Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a special gift to his mother on her birthday. PM has written a sentimental blog on his 100th birthday. In this block, the Prime Minister has shared countless stories of childhood memories related to mother, her learnings, her love. PM Modi wrote, "Mother, not only shapes our body but also our mind, our personality, our self-confidence. And while doing this for her children, she expends herself, forgets herself." ...read PM Modi's emotional article...

Mother, it is not just a word. This is the feeling of life in which love, patience, trust, so much are included. Be it any corner of the world, any country, the most precious love in the mind of every child is for the mother. Mother, not only shapes our body but also our mind, our personality, our self-confidence. And while doing this for her children, she expends herself, forgets herself.

Today I want to share my happiness, my good fortune, with you all. My mother, Hiraba is entering her hundredth year today on 18th June. That is, the centenary year of his birth is starting. If Dad had been there today, he too would have turned 100 last week. That is, 2022 is a year when the birth centenary year of my mother is starting and in this year the birth centenary year of my father is completed.

Last week my nephew sent some videos of mother from Gandhinagar. Some young boys of the society have come to the house, the father's picture has been placed on the chair, bhajan kirtan is going on and mother is singing hymns, playing Manjira with joy. Mother is still the same. The energy of the body may have decreased but the energy of the mind remains the same.

Well, we have no tradition of celebrating birthdays here. But the new generation children in the family have planted 100 trees this time in father's birth centenary year.

Whatever is good in my life today, whatever is good in my personality, it is the gift of mother and father. Today, when I am sitting here in Delhi, I am reminded of something so old.

My mother is as ordinary as she is extraordinary. Just like every mother is. Today, when I am writing about my mother, you may also feel while reading that hey, my mother is also like this, my mother also does the same. While reading this, the image of your mother will emerge in your mind.

A mother's penance makes her child a right person. Mother's love fills her child with human feelings. Mother is not a person, not a personality, mother is a form. It is said here to us that as a devotee, so is God. Similarly, according to the feeling of our mind, we can feel the nature of the mother.

My mother was born in Visnagar, Mehsana district. It is not far from Vadnagar. My mother was not destined to love her mother i.e. my grandmother. The impact of the global pandemic that occurred a century ago was then for many years. The same epidemic took away my grandmother from my mother. Mother must have been only a few days old then. He doesn't remember my grandmother's face, her lap. You think, my mother's childhood was spent without her mother, she could not insist on her mother, could not hide her head in her lap. Mother did not even get alphabet knowledge, she did not even see the school door. He saw only poverty and lack in the house everywhere.

If we combine these situations in today's time, then we can imagine how difficult my mother's childhood was. Perhaps God thought of constructing his life in this way. Today, when the mother thinks about those circumstances, she says that it must have been the will of God. But he still has the pain of losing his mother, not even seeing her face.

Childhood struggles made my mother grow up long before her age. She was the eldest in her family and even when she got married, she became the eldest daughter-in-law. The way she used to take care of everyone in her house, take care of everyone, take care of all the work in her childhood, she had to bear the same responsibilities in her in-laws' house. In the midst of these responsibilities, in the midst of these troubles, the mother always kept a calm mind, taking care of the family in every situation.

The house in Vadnagar where we used to stay was very small. There were no windows, no bathroom, no toilet in that house. Overall, that one-and-a-half-room structure made of mud walls and tiled roof was our home, in that mother and father, we all used to live as brothers and sisters, in that small house, there was some convenience for mother to cook food. Father had made a scaffold in the house with the help of bamboo sticks and wooden planks. The same loft was the kitchen of our house. Mother used to cook food by climbing on it and we used to eat food sitting on it.

In general, where there is scarcity, there is also tension. The specialty of my parents was that even in the midst of lack, they never let the tension dominate the house. Both shared their respective responsibilities.

Whatever the weather, be it summer, rain, father used to leave the house at four o'clock in the morning. People around knew from the sound of father's footsteps that it is 4 o'clock, Damodar Kaka is going. Going out of the house to the temple, having darshan of the Lord and then reaching the tea shop was his daily karma.

