A SAINT AND HIS/HER ANGUISH?

----- Original Message -----
From: Sushim Mukerji
To: bgajjar@comcast.net
Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2007 12:33 PM
Subject: Letter to the Editor- Mother Teresa

Bharatbhai,

Today's NewsJournal published this letter of mine on Mother Teresa.
The Journal published it in its entirety.

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Recent news about the personal anguish of Mother Teresa brought forth questions on the deeper meaning of sainthood.



There is a distinction between philanthropic service and spiritual realization leading to sainthood. Hindus make that distinction in a step by step logic as follows. Indifference to fellow men is better than cruelty to others. Service to the poor and the afflicted is better than indifference. Compassion and service for the poor and the sick gets public attention.

Still it is a saintly behavior, not the credentials of a saint. A saint is the one who has conquered ego. Ego says, “I do”. So long as ego remains, one comes under the spell of doubt, greed jealousy and anger. It is ego that separates man from God. Saints are “connected” persons (Called Yogi in Sanskrit) who see the Lord in every activity and in every person- good and bad- and see themselves mere tools in the Lord’s hand. Life of Saint Francis of Assisi, for example, is testimony to sainthood.



Service to others becomes path to God realization when one sees the Lord in those who are receiving the service. It is God who is receiving the service in the form of homeless, destitute and the sick Unless this realization comes, compassion will stop short of God realization, cause burnout, develop into doubts about the Lord, and frequently degenerate into rebellion against God. A saint works with unequal energy and without any pretence. A saint never suffers from mental anguish, because to a saint, happiness and unhappiness, profit and loss, victory and defeat lost their meaning.