It’s not about how much you do, but how much love you put into what you do that counts: Mother Teresa
A soul devoted to humanity, a heart with selflessness and sacrifice for others, a Nun, a saint, humanitarian, Padma Shri, and Noble Prize Winner - Mother Teresa is an inspiration to countless millions for her lifelong devotion to the neediest and most vulnerable of the world. The selflessness and sacrifice with which she lived her own life made her an international symbol of charitable work, and the love and compassion she showed the destitute of all faiths won her a Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, which she donated entirely to the poor.
Today we are celebrating 109th birth anniversary of ‘Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu’, who is popularly known as Mother Teresa.
Let’s remember some inspiring quotes of this great lady and her life who changed people's perception towards the unprivileged section of society and spread love and peace against hatred and violence.
History of Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa was born on 26th August 1910, in a Kosovar Albanian family in Skopje which is now the capital of North Macedonia , Ottoman Empire. Interestingly, Mother Teresa considered 27th August as her "true birthday", as she was baptized on that day. Her childhood name was "Agnes Gonjha Bonascu". She lost her father ‘Nikollë Bojaxhiu’ at the age of eight left home in 1928 at age 18 to join the Sisters of Loreto at Loreto Abbey in Rathfarnham, Ireland. She was fascinated by stories of the lives of missionaries and their service in Bengal, since then she took a decision to commit herself to religious life.
She moved to India, after learning English from Ireland, her novitiate in Darjeeling. There she learned Bengali and taught at St. Teresa's School near her convent. Later, she took her solemn vows on 14 May 1937, while she was a teacher at the Loreto convent school in Entally, eastern Calcutta. She was disturbed by the poverty surrounding her in Calcutta, the Bengal famine of 1943 and August 1946 Muslim-Hindu violence. In 1949, she laid the foundation for a new religious community helping the "poorest among the poor". Through this journey, missionaries of Charity came into existence.
Some Inspiring quotes to remember by Mother Teresa:
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“Peace begins with a smile.”
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“Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.”
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“Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.”
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“We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.”
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“Intense love does not measure, it just gives.”
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“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”
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“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless”.
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“The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.”
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“If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.”
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“Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.”
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“I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love. “
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“We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do. “
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Love can not remain by itself – it has no meaning. Love has to be put into action, and that action is service. “ “The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved. “
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“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”
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I am not sure exactly what heaven will be like, but I know that when we die and it comes time for God to judge us, he will not ask, ‘How many good things have you done in your life?’ rather he will ask, ‘How much love did you put into what you did?
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If you are humble nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are
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“We do not need guns and bombs to bring peace, we need love and compassion.
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It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.
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Joy is a net of love in which you can catch souls.
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Never travel faster than your guardian angel can fly.
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“Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.”
Mother Teresa was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award in 1980. Her official biography, by Navin Chawla, was published in 1992. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of her birth, the government of India issued a special Rs 5 coin (the amount of money Teresa had when she arrived in India) on 28 August 2010.
Krishi Jagran pays tribute to the symbol of humanity. Let’s spread love, peace, and happiness to the world and see the difference.