Mother was equally punctual. He also had a habit of getting up at 4 in the morning. She used to complete a lot of work in the morning itself. Whether it was grinding wheat, grinding millet, picking rice or pulses, she used to do all the work herself. While working, the mother used to sing some of her favorite bhajans or Prabhatis. One of the famous hymns of Narsi Mehta ji is “Jalkamal chandi jaane bala, swami amaro jagshe” that she likes very much. There is also a lullaby, “Shivaji nu halerdu”, which the mother used to sing a lot.

Mother never expected us brothers and sisters to leave our studies and help them. She would never ask him to help, to shake his hand. Seeing the mother working continuously, we brothers and sisters themselves felt that we should share their hands in the work. I was very fond of bathing in the pond, swimming in the pond, so I also used to take the clothes of the house and go out to wash them in the pond. The clothes also got washed and my game was done.

To get two or four paise more to run the house, mother used to ask for utensils of others' house. She also used to spin the spinning wheel by taking time out because some money would have been collected from that too. The work of extracting cotton from cotton husks, making threads from cotton, all these things were done by the mother herself. He was afraid that the thorns of the cotton husks might not prick us.

He never liked to depend on someone else for his work, to get his work done by someone else. I remember, the mud house in Vadnagar used to have so many problems due to the rainy season. But the mother tried to keep the trouble to a minimum. So in the month of June, in the hot sun, the mother used to climb upstairs to fix the roof tiles of the house. She used to try from her side but our house had become so old that its roof could not bear the heavy rain.

In the rain, sometimes water used to drip from here in our house, sometimes from there. The whole house should not be filled with water, the walls of the house should not be damaged, so the mother used to keep utensils on the ground. Water dripping from the roof kept collecting in it. Even in those moments, I never saw my mother upset, I never saw myself cursing. You will be surprised to know that later the mother used to use the same water for household chores for the next 2-3 days. What can be a better example of water conservation?

Mother was very fond of decorating the house, also to beautify the house. To make the house look beautiful, clean, she used to work throughout the day. She used to smear the land inside the house with cow dung. You may know that when you set fire to cow dung cakes, sometimes there is a lot of smoke in the beginning. Mother used to cook food only on dung in that house without a window. The smoke could not escape, so the walls inside the house used to turn black very quickly. Every few weeks, the mother used to paint those walls as well. This brought a newness to the house. Mother used to decorate them by making very beautiful bowls of clay. Mother has also been a champion of the habit among us Indians of recycling old things.

I remember another very unique and unique way of his. She often made a paste by soaking old papers, grinding tamarind seeds with it, just like gum. Then with the help of this paste, she used to make beautiful pictures by pasting pieces of glass on the walls. She used to decorate the door of the house by bringing some items from the market.

Mother always used to follow very rules about the fact that the bed should be very clean, very well laid. He could not tolerate a single speck of dust on the sheet. As soon as she saw the slightest change, she used to sweep the whole sheet again and lay it neatly. We also used to take great care of this habit of mother. Even after so many years, in the house where the mother lives, she insists that her bed should not shrink at all.

His sense of perfection in everything is the same even at this age. And now there is brother's family in Gandhinagar, my nephews have family, they try to do all their work on their own even today.

I still see how careful she is about cleanliness. Whenever I go to Gandhinagar from Delhi, I reach to meet her, she definitely feeds me sweets with her own hand. And just as a mother wipes her mouth after feeding something to a small child, similarly my mother still wipes my mouth with a handkerchief after feeding me something. She always keeps a handkerchief or small towel in her saree.

There are so many stories of mother's love for cleanliness that a lot of time will be spent in writing. There has been another special thing in a mother. The mother gives a lot of respect to the one who does the cleaning work. I remember, the drain near our house in Vadnagar, when someone came to clean it, mother would not let it go without drinking tea. Later, the scavengers also understood that if tea is to be drunk after work, then it can be found in our house only.

There is another good habit of my mother which I will always remember. Compassion to the living being has been reflected in his sanskars. During the summer, she used to keep grains and water in earthen pots for the birds. The street dogs who used to live around our house should not go hungry, mother used to take care of it too.

Mother used to make better ghee than the cream that father used to bring from his tea stall. And it was not like that only we should have the right on ghee. The cows of our locality also had the right on Ghee. Mother used to feed roti to Gaumata every day. But not dry roti, always used to put ghee on it.

It has always been the insistence of the mother regarding food that not a single grain of food should be wasted. In our town, when a mass banquet was organized for someone's wedding, before going there, the mother used to remind everyone that don't waste food while eating. Even at home, he had made the same rule that take as much food in the plate as the hunger is.

