Capt Purushottam Sharma (Retd)
“The fruit of silence isprayer,
The fruit of prayer is faith,
The fruit of faith is love,
The fruit of love is service, and
The fruit of service is peace.”
– Mother Teresa
Florence Nightingale known as ‘Lady with the Lamp’ shed her mortal coils on 14th August, 1910, in Londonin her 90th year of age. Before leaving her body, she expressed her unfulfilled wish to her nearest co-worker stating that an Indian soldier who was seriously injured in the Crimean War had been often saying whenever she went to dress her wounds “Sister! I wish if there could be anyone like you in my country. Although there are many spiritual leaders who give very enlightening discourses on various aspects of morality, not many are there who could be giving a healing touch to the wounded hearts personally. Here I see you have many assistants but you seem to be personally attending to all the patients. O Great Lady! You must visit my India. It is a beautiful land but made rotten by the colonial rule.
That ought to be your place of action to revive noble feelings the colonial rule had vanished.”
Upon that soldier’s death Florence made up her mind to visit India which could be treated as a word given to a departed Soul but could not make it due to heavy work-schedule.
After a short gap of just 13 days, it was on 27th August, 1910, that a girl child was born to a well-to-do Albanian couple in Skopje, Yugoslavia. She was named Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. To honor her word given in her previous birth to the deceased Indian soldier, she landed inKolkata on 6th January, 1949, at the age of 18 years.
Kind-hearted Divine person, she could not bear the pains and sufferings of others. A hurt bird or an animal, a sick person, a wounded soldier, a hungry beggar, a needy or diseased received her ‘Love in Action’.
She was deeply pious and prayed for long hours alone as well as in the mass. Very often, she prayed loudly too. “God is Great! God is Truth! God is love! Praise Him!” also formed part of her prayer. She received Lord’s messages and acted upon them with robust faith. She adopted the name of Teresa in 1931. In the same year, she joined Loreto Convent High School, Kolkata, as a teacher and later promoted as Principal. Her living room overlooked the slums across the boundary wall of the school where the devils of disease, starvation and heaps of filth moved her heart. She decided to visit those slum dwellers and serve them. And she did it in various ways for many years. It was on 10th September, 1946, while on train journey to Darjeeling she received Divine command to free herself from the Loreto and concentrate herself on service of the poorest of the poor and convert Hell in Heaven. It took permission two years to come through. She took her first teaching class of 5-6 children on bare muddy ground using a stick to write Bengali alphabets. However, people appreciated the noble work and more infrastructure and children joined the classes, thus a school came into being. Subashini Dass, a former Loreto student also joined Mother Teresa in March, 1949, and she remained number two in the Missionaries of Charities.
It was in October, 1949, that the Order began and Sister Teresa became Mother Teresa. By then she had received Indian citizenship also.
Mother Teresa had an army of 3000 sisters and 400 brothers operating in more than 70 countries around the world. Her Missionaries of Charities work among the poorest of the poor. Hundreds of thousand of victims of Leprosy, starvation victims, dying destitute and orphaned children receive love and care in well-established Leprosy Centers, Children Homes, Schools, Feeding Stations and Homes for Dying Destitute.
Her first gigantic Project was ‘Nirmal Hriday’ at Kalighat in close proximity of Maha Kali Temple. There are around more than 150 such Homes for the Dying Destitute around the world today. Inmates admitted to these Homes receive love and care in abundance and die with dignity and honor. ‘Nirmal Shishu Bhavans’ are other amazing Projects where hundredsof unwanted and abandoned children/babies come from the hospitals, roadsides, slum areas and dustbins. They are brought up with love and motherly-care. Mother Teresa said “Abortionis a murder in womb. A child is a gift of God. If you do not want it, give it to me.”
A Leprosy Centre known as ‘Shanti Nagar’ near Asansol diagnoses and treats thousands of Leprosy victims. They have been provided life of dignity and also trained for vocational work which fetches them good earning.
The Free-Food Kitchen of New York’s Queen of Peace Mission is another good piece of Noble Gesture of Social Welfare where even stray youths share the food and transform themselves into useful personsand contribute to the Mission. ‘Gift of Love’, another Project, cares AIDS patients who carry message of Love to God from Mother Teresa, her co-workers and patients.
Mother Teresa and her co-workers led ascetic’s life. Sisters have two or three blue-bordered plain white sarees and other essential items. Work schedule from 4-30 am to 10 pm is very tight and tiresome but they perform the Divine work of Service with pride and pleasure and success always smiles at them. She called upon those who have, to share with have-nots. She experienced her own self in others. She always said that while cleaning the wounds of a victim, she felt as if she was serving the God directly.
Merely 4′-11″ in height, she served good causes with determination and courage knocking down all odds on the way. Once she fell short of quilts. As soon as she put her hands to remove the cotton from the pillow to fill the empty sheet of a quilt, a knock at the door surprised everybody. A truck-load of quilts, mattresses, pillows and bed sheets were brought by a man, who was on transfer abroad. On another occasion, the Home ran short of rice for the dinner and inmates had to make do with milk. Lo! and behold! An unknown lady came and dumped a full bag of rice and disappeared. In London, Mother wished to purchase a house for the homeless. The seller lowered the consideration from 9000 pounds to 6000 pounds but to raise that was too an uphill task in those days. The very next day, Mother Teresa, on her return from a visit toco-workers, handed over her bag to Mr. John Blaike, a Lawyer, who helped in her Mission, telling him “I think there is some money in it.” He counted and it was exactly five pounds short of 6000 pounds. Mr. John took out 5 Pounds currency note from his pocket and made it up 6000. The house was purchased.
She passed away at the age of 87 years at 9-30 PM on 5th of September, 1997, at Kolkata. She was given state funeral on 13th of September, 1997, at Netaji Indoor Stadium, Kolkata.
“Mother dead; nation orphaned”, said a journalist.”Tere sa koi aur nahin, Mother Teresa” said a Cart Puller in Delhi. She was conferred numerous honors and awards by various countries for her bringing excellence to the services to the suffering mankind. She was conferred Padam Shri in 1962, Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, Bharat Ratna in 1980, ‘Bharat Ki Mahan Suputri, in 1992.
Following is the Morning Prayer sung in her around 150 Institutions around the world-
Lord, make me a channel of
Thy peace; that
Where there is hatred, I may bring
Love; that
Where there is wrong, I may bring
The Spirit of forgiveness; that Where there is discord, I may
Bring Harmony; that
Where there is error, I may bring
Truth; that
Where there is doubt, I may bring
Faith; that
Where there is despair, I may bring
Hope; that
Where there are shadows, I may bring
Light; that
Where there is sadness I may bring Joy!
