Mother’s Day – Matatirtha Story of an orphan shepherd

This is a story of how Matatirtha festival started at the Matatirtha pond.

Stories about Matatirtha festival and other Mother’s day stories.

In ancient time there was a orphan shepherd. He used to graze his animals in the grassland. He used to bring bread for his lunch from home.

One day, he was eating his lunch by the side of the pond. While he took out one flat-bread to eat, the bread fell into the water. He was sad at the loss of one of his breads and took out another bread to eat. Before he could take it to his mouth that too fell into the water. That was a strange case. He was really careful to take out his third bread. Despite of his care and effort, the third bread also fell into the pond. When all of his bread fell into the pond, he had nothing to eat that day. He was sad and worried on the loss of his lunch. He wanted to see what had cause him lose his bread. He took off his clothes and dived into the pond.

When he went inside, he was bewildered on the sight of his deceased mother. The mother was holding the breads that fell in the pond. The mother gave the bread back to her son. He was very happy to see his mother after such a long time. He asked, “Mom, now I have found you, let’s go back to home now.”
The mother sadly said, “No son, I can’t go back to your home.”
He was very sad on her response, “Why can’t you go back. Why can’t be with your son?”
She didn’t know the exact answer, but told, “That is my fate. I can’t be with my lovely son. You have to be strong and live you life.”

He tried to grab his mother, but he couldn’t. He started crying. The mother told him, “Don’t cry my son. Don’t cry. I will be looking after you all the time and guide you in the right direction.”

The son told, “No mom, I don’t want you to look after me from far away. I want to see you again and again.”
The mother promised, “Although I can’t go with you, I can make one promise. If you come back at this pond on this very day next year, we would meet again.”

The guy asked if his friend who had also lost his mother can see his mother at the lake. The mother promised to tell his mother to come to the lake on that day.

The guy went back to his village and told his friend about meeting his mother and her promise to bring his mother at the pond next year. He took the friend to the pond on that day and they met their mothers. Slowly everybody at the village knew about the magical pond where people meet their deceased mothers. They called the pond Mata Tirtha (a pilgrimage of mother). On the day, Matatirtha Aunshi, people started visiting the pond to see mothers meeting their children.

One time, one guy missed the process of inviting his mother at the pond. When he went to meet his mother at the pond, his mother didn’t show up. That was very frustrating for the guy. He was angry and he destroyed a lot of things in and around the pond. The mothers were afraid and they disappeared. After that incident, nobody has seen their mother at the pond. But, people still go to the pond to celebrate Matatirtha festival in hopes to see their mothers.