Misplaced Pages

Mataji

Article snapshot taken from[REDACTED] with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Hindi term
This article does not cite any sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Mataji" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Mataji (Hindi माताजी mātājī) is a Hindi term meaning 'mother of all'.

Etymology

"Mātā" (माता) is the Hindi word for "mother", from Sanskrit matri. (मातृ), and the "-jī" (जी) suffix is an honorific suffix used to indicate respect.

Use

"Mataji" is a term used to respectfully address a (Mother or female god) in Bharatiya (Indian) culture, particularly if she is unknown to the speaker. Another term that is sometimes used is the anglicized "auntie". The term is also used for some female spiritual teachers and leaders.

"Mataji" is sometimes used by ISKCON devotees as a title, for example, "Radha Mataji". In some communities, men are encouraged to call all devotee women "Mataji", because according to Vedic culture, all women who are not one's wife are to be treated as one's mother. Many women in ISKCON shun the term and prefer they be called Prabhu, which was a term A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of ISKCON, used to refer to all members, or Devi, meaning goddess in Sanskrit.

External links

Category:
Mataji Add topic