Even today, the mother takes as much food as she wants in her plate. Even today, she does not leave a grain of food in her plate. Eating according to the rules, eating at the appointed time, eating a lot of chewing and chewing food remains in their habit even at this age.

Mother is always happy to see others happy. The space in the house may be less but his heart is very big. There was a village a short distance away from our house in which very close friends of my father used to live. His son was Abbas. After the untimely death of a friend, father had brought Abbas to our house. In a way, Abbas studied while staying in our house. Like all of us children, mother used to take great care of Abbas too. On Eid, mother used to prepare dishes of her choice for Abbas. During festivals, some children from nearby used to come and eat food at our place. He also loved the food made by my mother's hand.

Whenever any sages and saints used to come around our house, the mother used to call them home and feed them. When he started leaving, mother used to seek blessings not for herself but for us brothers and sisters. She used to tell him that “Bless my children that they see happiness in the happiness of others and be unhappy with the misery of others. To inculcate devotion and service in my children, give them such blessings”.

My mother has immense faith in me. He has full faith in his values. I am reminded of an incident from decades ago. Till then, I had engaged in public service work while in the organization. Contact with family members was almost non-existent. In the same period, once my elder brother had taken my mother to Badrinath ji, Kedarnath ji to have darshan. When the mother had darshan in Badrinath, people in Kedarnath also got the news that my mother was coming.

At the same time suddenly the weather had also become very bad. Seeing this, some people started walking down from Kedar Ghati. He also took the blanket with him. On the way, he was going to ask the elderly women, are you the mother of Narendra Modi? Asking like this, those people reached to the mother. He gave the mother a blanket, made her drink tea. Then those people stayed with the mother throughout the whole journey. On reaching Kedarnath, they made good arrangements for the mother's stay. This incident had a big impact in the mind of the mother. When my mother met me after returning from a pilgrimage, she said that "you are doing some good work, people recognize you".

Now after so many years of this incident, when people today go to the mother and ask that your son is the PM, you must be proud, then the answer of the mother is very deep. Mother tells them that as much as you are proud, I am as much. I don't have anything anyway. I am only an instrument. He is of God.

You must have also seen, my mother never accompany me to any government or public function. Till now it has happened only twice when she has come with me in a public event.

Once, when I had returned after unfurling the tricolor at Lal Chowk in Srinagar after the Ekta Yatra, my mother came on stage and commented on me at the civil honor program in Ahmedabad.

It was also a very emotional moment for the mother because during the Ekta Yatra there was an attack in Phagwara, in which some people were also killed. At that time mother was very worried about me. Then I got a call from two people. One was from the revered Pramukh Swamiji of Akshardham temple and the other was from my mother. Mother was relieved to know about my condition.

The second time she came with me publicly was when I was sworn in as the Chief Minister for the first time. That swearing-in 20 years ago is the last time my mother has been publicly present with me anywhere. After that she never came with me in any program.

I am reminded of another incident. When I became CM, I wanted to publicly respect all my teachers. I also had this in my mind that mother has been my biggest teacher, she should also be respected. It has been said in our scriptures that there is no greater guru than a mother - 'Nasti matri sambo guruh'. That's why I told my mother that you too will come on the stage. But he said, "Look brother, I am just an instrument. It was written that you were born from my womb. You are not me but God has made you. Saying this the mother did not come to that program. All my teachers had come, but mother stayed away from that program.

But I remember, he had definitely asked me before that function that would anyone from the family of the teacher Jethabhai Joshi ji in our town attend that program? In my childhood, my early education was done by Guruji Jethabhai Joshi Ji. Mother had his attention, also knew that Joshi ji is no longer with us. She herself did not come but asked to call Jethabhai Joshi's family.

I always saw in my mother how one is really educated even without the knowledge of alphabet. His approach to thinking, his far-sightedness, amazes me at times.

Mother has always been very conscious towards her civic duties. Ever since the elections started, he took the responsibility of voting in the elections from Panchayat to Parliament. The mother had also gone to cast her vote in the Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation elections held sometime back.

Many times she tells me that look brother, public's blessings are with you, God's blessings are with you, nothing will ever happen to you. She says that always keep your body good, keep yourself healthy because the body will be good then only you will be able to do good work.

