Author: Gloria Germani
Translator(s): Thomas Pullosseril / Sonia Calza
Publisher: New Age Books
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 236
ISBN/UPC (if available): 81-7822-167-5
Description
The present work studies the person of Mother Teresa (who has been proclaimed blessed in October 2003) for the first time not from the point of view of her works, but from the perspective of her thought. It emerges from the critical analysis of her teachings always expressed orally that her great works of charity are not to be considered, as is done so far, as being within the most traditional catholic teaching.
They spring forth instead from an extraordinary power of spiritual intuition and thought. In fact, the fundamental characteristic of the spiritual journey of Mother Teresa is explained by her contact with the Hindu thought which she had personally experienced, living in India right from the age of 18, during the entire period of the Indian freedom movement guided by the Gandhian principle of non-violence.
The extraordinary vitality and fruitfulness of the Mother's Christian faith is born exactly from this contact with the advaitic spirituality. This book was the first one that placed Mother Teresa among the great personalities of both Western and Eastern mysticism, and the spiritual mystical aspect of Mother Teresa was recently confirmed by the reserved documents that came to light in the process of beatification. This work goes deeper into these aspects not only through a comparison with the Hindu philosophies and the ethical-religious views of Mahatma Gandhi but also through the meeting points with Eckhart, the master of Western mysticism.
Contents
PREFACE
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION
A Nun Dressed in Sari
Hinduism and Gandhi
Gandhi's Prayer
PART TWO: TOTAL SURRENDER
Selected Passages with Comments
CHAPTER 1
The Non-Duality of Being
CHAPTER 2
Humility as Truth
CHAPTER 3
Detachment as Freedom
CHAPTER 4
Suffering as Self-Sacrifice
CHAPTER 5
Love as Wholehearted Free Service
CHAPTER 6
Total Surrender of Self-Annihilation
PART THREE: A CONTEMPLATIVE IN THE HEART OF THE WORLD
PART FOUR: MOTHER TERESA AND THE MYSTIC THOUGHT
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index