Mother Teresa endowed with Holy Soul: A Glimpse of her humanitarian Service

 On 26 August 2021, the world celebrated the birthday of a great and holy soul, selfless lady, endowed with purity in heart, who is popularly known as Mother Teresa but born as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu.

Mother Teresa is a symbol of sacrifice for the service and caring of the downtrodden people. She was born on 26 August 1910 in present-day Skopje of North Macedonia. I will not discuss here about her religion etc. but I feel her greatest religion was love and affection to others particularly to the poor echelon of the society. On other days, we have seen on TV that innocent people were killed without any fault of theirs in Kabul but Mother Teresa has shown us how to nurture helpless children and others for survival. She left her home in 1928 when she was 18 years old and came to Ireland to learn English. And later on sent to India and on 24 May, 1931, she took her initial vows as a nun. Among her innumerable activities few are mentioned here so that young generations are motivated. 

From 1931 to 1948 Mother Teresa taught at St. Mary’s High School in Calcutta now Kolkata, but observing the suffering and poverty outside the convent walls, she changed her mind.  In 1948 she left the convent school with proper permission from the authority and devoted herself to working among the poor in the slums of Calcutta. Although she had no funds, she depended on Divine Providence, and started an open-air school for slum children. Soon she was joined by voluntary helpers, and financial support was also forthcoming. This made it possible for her to extend the scope of her work. She established a new sisterhood, Missionaries of Charity. Mother Teresa and her associates built homes for orphans, nursing homes for lepers and hospices for the terminally ill in Calcutta (now Kolkata). Mother Teresa's organization also engaged in aid work in other parts of the world. Also her role to serve the people, during Bengal Famine in 1943 and Direct Action Day, also known as the 1946 Calcutta Killings, was praiseworthy.

It may be mentioned here that, “The Missionaries of Charity, which began as a small order with 12 members in Calcutta, today has more than 4,000 nuns running orphanages, AIDS hospices, and charity centers worldwide, and caring for refugees, the blind, disabled, aged, alcoholics, the poor and homeless and victims of floods, epidemics and famine in Asia, Africa, Latin America, North America, Poland, and Australia. In 1965, by granting a Decree of Praise, Pope Paul VI granted Mother Teresa permission to expand her order to other countries. The order's first house outside India was in Venezuela. Presently, the "Missionaries of Charity" has presence in more than 100 countries” (awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu/directory/mother-teresa).

Some of her activities across the world are: In 1982 during the Siege of Beirut Mother Teresa rescued 37 children trapped in a front-line hospital by brokering a temporary cease-fire between the Israeli army and Palestinian guerrillas. Accompanied by Red Cross workers, she travelled through the war zone to the hospital to evacuate the young patients.

Also she visited to help the hungry people in Ethiopia; radiation victims at Chernobyl and earthquake victims in Armenia.  In 1991 she went to Albania for the first time, opening a Missionaries of Charity Brothers home in (wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Teresa).  Mother Teresa’s work has been recognised and acclaimed throughout the world and she has received a number of awards and distinctions, including the Nobel Peace Prize, the Bharat Ratna, the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize etc.

Although Mother Teresa left for heavenly abode on 5 September 1997 (aged 87 in Calcutta/Kolkata) but because of her great humanitarian service she is in the heart of all in the world. I offer my Pronam to her.

 Dr Shankar Chatterjee, Hyderabad , 27 August 2021

 

World Elephant Day, 12 August: Few Titbits

 In school days we were taught by the teachers while teaching general knowledge/ social science that ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ which is a Sanskrit phrase mentioned in the Maha Upanishad, meaning "the world is one family". So animals and other living beings have the right to survive in this beautiful world. On August 12, 2012, the World Elephant Day was launched to bring attention to the urgent plight of Asian and African elephants. The elephant is loved, and respected by people and cultures around the world.  They have been providing great service to human beings as ‘Elephant Safari’ is popular among the tourists in the world. The elephants are used to carry logs, heavy woods etc., in many places. And in many Hindu temples elephants are nurtured. Even then elephants are treated badly. According to Dr. Stephen Blake, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, “elephants are simply one more natural resource that is being caught up in human greed on the one hand and human need on the other.  We somehow need people to become reacquainted with nature or they can have no clue as to the interrelatedness of cause and effect.” It is observed from the website worldelephantday.org/about that ‘the escalation of poaching, habitat loss, human-elephant conflict and mistreatment in captivity are just some of the threats to both African and Asian elephants. Working towards better protection for wild elephants, improving enforcement policies to prevent the illegal poaching and trade of ivory, conserving elephant habitats, better treatment for captive elephants and, when appropriate, reintroducing captive elephants into natural, protected sanctuaries are the goals that numerous elephant conservation organizations are focusing on around the world.’                    While talking about Elephant Day, in the context of India it may be mentioned that the Government of India has notified a total of 32 Elephant Reserves. The total elephant population in India was 27312 (as per Census in 2017) (source: upsccolorfullnotes.com/32-elephant-reserves-in-india-in-2021-map). I visited some of the reserves and was charmed to see pachyderms and the pristine beauty of the places.   And one place of Sri Lanka I wish to mention here as it was a memorable place. During the course of Sri Lanka visit Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage must be visited (I visited in March 2018). It is located in the village Pinnawala in Kegalle district 90 kilometres away from Colombo. The orphanage also abandoned elephants and those injured) population of pachyderm was around 93, making it the world’s largest collection of captive elephants. It was established in 1975 by the Sri Lanka Wildlife Department adjoining the Maha Oya River. In 1978 the Orphanage was taken over by the National Zoological Gardens from the Department of Wildlife subsequently, a captive breeding program was launched in 1982. Since the inception of the programme more than 20 elephants were raised (bred) here and during the time of visit it was reported that altogether 93 elephants were staying. The objective of the Orphanage is to simulate a natural habitat to these elephants. The elephants are taken to the river twice a day for a bath, and all the babies less than three years of age are bottle fed by the mahouts and volunteers. While visiting the place, I purchased fruits from that place and put them in the mouth of an elephant (outside fruits are not allowed).                                                                                                 The theme for this year’s World Elephant Day has not been announced; however, last year it was ‘Haathi Hamara Saathi’(meaning elephants are our friends)

Dr Shankar Chatterjee, Hyderabad Dt. 12 August 2021