In plain words
The body called ‘mother’ has gone, but mother is with Me
Though our mother's body is far from us, our love for her must not change in the least. In May 1972 the Summer Course was going on at Brindavan. One morning Easwaramma had her breakfast, drank her coffee and was sitting comfortably. I was upstairs, bathing. All of a sudden she called out three times, “Swami, Swami, Swami!” “What is it? I am coming, I am coming,” I said. “Come quickly, come quickly,” she said. At once I dried myself and came down. She held both My hands tightly and closed her eyes. Well, as long as there is life we must keep our mother near us and look after her with love. But once life has gone, the body need not stay there, need it? Who, after all, is the mother? The life is the mother, not the body. So once the life has gone, what use is the body? I sent for a car at once. I had her body placed in the car and sent to Puttaparthi. I stayed there and held the summer classes as usual.
To take part in the Summer Course, students had come not from one college alone but from many colleges across India. All of them thought, “Swami will not come to class today.” But what happened? At nine o'clock sharp I went to class; I went smiling. The students were all astonished that Swami had come. “What is this? Swami's mother has died. How is it that Swami has come?” they thought. “Mother has not gone anywhere. The body called ‘mother’ has gone, but mother is with Me. So I have no need to grieve at all. You too should think in this way and be happy,” I told them. “What! Swami is saying this!”: Gokak too was astonished.
Do every good deed the world asks of you, but form no bond with the body
I was not born of a body. What is the body like? The body lasts only as long as the five elements stay in it. The body is a kind of bag. We have come carrying the five elements in this ‘bag’.