Yesterday, I attended a small programme at a home for destitutes run by an NGO in Mangaluru, White Doves, which was launched in 2001 by Mrs. Corrinne Rasquinha, inspired by her love for Jesus and his ways, according to her address to the gathering.
The home has 120 inmates, including psychiatric patients, the most neglected lot in India, college students, the old and the very young picked up from the streets of Mangaluru and looked after with love and care, that they would not have imagined in their previous avatars. Apart from this they feed 100 hungry mouths on a daily basis at the city’s railway station. We have a food security Act, but it has no value on the streets. I was impressed with the work they continue to do despite the odds stacked against them which stem from the fact, that as a society, we love to hate, rather love to love. This is evident in our political and social discourse.
There are many such initiatives across India, making life in India, with its large population, limited resources and insensitive ruling combination of bureaucrats and politicians, tolerable for so many individuals. A large proportion of these initiatives are run by Christians of various denominations and their beneficial effect on our populace is such that, our Pradhan Sevak, like his predecessor, must bow his head and acknowledge. Yet he doesn’t….
The Mother Teresa debate:
Television channels, newspapers, the social media and online news media are currently indunated with debates over the legitmacy, political wrongness and the sheer temerity of Mohan Bhagwat, the RSS Chief’s comments, about the underlying motive of Mother Teresa’s similar charity work among the poor in India, sadly, many years after her death.
The debates indicate that the BJP is unsure of whom to back… its PM or its mentor and Chairman Emiritus, for afterall the party owes its existence and electoral victories to the RSS, yet it is reluctant to commit itself to the RSS Chief’s statement publicly, fearing a negative political and media fallout, which I suspect has become their barometer of performance and political correctness.
Its not so staunch ally in recent days which now appears to be providing issue based support to the BJP, despite being a part of the governments in Maharashtra and the centre, the Shiv Sena, has openly backed the RSS chief, while the rest of the opposition, the Congress and AAP have latched on to the controversy and are beating the BJP black and blue with it.
Making a difference:
It is said that, if, at the end of one’s life, one has no enemies, then one has never made a difference to society, but Mother Teresa certainly does not deserve the kind of enemies she seems have made much after her death for reasons that she had no interest in whatsoever during her lifetime.
Mother Teresa has certainly made a difference to the lives of so many people in this country and abroad, that she is revered as a saint, both literally and figuratively. In comparison, Mohan Bhagwat, who chose to cast aspersions on her, and question the very basis of her work, has, made very little difference to the lives of people on the ground in comparison.
Perhaps then, it is in the fitness of things, and in accordance with human nature, for him to earn his superiority by condemning, criticizing or deprecating another. Few can transcend this human failing which Mother Teresa famously described when she said, “If you judge others, you have no time to love”.
No Quid Pro Quo
Mother Teresa’s work was a calling inspired by her first and only love, Jesus, something she reiterated unashamedly over and over again. Her inspiration was personal, her work public. Her sense of service, and the service itself was without a quid pro quo in mind. Service was to all castes, creeds and denominations, the only common denominator being they needed love and care to heal their physical, mental and emotional wounds. Love is an emotion that has always drawn people to itself and indeed a movement that she started alone and in a small way in 1949, after what she described, was an order from Jesus, is now a phenomenon across 133 countries.
It is quite another matter that some people who experienced love like never before, chose to continue to experience that love from the source itself, Jesus, over that of the agent of that love, in the form of Mother Teresa. Her evangelism was not deliberate, it was a byproduct of what she did and said, just as what Jesus did and said, drew people, including his disciples to him all those years ago. There was no design and no compulsion, but she was hopeful of a favorable outcome in favor of her mentor, based on her word and deed.
Her service, like that of any Christian missionary service was defined by love. The definition of democracy also applied to her service – it was a service of love, service for love and service by love. Most of her quotes revolve around the word love like this one: “We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.
Mohan Bhagwat was wrong when he attributed conversion as the motive behind her service.
The RSS can learn from Mother Teresa
The vision of the RSS according to their website: “Expressed in the simplest terms, the ideal of the Sangh is to carry the nation to the pinnacle of glory, through organizing the entire society and ensuring protection of Hindu Dharma”.
The RSS does do service to the nation and its people – plenty of it, especially in times of disaster. ‘RSS conducts 1,60,000 sewa activities across the nation’ says Ma Bhaiyyaji Joshi. However, like perhaps Mother Teresa, here too is a motive – to organize society and ensure the protection of the Hindu Dharma.
This is where the similarity ends. The absence of the most important human emotion in the human lexicon, ‘Love’ in the manual of any of its activities turns its service into a mechanical activity that does not draw people into itself, rather into a well oiled machine that fulfills its objectives professionally and perfectly, catering to the citizenry’s material needs rather than emotional wants.
It is here perhaps that the RSS can learn from Mother Teresa. Imagine the outcome if they were to incorporate love in their efforts to organize society into a homogeneous unit, dedicated to each other and the nation.
As Mother Teresa said, “If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other”.
If we were to learn the mojo of love at home, hatred that increasingly dominates every discourse in our country will dissipate, and the country can achieve the greatness it deserves.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not in any way reflect those of newskarnataka.com
