The verse and its meaning · Upanishads · Taittiriya · Lessons for the Student

Mother, Father, Teacher, Guest

Taittiriya Upanishad 1.11.2

मातृदेवो भव । पितृदेवो भव । आचार्यदेवो भव । अतिथिदेवो भव । यान्यनवद्यानि कर्माणि तानि सेवितव्यानि । नो इतराणि । यान्यस्माकꣳ सुचरितानि तानि त्वयोपास्यानि । नो इतराणि

Meaning · English

Let your mother be a god to you, and your father, your teacher, your guest. Do blameless deeds, no others. Follow our good conduct, not the rest.

The word for a god is given to four people: mother, father, teacher, and a guest. Each is to be treated with the care normally kept for what is sacred. Then comes a limit. Only blameless acts are to be practised. The teacher does not hold up his own household as perfect. What they did well is to be taken up, and nothing else. Honoring elders and copying everything they do are two different things.

In many homes, the first lamp of the morning is lit at the small shrine, and nobody eats until the offering is set down. The teacher moves that same first attention onto living people: the mother who raised the student, then father, teacher, and whoever knocks at the door hungry.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

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• Before: Last Words Before Home · Taittiriya Upanishad 1.11.1
• Next: The Manner of a Gift · Taittiriya Upanishad 1.11.3
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