PASSING AWAY OF A TRINITY...

Every mother is great and special in a sense but if we try to describe the qualities of Heeraben ‘Hiraba’ Modi, mother of PM Narendra Modi, we would probably have to coin new words as the dictionaries of all the languages may not do justice to the woman who gave birth to a great and visionary leader like Modi and who herself was an icon in the values of simplicity and humility. “Janani Janmabhoomischa Swargadapi Gareeyasi” (Mother and motherland are superior to the highest heavens), the hemistich of a Sanskrit shloka from Ramayana has, over eons, been the core value of the Bharatiya culture and ethos, as these words were said by Ram to his brother Laxman. This was truly the teaching that the centenarian Hiraba Modi ji, mother of PM Narendra Modi, also inculcated and planted in a young Narendra, which has, over the decades, now become a towering tree, under whom the nation can ‘shelter’.

The entire nation is bereaved at the death of Hiraba Modi and we pay tribute to this mother who gave birth to a son like Narendra Modi who has made the country proud. The Motherland too is indebted to her and pays homage to her. Even though her son ‘Narendra’ is at the highest position, guiding the nation as the PM of the World’s largest democracy, she led her life as an epitome of simplicity and humility, indeed a lesson for all of us and a source of highest motivation. It is certainly true that regardless of the highest position that the son might be holding, the Mother will always remain supreme and higher than him and nobody knew, understood and lived this eternal truth more than Narendra Modi as he always lived under the shelter of the blessings of his mother at her feet. In fact, even though she has been one of the epicenters of his life, the other being the Motherland, she had only twice shared a political stage with his son – once after the success of Ekta Yatra of 1991 when he unfurled the Tiranga at Lal Chowk in Kashmir and the other when he was sworn in as the CM of Gujarat.

The close bond between the mother and her son was clearly visible even though she continued to stay at Gandhinagar, visiting PM’s official residence at 7 Race Course Road, now 7 Lok Kalyan Marg, in Delhi, only once. Hiraba Modi, a woman with a core strength of traditional values supported her son, Narendra Modi in all his endeavours, such as depositing her personal savings in PM-Cares Fund for Covid-19 pandemic. Hiraba Modi lived past 100, and as PM Narendra Modi said remembering ‘Maa’ after her funeral, “In Maa, I have always felt the trinity, which includes the journey of an ascetic, the symbol of a selfless karma yogi and a life committed to values…”