There was a time when mother used to do Chaturmas with a lot of rules. Mother knows what are my rules during Navratri. Earlier she used to say no, but here and there, she has started saying that she has done so many years, now make it a little easier for the difficult fasting and penance you do during Navratri.

Till date in my life I have never heard any complaint from mother for anyone. Neither she complains to anyone nor does she expect anything from anyone.

There is no property in the name of mother even today. I have never seen gold on his body. They have no urge for gold and jewellery. She used to live in simplicity even earlier and even today she lives with complete simplicity in her small room.

Mother has an unwavering faith in God, but she stays far away from superstition. He always protected our house from superstition. She has been a Kabirpanthi from the beginning and even today she does her worship with the same tradition. Yes, they have got into the habit of chanting rosary. Chanting of hymns and garlands throughout the day becomes so much that even sleep is forgotten. The people of the house have to hide the garland, then they go to sleep, they sleep.

Despite being so many years old, mother's memory is still very good. He remembers very well what happened decades ago. Even today, whenever a relative goes to meet her and tells her name, she immediately takes the name of her grandparents or maternal grandparents and says that good you are from their house.

What is going on in the world, even today, the mother keeps an eye on it. Recently, I asked my mother that how much do you watch TV these days? Mother said that when you look on TV, everyone is fighting amongst themselves. Yes, there are some who explain calmly and I look up to them. I was surprised to see that the mother is noticing so much.

I am reminded of one more thing related to his fast memory. It was in 2017 when I was in Kashi, during the last days of UP elections. From there I went to Ahmedabad and had also taken prasad from Kashi for my mother. When he met his mother, he asked whether Kashi had also seen Vishwanath Mahadev? Mother takes full name - Kashi Vishwanath Mahadev. Then in the conversation, the mother asked whether the way to the temple of Kashi Vishwanath Mahadev is still the same, it seems that a temple is built in someone's house. I was surprised and asked her when did you go? Mother told that she had gone many years ago. Mother also remembers very well the pilgrimage done that many years ago.

The more sensitivity, service is there in the mother, the more her eyes have been connoisseur. Mothers know many indigenous ways of treating young children. In the house in Vadnagar, we often used to have queues since morning. People used to bring their 6-8 month old babies to the mother to show.

Mother sometimes needed very fine powder for treatment. The arrangement for collecting this powder was with us children of the house. Mother used to give us the ashes from the stove, a bowl and a fine cloth. Then we used to tie that cloth tightly on the mouth of that bowl and keep 5-6 pinches of ash on it. Then slowly we used to rub the ashes on the cloth. By doing this, the finer particles of ash used to get deposited at the bottom of the bowl. Mother always used to tell us that “Do your work well. Children should not suffer because of coarse grains of ashes”.

Similarly, I am reminded of another thing, in which mother's love was also there and understanding was also there. Actually once father had to get a religious ritual done. For this we all had to go to some place on the banks of Narmada ji. It was a hot summer day, so we had left the house early in the morning to go there. It would have been a journey of about three-and-a-half hours. From where we got off the bus, the way ahead was to go on foot. But the heat was so much that it was like a fire was coming out of the ground. That's why we started walking on the banks of Narmada with our feet in the water. It is not easy to walk in the river like this. In no time, we kids got very tired. There was a strong hunger too. Mother was watching the condition of all of us, She was understanding The mother told the father that he would stop here in the middle for a while. Mother immediately asked father to buy jaggery from somewhere nearby. Father ran away and bought jaggery and brought it. I was a child then, but as soon as I drank water after eating jaggery, new energy came in my body. We all left again. To go out for worship in that heat like that, that understanding of mother, buying jaggery from father immediately, I still remember every single moment very well.

The feeling of respecting the wishes of others, the feeling of not imposing my will on others, I have seen in my mother since childhood. Especially about me, she used to take great care that she should never become a wall between me and my decisions. I always got encouragement from him. Since childhood, she was seeing a different type of tendency growing in my mind. I used to live separately from all my brothers and sisters.

Because of my daily routine, because of my various experiments, sometimes my mother had to make separate arrangements for me. But her face never wrinkled, mother never considered it a burden. Like I used to leave salt in the food for months and months. Sometimes it used to happen that I used to give up food for weeks and weeks, drinking only milk. I used to decide that now I will not eat sweets for 6 months. During winters, I slept in the open, took a bath with cold water from a pot. I was taking my exam by myself. Mother was understanding my feelings. She didn't have any desire. That's what she used to say - okay brother, whatever you want.

