Mother Teresa: a biography

ASKING ONLY FOR A PLACE
“When Mother Teresa began her work in the slums,” recalled one sis-
ter, “we often found people dying or sometimes dead.”
1
When possible,
the sisters took the ailing person to the hospital, where more often than
not they were turned away. Often there was no place to take them at all,
leaving the sisters unable to offer anything else except comfort and com-
pany until the person died. At one point, Mother Teresa rented two rooms
for five rupees each in the Motijihl slum. But the space, only eight feet
square, could not even begin to hold the numbers of dying people who
needed help; at best only two to three persons could be accommodated,
leaving little room for the sisters to tend to them. When one of the pa-
tients died during the night, the others, now fearful, fled. Undaunted, the
sisters continued to bring the sick and dying to the two rooms, while pray-
ing that they could find a larger building adequate to their needs.
Mother Teresa also realized that, if she were to realize her goal of es-
tablishing a home for the dying, then she needed more than prayers. De-
termined, she went to the city’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Ahmed.
Explaining her desire to him, Mother Teresa promised that if he would
help her find a place, she would do the rest. The doctor, well aware of
Mother Teresa’s growing reputation, treated her request seriously. By of-
fering to help, Mother Teresa and her nuns would be relieving some of the
already heavy burden the city faced in dealing with dying people on the
streets.
In fact, Dr. Ahmed knew of a place that might perfectly suit Mother
Teresa’s needs. Together they went to inspect a building, which had been
used as a pilgrim’s hostel near the Temple of Kali, the Hindu goddess of
death and fertility. Located in the Kalighat district, the temple was situ-
ated near the banks of the Hooghly River. The site was popular among the
Hindus who came to worship at the temple. According to legend, Kali’s
father made a sacrifice in order to guarantee the birth of a son. Unfortu-
nately, the gift did not include an offering to Shiva, Kali’s husband. In-
sulted by the slight to her husband, Kali committed suicide. Shiva,
desolate over the death of his wife, carried her in his arms, threatening de-
struction wherever he went. To save mankind, another god, Vishnu,
hurled a discus at Kali’s corpse. The body shattered, falling in pieces to the
ground, which is now considered sacred.
6 8
M O T H E R T E R E S A

---

Of all the consecrated ground, the most sacred was the area where the
toes of Kali’s right foot lay. On that spot, a temple to the goddess was
built. Over time, the temple was surrounded by streets bearing pictures of
the deity and became an important and symbolic center of worship for
Hindus throughout India. Some came to fulfill a vow; others journeyed
seeking cure for an illness. Still others came to celebrate important cere-
monies such as naming rites for infants, marriages, or cremations on one
of the funeral pyres located near the temple. The religious importance of
the temple of Kali was so great that many Hindus wished to be cremated
there.
The building that Dr. Ahmed showed Mother Teresa consisted of two
great rooms set at right angles and linked by a passageway. Calcutta offi-
cials had received complaints that squatters were misusing the building,
and so wished to have someone occupy it to save it from further destruc-
tion. Besides the large, airy rooms, there was also electricity, gas for cook-
ing, and a large enclosed courtyard where patients could take the air and
sun and where clothes and bedding could be hung to dry. Mother Teresa
decided on the spot that she would accept the building; the doctor, acting
on behalf of the city, agreed to let her have it provisionally. When asked
later why she accepted the doctor’s offer, she explained that since the
building was associated with the famous Hindu temple and that pilgrims
used to come to rest there, so would the dying before continuing their
final journey to heaven. Almost immediately, Mother Teresa and several
of her nuns and novitiates set to work. The quarters had fallen into terri-
ble condition and needed to be cleaned from top to bottom to make them
ready for the new arrivals.