What is the full line?

मातृदेवो भव । पितृदेवो भव । आचार्यदेवो भव । अतिथिदेवो भव ॥ Let your mother, your father, your teacher and your guest be gods to you.

Matru devo bhava: let your mother be a god to you

Matru devo bhava ("let your mother be a god to you") is from the Taittiriya Upanishad 1.11.2, in the Krishna Yajur Veda. A teacher says it to students finishing their Vedic study, with pitru devo bhava, acharya devo bhava and atithi devo bhava: father, teacher and guest as gods too.

Taittiriya Upanishad 1.11.2

मातृदेवो भव ।पितृदेवो भव ।आचार्यदेवो भव ।अतिथिदेवो भव ।

mātṛdevo bhava |pitṛdevo bhava |ācāryadevo bhava |atithidevo bhava |

Let your mother be a god to you. Let your father be a god to you. Let your teacher be a god to you. Let your guest be a god to you.

The whole passage

Taittiriya Upanishad 1.11.2

देवपितृकार्याभ्यां न प्रमदितव्यम् ।मातृदेवो भव ।पितृदेवो भव ।आचार्यदेवो भव ।अतिथिदेवो भव ।यान्यनवद्यानि कर्माणि ।तानि सेवितव्यानि ।नो इतराणि ।यान्यस्माकंसुचरितानि ।तानि त्वयोपास्यानि ॥

devapitṛkāryābhyāṃ na pramaditavyam |mātṛdevo bhava |pitṛdevo bhava |ācāryadevo bhava |atithidevo bhava |yānyanavadyāni karmāṇi |tāni sevitavyāni |no itarāṇi |yānyasmākaṃsucaritāni |tāni tvayopāsyāni ||

Do not neglect what you owe to the gods and the ancestors. Let your mother be a god to you. Let your father be a god to you. Let your teacher be a god to you. Let your guest be a god to you. Do the deeds that are blameless, and no others. Follow what we did well, and nothing else.

Who said it, and to whom

A teacher to his students on the day they leave

This is the teacher’s parting address, the eleventh section of the first chapter. It begins "speak the truth, follow dharma, do not neglect your study" (1.11.1) and goes on to the people a graduate should honour. It ends with plain advice: copy only our good conduct, give with faith and modesty, and when in doubt, act as wise and kind people around you act.

How the acharyas read it

Shankara

Shankara says to honour mother, father, teacher and guest as you would a god. He adds that this teaching is for someone living a life of work; it clears the mind and readies it for the knowledge the later chapters give.

Where others read it differently

No school reads it differently. The guest line, atithi devo bhava, is also known as a slogan of Indian tourism.

Writing it out

मातृदेवो भवmātṛdevo bhavaMother
अतिथिदेवो भवatithidevo bhavaGuest

One compound and one verb: मातृ + देवः becomes मातृदेवो before भव, "be".

Copy or share the line

मातृदेवो भव ।पितृदेवो भव ।आचार्यदेवो भव ।अतिथिदेवो भव ।

mātṛdevo bhava | pitṛdevo bhava | ācāryadevo bhava | atithidevo bhava |

Let your mother be a god to you, and your father, your teacher and your guest.

The teacher to his graduating students · Taittiriya Upanishad 1.11.2

The same thought in the Gita

Read next to Bhagavad Gita 17.14: Krishna on the discipline of the body: honouring the gods, the twice-born, teachers and the wise.

One line each morning

A week of lines for what you are going through, one each morning by email. The first week is free.

Send my week

Keep reading

Questions people ask

Matru devo bhava is from which Upanishad?: The Taittiriya Upanishad, 1.11.2, in the Krishna Yajur Veda.
What is the full line?: मातृदेवो भव । पितृदेवो भव । आचार्यदेवो भव । अतिथिदेवो भव ॥ Let your mother, your father, your teacher and your guest be gods to you.

Sources and method

Taittiriya Upanishad 1.11.2, Krishna Yajur Veda. Sanskrit from the Wisdom corpus, read against the sanskritdocuments.org edition (KB up_taittiriya.52, up_taittiriya.53).

The English is Wisdom's own, drafted from the Sanskrit with Shankara's commentary (S. Sitarama Sastri's public-domain English) and checked against Swami Paramananda (1919) for tone. Wisdom translation, edited by Ankur Shukla. Commentary AI-drafted, under human review.