink back into that time in my life when my relationship with her was a source of comfort.

I experienced deep appreciation for who she had been for me. It was like bathing in “the soothing pond of memory” and I found this to be very healing.

California, United States

Reading Gurumayi’s poem, I felt “the magnetism of motherhood” as a living current moving through generations.

At this time in my life, one of my deepest joys is watching my daughter unfold as a mother, with tenderness, strength, and wisdom. Through her, I also receive the blessing of loving my granddaughter—the daughter of my daughter—and discovering how a mother’s love continues to expand in ways I could never have imagined.

Recently, I received a hand-embroidered handkerchief made by my maternal great-grandmother. Holding it, I felt love, reverence, and gratitude for all the mothers in my ancestral line—their hands, their prayers, their endurance, their unseen gifts. Gurumayi’s poem reminded me that motherhood is not only personal. It is a sacred continuity: love remembered, love offered, love reconciled, love passed on.

With all my heart, I offer gratitude to Gurumayi for illuminating this truth with such grace and power.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Gurumayi’s poem for Mother’s Day is a life message for me, full of deeply touching vibrations that filled my heart very powerfully. I read it over and over. It’s like a multifaceted jewel, whose energy spreads out all around me, and within my heart—the place where distances are nonexistent.

Mersin, Turkey

So many beautiful aspects of mothering are celebrated here, and yet the word reconciliation calls to me. Thankfully, it involves neither my own mother nor my beloved children, whom I continue to enjoy as they live out their own lives and choices.

What then is to be “reconciled”? I realize it is my relationship with my own inner critic: never believing I’ve mothered well enough, knowing how often I have fallen short of my own standards, still feeling responsible for every challenge, every shortcoming my children face.

Yet, even as I write these words, I can feel them losing their power, can feel my heart experiencing a reconciliation between what I thought their lives and mine would look like by now, and what is. Instead of a sense of lack fueled by my critic, I can truly give thanks for the gifts of mothering and feel the love that has been woven through every offering of these last forty years.

Facing life with the Guru and her grace, I find that, although I am not “infallible,” something far greater than my limitations has shown us our way, and my head bows.

Washington, United States

Gurumayi’s words have taken me on a pilgrimage to remembering the extraordinary gift of having a mother. Even though I am adopted, in this life I have been shown that a mother’s love transcends blood relations, for love is not about physical ties. A mother’s love is like flowers blooming from a root that never disappears.

Makati, Philippines

Each year, reading Gurumayi’s poem in honor of Mother’s Day feels deeply special. To me, every word of the poem gently reveals the boundless love, care, and compassion that a mother showers upon her child. The poems have always touched my heart, but this year the experience felt even more profound and personal.

For the first time, I was able to experience the poem from two sacred perspectives—as a child who is receiving her mother’s unconditional love and also as a mother who is learning the depth, tenderness, and selflessness that naturally flows from herself toward her own child. Each verse seemed to awaken gratitude, love, and a deeper understanding within me.

Gurumayi’s words often have a unique way of expressing emotions that are beyond description. This poem became not just something to read but something to truly experience and to feel within my heart. It reminded me of the quiet sacrifices, endless patience, nurturing strength, and divine love that motherhood embodies. 

Thane, India

Gurumayi’s Mother’s Day poems are like an initiation for me every year. For many years I wanted to be kinder to my mother, to understand my relationship with her better. As I have studied Gurumayi’s Mother’s Day poems, everything within my being has become rearranged and transformed. A few years ago, I actually moved back to my family home so I could be closer to my aging mother and help her.

This year another extraordinary teaching in Gurumayi’s poem brought me deeper into my heart. I don’t have children, but I have recently adopted a cat, so I loved the reference to the person who saved all his money for his beloved cat.

I am also deeply inspired to include ongoing “reconciliation” with my mother as an important part of my sadhana.

Warrnambool, Australia

I find it inspiring that Gurumayi describes “reconciliation” as something we can do to honor Mother’s Day. For me the process of “reconciliation” has been a very long journey. For decades I made many practical efforts to improve my relationship with my mother, and I offered many prayers. The relationship continued to be difficult. Finally, I let go of my focus on improving the relationship and just let it be as it was. With this shift, I felt much better and more at ease.

Eventually, as my mother’s outer circumstances shifted, she became much more positive toward me. Recently, a very challenging circumstance arose for her, and I was able to be present for her in a way that was helpful to her while still being true to myself.

For me “reconciliation” has involved accepting my relationship with my mother—as it is—and trusting that grace is with me, with my mother, and with our relationship. 

California, United States

Reading Gurumayi’s poem, “The Magnetism of Motherhood,” reminded me of a wondrous interaction between my mom and Gurumayi.

My mother first encountered the Siddha Yoga path when Baba married my wife and me at the Siddha Yoga Ashram in Oakland. Years later my mother came with me to Shree Muktananda Ashram to participate in her first Siddha Yoga Shaktipat Intensive. During the Intensive, Gurumayi gave darshan. When I introduced my mom, Gurumayi said to her, “You are very beautiful.” Then she turned to me and said, “Did you know your mother is very beautiful?” I said “Yes!”

My mother had always believed she was plain and ordinary. She was incredibly moved and touched by how Gurumayi saw her.

To have my dear mother receive shaktipat, and to hear Gurumayi express so emphatically how my family and I have always seen her, is something I will always remember and for which I am profoundly grateful. 

California, United States