In plain words
Today there are very few who honour their mothers. It is your mother who carried you for nine months, bore many hardships and losses, and gave birth to you. If you forget such a mother, it is as though you had forgotten God; it is as though you had forgotten your very self. The first one we must honour is our mother. Your very first guru is your mother. It is your mother who nourished you. From the time you were born you grew up in your mother's lap and knew happiness in every way. So you must not forget your mother's love. Never forget your mother; keep her in your heart. You are one who came forth from your mother's own heart. Your mother is in your heart. So she cannot leave you, and you cannot leave her. Mother and child are always one.
When his mother died, Śaṅkarācārya set about performing her last rites. Holding that it was against Dharma for one who had become a sannyāsin to enter into ritual acts, no one came forward to carry his mother's body to the burning ground. Many criticised him, saying, “Scholar as great as he is, he has set about such an improper act.” Learning in the śāstras is not what is great; refinement of character is great. Then Śaṅkara: “My mother cannot leave me. I cannot leave my mother. The bodies are separate, but the principle of the Ātma is one. Any of you may keep away from me, but no one has the right to keep me away from my mother,” he said. That is why he performed his mother's last rites in the backyard of the house itself. Since one as great as Śaṅkara undertook this, many people in Kerala today feel they must do the same, and when a mother dies they bury her within their own compound.