Wednesday, July 23, 2014
AP Mother Teresa attends a Mass celebrating the day of St. Peter and
St. Paul in St.Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, in this Sunday, June 29,
1997 file photo.
Mother Teresa's path was a unique one. While she never deviated from
her faith, she reached out to millions of her special constituency, the
deprived and the dying, recognising their faces to be the face of her
God.
A few weeks ago I visited one of Mother Teresa's Sisters who was
admitted for surgery in the PGI hospital in Chandigarh. Haryana Chief
Secretary Urvashi Gulati and the Principal Secretary to the Governor
accompanied me that morning to Sister Ann Vinita's bedside. Attending to
her in the hospital were two companion Sisters of the Missionaries of Charity.
In the course of conversation, one of them said that she was really
happy to meet me. She went on to explain that as a young woman in
Kerala, she had admired Mother Teresa's work, but it was when she
chanced to read my biography of Mother Teresa
that she decided to join the Order. That a young Catholic woman should
have read a book written by one, who while he was unmistakably close to
Mother Teresa yet did not share her faith, stunned me into silence. It
made me reflect on a number of issues related and unrelated: of the
strength of secular values; and of true compassion knowing no religious,
ethnic, caste or geographical boundaries, and indeed being able to
transcend altogether the formal contours of religious practice.
Mother Teresa understood her environment acutely. She was no
evangelist in the 19th century mould. She remained true to her religion
till her last breath, but chose not to impose it on others. Never once
during my 23-year-long association with her did she ever suggest that
her religion was the only path, or that it was in any way superior. Yet
she often reminded those around her of the power of prayer. If I
occasionally remarked on some initiative she had taken as a “good idea,”
she would reply with a teasing smile that if I learned to pray I would
get a few good ideas too! She often urged those who came to her that
they must be good Hindus or Muslims or Christians or Sikhs, and in that
process must learn to “find God.”
