One’s own mother is the combination of Durga, Lakshmi, and Saraswati. She provides us energy, wealth, and intelligence. She constantly desires our advancement in life. If the Pandavas were able to become so dear to Krishna and make their lives worthy by serving Him, it was not on account of their own merit or austerities. It was Mother Kunti Devi’s love for them that brought them such a great fortune. Even when they had to live in a forest or in the House of Wax, she always stayed with them and prayed for their welfare. The Pandavas also reciprocated her love, and that accounts for their final victory. Lakshmana, likewise, was able to dwell in the forest with his brother Rama, serving Him ceaselessly, only because of his mother Sumitra’s blessings. She told her son that Ayodhya without Rama was like a forest, and that the forest in which Rama lived would be a veritable Ayodhya to him. It was on account of the hearty blessings of his mother that Lakshmana was able to spend fourteen years in the forest even without food or sleep.