Image courtesy: Time and The Telegraph
It is in such a bad taste that the mind desperately urges
to run away from the TV sets or think of that impossible situation where they
all could be dumped somewhere deep so that their twisted voices cannot surface.
These so called Seers, Gurus, Saints, the modern day
Shankaracharyas, the Sadhus, the religious Satraps, and their ugly bickering in
the name of sanctifying the religion of the Hindus and their silly and
unpardonable crusade against ‘Sai Baba worship’ – who is asking them to
represent us – who are they to interfere in our personal matters?
Yes, practicing religion is personal and no one has any
right to issue a dictat to follow this or that God or this or that Saint or a
dictat on whom to believe in as a God, something that this ill-intended Dharm
Sansad (religious congregation) in Chhatisgarh did yesterday.
And ‘they doing so’ tells us they do not follow the
religion they boast to represent. In fact no religion allows for such gaudy
display of God ownership and faith ownership. Unfortunately, such
‘representatives’ have had a long run.
Every religion, in its true essence, preaches and teaches
love and peace. If we don’t talk of the distortions and the distorted leading
opinions, no one religion imposes itself on the other.
In essence, every religion is anti-crusade, in its purest,
in its spiritual form. In fact, a devout religious soul respects the other
religion the same way as his/her.
And who can symbolize it better than the dear Mother -
Mother Teresa - who was born on this day 104 years ago in Albania, a European country – and who spent her
whole life in India
since 1928.
She was a devout catholic and followed the ways and the
teachings of Jesus religiously. It is said Jesus came to her asking her to be
His messenger, spreading the message of His love and peace by working for those
who needed it the most, the poor, the needy, and in-turn, receiving the love
and peace Himself, because He exists in every such soul.
And she followed the message, with her beginning in 1948
and she was soon to become the Mother.
It hurt Jesus to love us, it hurt him. And to make sure we remember his great love he made himself the bread of life to satisfy our hunger for his love. Our hunger for God, because we have been created for that love. We have been created in his image. We have been created to love and be loved, and then he has become man to make it possible for us to love as he loved us. He makes himself the hungry one - the naked one - the homeless one - the sick one - the one in prison - the lonely one - the unwanted one - and he says: You did it to me. Hungry for our love, and this is the hunger of our poor people. This is the hunger that you and I must find, it may be in our own home. (From the Nobel Lecture delivered by the Mother on December 11, 1979 on being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.)
She remained a devout Catholic throughout her life but
devoted her life to the people of a largely Hindu country. She never asked for
the religion. Her doors were open for
everyone. She found Jesus in every needy soul. She became so Indian that she is
known as the ‘Blessed Teresa of Calcutta’. In fact, her religious adherence was
her inspiration, the force behind her Motherly love.
People loving
her were in every walk of like, in India, around the world, something
that these religious satraps of Hinduism can never even dream of. That love,
the devotion to her is still there.
What is
happening to her Order is debatable but the Mother is beyond any questions.
We
can and we need to rightly question Gods but messengers like Mother Teresa go
beyond the reach of such questions because we experience the God through them. We can touch and feel the God through them. She remains among the people even after her passing away in 1997 because she remains in the soul of Humanity.
Saints are like her, a modern day Saint as the TIME Mother Teresa at 100: The Life and Works of a Modern Saint rightly says, not like them who were ready to tear into each other yesterday and today, on TV sets, in public.
Thanks for blessing India Mother. Thanks for being there for those who needed peace and who desperately needed help. Thanks for being there Mother.
Image courtesy: Indian Express, The Telegraph and Daily Mail
MOTHER TERESA: RELIGIOUS ADHERENCE WAS THE INSPIRATION BEHIND HER MOTHERLY LOVE