Only if you have served another
person, can you call yourself human. Period.
All this
debate over Mother Teresa is sickening. Bad enough that we have a petty mind
charging her with preaching Christianity – as if it were a crime; while at the
same time over-looking the years of unputdownable service she personally led
for the poor, sick, downtrodden and dying. What’s even more repulsive is the
social media stances taken by “informed, educated” folks who make
justifications for her role in either serving humanity or in practicing and
preaching her religion. To me, personally, Mother Teresa is among the greatest
human beings to have walked on earth. She served without ever thinking of what
she deserved. Had she been alive now, her response to all this nonsense about
her would have been, to quote a teaching from the Bible (Luke 23:34): “Father,
forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing!!”
To be
honest, I have come to realize and conclude that religion, as it is being practiced
today, has no role in our lives. In fact, it is being thrust on us and is dividing
us. At a time when the world craves for unity, inner peace, love, understanding
and compassion, anything – religion included – that divides the human race is
unwelcome. It doesn’t matter to me – and it shouldn’t matter to anyone else
either – whether the people I cohabit this world with are Hindus, Muslims,
Christians, Jews, Sikhs or Buddhists. The fact is that all of us have the same volume
of blood running through our veins – 5.5 liters; all that blood is red in
color; we have the same 24 hours to call a day and make it count and we breathe
the same air. So, how can we be different at our deepest core – as human
beings? Even if we wear our clothes differently, even if we eat different
cuisines, speak different languages, even if we live in different countries, we
are first humans, citizens of planet Earth, before we choose to identify
ourselves basis the color of our skin, our nationality, our language and,
sadly, religion. Mother Teresa was one of those people who reminded us, through
her servant attitude, that our true work is to love and serve others like us
without expectations, without imposing conditions and, while doing all of this,
experience the beauty and magic of compassion. To point at Mother Teresa is to
accuse the pristine spirit of humanity. My humble, unsolicited perhaps,
perspective: only those who have done even 0.0000000001% of
what Mother Teresa has done for humanity in her lifetime have a right to
comment on either side of this insipid debate raised by, of all people, a petty
rabble rouser!
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| Maneesha: Knows the "joy of breathing" |
We have a beautiful friend named Maneesha. She miraculously survived
the gruesome fire tragedy at Carlton Towers in Bangalore five years ago. But
the accident claimed her voice, and for the first three years, her vitality.
She now communicates through an implant in her larynx. If anyone knows the value
of the “joy of breathing” it is Maneesha. She received the first copy of my Book,
“Fall Like A Rose Petal – A father’s lessons on how
to be happy and content while living without money” (Westland, August 2014) when it was launched in
Bangalore last year. Receiving my Book she said, in reference to her miraculous
escape, “…During, what seemed an endless wait, where we waited to be rescued
from the seventh floor of Carlton Towers, all that was on my mind was the hope
to be able to breath fresh, non-toxic air. I suddenly realized that all of us
who were trapped badly wanted just one gasp of air – nothing else mattered.” Her
poignant recall sums up Life – if all of us breathe – and need – only the same
air, why do we fight or gloat over our differences? At the end of the day, what
matters to stay alive, irrespective of which religion we belong to, is each
breath of fresh air that we intake. And through staying alive what makes Life
meaningful is the opportunity to be human.
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| Mother Teresa by Raghu Rai, 1979 Picture Courtesy: Internet |
It really doesn’t – and shouldn’t – matter what religion you practise
or how much you earn. Only if you have served another, have you earned your
right to call yourself human. Mother Teresa, as we all know it, has earned that
right several times over. Bottomline: let’s
celebrate, like Maneesha, the “joy of breathing” and let’s try to serve, inspired
by Mother Teresa, selflessly, so that we too can earn our right to call
ourselves human. If we can do these two well, will (our) religion ever matter?
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