Mother felt that I was going in a different direction. I remember, once a Mahatma ji was visiting the Giri Mahadev temple near our house. He was doing penance by growing tide in his hand. I was wholeheartedly engaged in his service. During that time my aunt got married. Everyone in the family wanted to go there. Had to go to maternal uncle's house, mother's sister was getting married, so mother was also very excited. Everyone was busy in their preparations, but I went to my mother and said that I do not want to go to my aunt's wedding. When the mother asked the reason, I told her the matter of Mahatma ji.

Mother felt sad that I was not going to her sister's wedding, but she respected my heart. She said that it is okay, do as you feel like. But he was worried that I would be alone in the house, how? She had prepared dry food for 4-5 days and kept it in the house so that I do not have any problem.

When I decided to leave the house, my mother had understood that too many days ago. I used to keep telling my mother and father in talks that I feel like going out and seeing what the world is like. I used to tell him to go to the Math of Ramakrishna Mission. He also used to talk a lot about Swami Vivekananda to him. Parents used to listen to all this. This cycle continued for several days.

One day finally I told my parents my wish to leave the house and asked for their blessings. My father was very sad to hear about me. He was a little sad and said - you know, know your work. But I said that I will not leave the house without such blessings. Mother knew everything about me. He again respected my heart. She said that do whatever you want. Yes, to please his father, he asked him to show my birth certificate to someone if he wanted. One of our relatives also had knowledge of astrology. Dad met him with my birth certificate. After seeing the horoscope, he said that "his path is different, where God has decided, he will go there".

After a few hours, I left the house. By then, my father had become very comfortable. Father blessed me. Before leaving the house, mother also fed me curd and jaggery. She knew what my life was going to be like now. No matter how hard a mother's love may try to be, when her child is going away from home, then it melts. Mother had tears in her eyes but she also had a lot of blessings for me.

In the years since I left home, where I lived, where I lived, the feeling of mother's blessings always stayed with me. Mother talks to me in Gujarati only. In Gujarati it is called Tu for you and Tame for you. The number of days I stayed in the house, mother used to talk to me only by saying you. But when I left home, I changed my course, after that never did my mother talk to me saying you. She still talks to me by calling me you or you.

My mother has always inspired me to stick to my principles, to keep working for the poor. I remember, I was not in Gujarat when I was decided to become the Chief Minister. From the airport, I went straight to meet my mother. The first question of a happy mother was, will you stay here now? Mother knew my answer. Then she said to me - "I do not understand your work in the government, but I just want that you never take bribe."

After coming here to Delhi, meeting with mother has become even less. When I go to Gandhinagar, I have to go to my mother's house occasionally. Have to meet mother, just for a few moments. But till date I have not felt any resentment or feeling of sadness in my mother's mind. Mother's love is same for me, mother's blessings are same for me. Mother often asks- does it feel good in Delhi? Do you feel like

She reminds me time and again that don't worry about me, you have a big responsibility. Whenever she talks to her mother on the phone, she says, "Look brother, never do any wrong thing, don't do bad work, work for the poor".

Today, if I look at the life of my mother and my father, then their biggest characteristics have been honesty and self-respect. No matter what the circumstances were while battling poverty, my parents never left the path of honesty nor compromised on their self-respect. He had only one way out of every difficulty - hard work, hard work day and night.

As long as his father was alive, he followed this thing that he should not be a burden on anyone. Even today my mother lives in this effort not to be a burden on anyone, as much as possible, do your own work.

Even today when I meet mother, she always says that "I don't want to take anyone's service till I die, I just want to go on and on like this".

In this journey of my mother's life, I see the tenacity, sacrifice and contribution of the entire mother power of the country. When I look at the strength of my mother and crores of women like her, I do not see any such goal which is impossible for the sisters and daughters of India.

Above every tale of deprivation, there is the story of a mother's pride.

Far above every moment of struggle, there is a mother's will.

Mother, wishing you a very happy birthday.

Your birth centenary year is about to begin.

I have never had the courage to say so much for you in public.

May you be healthy, may your blessings be on all of us, this is our prayer to God.

naman.