In plain words
The lesson his mother taught Gandhi
Putlibai, Gandhi's mother, kept a vow. She would not eat until she had heard the call of the cuckoo. One day the cuckoo did not call for a long time. Seeing that his mother's meal was getting late, the boy Gandhi went behind the house, called like a cuckoo, and came straight back inside: “Mother! You have heard the cuckoo's call, haven't you! Now you can eat,” he said. He did this out of love for his mother, with the good intention that she should eat soon. But the mother saw that Gandhi was telling a lie, and it hurt her deeply. “Whatever sin I may have committed, a son who tells lies has been born of my womb. How unfortunate I am!” she said, and shed tears. She twisted her son's ear, gave him a couple of slaps and scolded him for telling a lie. Gandhi promised his mother that he would never tell a lie again. Because he kept to the word he gave his mother and held to truthful speech, Gandhi won the highest fame.
Putlibai had a maidservant called Rambhā. As the saying goes, “Yathā rājā tathā prajā”, she too, like her mistress, had a pure heart. One day the boy Gandhi came running to her: “Rambhā! I am very frightened,” he said. Then she: “My child! When Śrī Rāmacandra, who is God, is right here beside us, why be afraid? Whenever you feel afraid, keep the Name of Rāma in mind. Your fear will certainly go away,” she told him. From that day until he breathed his last, Gandhi kept up the remembrance of the Name of Rāma.
When the mother follows a sacred path, the children too reach a sacred state. Śaṅkara's mother was Āryāmbā. She worshipped Īśvara without ceasing and kept Śiva's Name ever in mind. Every day she performed abhiṣeka to the Śivaliṅga, took the holy water herself and gave it to her son as well. Śaṅkara became renowned as Jagadguru precisely because he was born of the womb of Āryāmbā, so pure of heart.