Kanpur: Mohan Bhagwat, head honcho of the RSS, has termed Mother Teresa’s services as motivated by her desire to convert the beneficiaries to Christianity, thereby diluting their value. This statement is not just derogatory; it is in fact defamatory and deliberately provocative. The RSS is not known to make random statements. While accusing Mother Teresa of a “hidden agenda” Bhagwat actually finds three fingers pointed at himself.

I have been closely associated with Mother Teresa and her organization, the “Missionaries of Charity” from 1967, and personally interacted with her on several occasions. I quite literally found God in her – in the light in her eyes and the intensity of her quiet prayers. Mother Teresa lived a relatively comfortable life in the Loreto Convent, Calcutta (as it was then called), to move out on the streets of the city to care for its destitute. Her shelter, Nirmal Hriday, is located at Kolkata’s famous Kali Ghat. I am not aware of the RSS doing a similar service at that place, sacred to the Hindus; nor at Varanasi, Mathura, Haridwar etc.

A story about Mother would best negate Bhagwat’s obnoxious statement. Apparently Mother was once attending to a destitute whose flesh was putrid and the smell nauseous. An observer said that he would not do that if he were offered a million rupees; to which the Mother had famously replied, “For money, nor would I; but for the love of Jesus, yes.”

Selfish people cannot understand selfless service. They look for an ulterior motive or vested interest in everything. Yes, Mother Teresa was motivated, or rather inspired by the Lord Jesus. Jesus had emphatically stated that the ultimate proof of righteousness lay not in long prayers or religious rituals, but rather as he said, “Whatsoever you do to the least of my brethren you do unto me.”

That is why Mother Teresa unabashedly and often stated that she saw the face of Jesus in the poor to whom she ministered. She worked for leprosy patients at a time when the disease was still highly infectious. She started hospices for AIDS patients when nobody dared touch them. I wonder why the RSS didn’t undertake such tasks, instead of pointing fingers at Mother Teresa?

Let me give you two personal experiences. Once a young man strayed into my former house on the Mall Road. He was nude, with festering sores. People wanted to chase the “mad man” away. I heard the sound and reached out to him, giving him first aid and cleaning his wounds. Later Mother Teresa’s sisters from Snehalaya, Chandari, came and picked him up. After being restored to health he was returned to his family in Unnao. His name was Anand, obviously a Hindu.

Similarly I had found a young man lying on the GT Road, nude, covered in blood and dust. I put him in my car and took him to Snehalaya. He too recovered and was returned to his family in Fazilka on the Pakistan border.

Far from “converting” the destitute, the sisters actually try to locate the families of such persons, and reunite them. At Snehalaya, if a destitute dies he or she has her last rites performed according to the individual’s religious persuasion. For Muslims the mosque in nearby Sujatganj is contacted.

I wonder if Bhagwat and his ilk have ever ministered with their own hands to those who have been totally abandoned by society, often in inhuman conditions. Bhagwat should learn to practice what he preaches.

Mother Teresa never preached, she just practiced what she sincerely believed. I salute her memory and invite all persons of goodwill, regardless of religion, to emulate her selfless service.

(Chhotebhai Noronha is the president of the Kanpur Catholic Association. He once headed the All India Catholic Union, the largest lay organization in the country, as its president.)