They don't need our pity and sympathy, but understanding: Jiji Thomson

'The hands that serve are holier than the lips that pray", says an old proverb. If a man wants to worship God, he can do no better than serving the poor and the needy. That's why it is said that 'Manav sewa is Madhav sewa'. Service to man is service to God. This is the crux of the teaching of Budha, Mahavir and Jesus. They realised the presence of God in every living being. Swami Vivekananda, the great sage of India, wrote: "After so much austerity, I have understood this as the real truth- God is present in every Jiva; there's no other God besides that. Who serves Jiva, serves God indeed" (Vol 7, 247). Who else, in recent times has shown this to the world than Mother Teresa, that diminutive woman, clad in a blue-bordered sari, emitting God's grace through her enchanting smile?

The first time I met her was in 1971, when she visited Trivandrum. As president of a student cultural organisation, I called on her and presented a bouquet of flowers. She got up from her seat, bent towards me and with folded hands accepted it. She was humility personified. I knew I was standing before a saint. She put her hands on my shoulder and said: "Keep smiling, God bless you!" I was spellbound. The second time I met the Mother was on a flight from Delhi to Kolkata. She was in the economy class along with Sr Nirmala. Before dinner, the airhostess announced the Mother and requested us not to waste food but give any surplus food to the Mother. Almost everyone happily gave their share.

No wonder, she spent the Nobel prize money of $192,000 along with $70,000 from her Norwegian People prize for building homes for leprosy patients. She even asked that the traditional Peace prize dinner be cancelled so that the $6,000 allocated for it could be used for her work. In her reply speech she said: "Our people are great people, a very lovable people. They don't need our pity and sympathy. They need our understanding love and they need our respect. We need to tell the poor that they are somebody to us, that they, too, have been created by the same loving hand of God, to love and to be loved".

Let me quote Swami Vivekananda one again. He wrote to his brother disciple Swami Akhandananda: "It is preferable to live on grass for doing good to others. The Gerua robe is not for enjoyment. It is the banner of heroic work. You must give your body, mind and soul to the welfare of the world". You have read- "look upon your mother as God, look upon your father as God"- but I say- "the poor, the illiterate, the ignorant, the affected- let them be your God." Know that serving these alone is the highest religion" (Vol 6 288). Can there be a better proponent of religion than Mother Teresa?

(The author is a former Chief Secretary to Kerala Government)