Matru Devo Bhava, the Four Reverences
मातृदेवो भव । पितृदेवो भव ।
आचार्यदेवो भव । अतिथिदेवो भव ॥
Mātṛ-devo bhava, pitṛ-devo bhava
Ācārya-devo bhava, atithi-devo bhava
“Let your mother be as a god to you. Let your father be as a god to you. Let your teacher be as a god to you. Let the guest be as a god to you.”
Taittirīya Upaniṣad 1.11, the graduation address
Word by word
A shloka a child understands is a shloka they keep. Here is what each word is actually doing.
On Guru Purnima, at Teachers’ Day, at family gatherings, and when a child asks why we treat guests the way we do.
- Four short phrases, learned in a single sitting
- The most concrete values verse in the tradition
- Explains Indian hospitality in one line
- A staple of school assemblies and speeches
The fourth one is where children get interested. Atithi means, literally, one who arrives without a fixed date, the unannounced visitor. To treat that person as a god is a demanding instruction, and it is the origin of the hospitality a child will have seen at home all their life without having a name for it.
Shloka Classes
Reading a shloka and chanting it correctly are different things. In our live online classes a mentor corrects your child’s pronunciation in the moment, teaches the meaning alongside the sound, and builds a repertoire verse by verse. Ages 4-14 · 45 min · Weekly.
Questions parents ask
Let your mother be as a god to you. The full passage extends the same reverence to father, teacher and guest.
Learn these next
All 28 shlokas
Teach your child Matru Devo Bhava, properly
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