Mother's Notes For Me

My mother wrote down a few Bhagavad Gita verses and their meaning for me on a sheet of paper when she came visiting a few years ago. I am sharing them here because they contain beautiful messages and very valuable instructions for living a righteous life.

My sweet mother's writing

klaibyam ma sma gamah partha
naitat tvayy upapadyate
ksudram hrdaya-daurbalyam
tyaktvottistha parantapa
This shlokam goads one to face life boldly and fearlessly and to never lose heart. We should never run away from the hardships of life. Hardships fall back when we cease to flee from them. It says, do not yield to unmanliness. It does not become you. Cast off such petty weakness of heart and arise.

karmanye vadhikaraste 
ma phaleshu kadachana, 
ma karmaphalaheturbhurma 
te sangostvakarmani 
An action is righteous only if it done without an ulterior motive. It is your right to work only but never to its fruits. Let not the fruits of action be your motive, nor let your attachment be to inaction.

uddaredtatmanaatmanam 
atmana ma va sadayet
atmaiva atmano bandhu 
atmaiva ripuratmana
(This is my favorite) You must love and respect yourself first. You must uplift yourselves. You should never undermine yourself. You alone are your friend and you alone are your enemy.

mattah parataram nanyat
kincid asti dhananjaya
mayi sarvam idam protam
sutre mani-gana iva
These is nothing superior. Like pearls strung on a thread, everything is hooked unto me.
All of creation is connected to the divine.

yathakasa-sthito nityam
vayuh sarvatra-go mahan
tatha sarvani bhutani
mat-sthanity upadharaya
Understand that just as the mighty air is ever present and blowing everywhere in the atmosphere, the divine spirit pervades in all of creation (from the largest to the smallest, in animate and inanimate things). We have to live our life with a constant awareness of this truth.