1.

My sisters and brothers of the world,
Are we so blind that we cannot see
God's own Autograph
On Mother Teresa's forehead?

2.

Mother,
To be in your blessingful presence
    Is to breathe in
A breath of living compassion.

3.

Mother,
A single whisper from you
Has transformed thousands of non-believers
And disbelievers.

4.

If any dying sufferer on earth
Needs someone to cry for him,
With him and in him,
Then he can unmistakably see
Mother Teresa's all-embracing arms
Faster than the fastest
Approaching him.

5.

To be in the presence of Mother Teresa
Is to establish friendship
With invaluable moments.

6.

Mother Teresa tells us
That the right choice,
And the only choice,
Is the Christ’s Compassion-Heart.

7.

Mother Teresa's heart
Shall forever remain untouched
By the shadows of fears and doubts.

8.

With a single glance,
Mother Teresa enlightens
Our crying eyes, searching minds
And aspiring hearts.

9.

Mother Teresa does many, many things
For the betterment of the world,
But when she washes away
The untold sufferings
Of the unloved ones
With her heart's streaming tears —
That is by far the best.

10.

Mother Teresa is
The dreamer of happiness
    In the heart of
Suffering, imprisoned humanity.

11.

When Mother Teresa approaches
    Ill-fated sufferers,
What does she say?
'Do not worry, my child, God is coming.
Indeed, I see in you the living presence
Of Jesus Christ Himself.'

12.

Mother Teresa's life-boat plies
Between the destination-shores
Of her own grandmother-soul
And her own grandchild-heart.

13.

Mother Teresa tells the whole world
That a heart of love
Is Infinitely stronger
Than we can ever imagine.

14.

When I look at my compassion-eyes,
I clearly see that my eyes
Can never be filled.
And when I look at Mother Teresa's eyes,
I clearly see that her compassion-eyes
Can never be emptied.

15.

Mother Teresa time and again tells us
That a smile from the heart
Knows no replacement.

16.

In her blessingful presence,
It is not she, but we
Who gladly and instantly chop down
Our proud, giant mind-trees.

17.

Mother Teresa always reminds us
That each difficulty
Is nothing short of God's Confidence
    In us.

18.

With her Infinity's compassion-heart,
Mother Teresa is every day
Embracing countless, sorrowful hearts
Of forthcoming centuries.

19.

Mother Teresa tells
Not only her suffering patients,
But also each and every human being,
'The answer to life is not self-doubt-imprisonment,
But self-discovery-enlightenment.
We are all God's children.'

20.

The moment I think of Mother Teresa,
I immediately step forward in faith,
    God-faith.

21.

Mother Teresa tells her dying patients
That God's Heart-Room
    Knows no closed doors.

22.

Mother Teresa tells us
That if we want to succeed
    In the battlefield of life,
Then we must never separate
    Life from compassion.

23.

The faith-bird in Mother Teresa
    Sings and dances
Long before it sees the clearing dawn.

24.

What does she tell her patients?
    She tells them,
'Look, look, God is all ready to blossom
    In you!
He is His sleepless Thirst for you.'

25.

Mother Teresa tells her patients
That God's Dream-Fulfilment
Is definitely attainable in and through them.

26.

Mother Teresa lovingly and tenderly
    Advises us
Not to hesitate in accelerating
The manifestation of our heart-smiles.

27.

Is there anybody on earth
Who will not see eye to eye with us
When we say that Mother Teresa
Is indeed God's special Way
To comfort the suffering and bleeding humanity?

28.

Mother,
We claim to love
Your compassion-heart,
But you love to claim
Our affliction-lives.

29.

O Absolute Lord Supreme,
You have made our Mother
The embodiment of compassion.
    Do make us
The embodiment of gratitude.

30.

The moment I come
And stand in Mother Teresa's blessingful presence,
I see nothing but waves of smiles
Flowing from her compassion-flooded eyes.

31.

Some pieces of advice
From Mother Teresa:
    Think of others first,
    Always;
    Let faith in the power of love
    Excel in your life;
    Remove all your self-destructive,
    Negative thoughts;
    Every minute do something
    To make all the children of God
    Happy and smiling.

32.

Mother Teresa has numberless friends,
But her very best friend
    Is her heart's silence-prayer.

33.

In her we see the revelation
    Of her Eternity's soul,
And the full manifestation
    Of her Divinity's heart.

34.

Mother Teresa tells us
To do two things simultaneously:
    To touch God’s Feet
    With our humility-mind;
    To feel God’s Heart
    With our purity-life.

35.

Mother Teresa tells us:
'Do not hesitate!
It is already too late.
    Put the Lord
In every corner of your life
Prayerfully and self-givingly.'

36.

Sleeplessly and breathlessly,
With giant eagerness-strides,
Mother Teresa is paving the way
For a sickness and bitterness-free world.

37.

Twenty-four hours a day
Mother Teresa lives inside
Her golden heart and silver tongue.

38.

Mother Teresa shows us
How we can hold our sorrowful outer life
Up to our own inner light
By virtue of our sincere prayers.

39.

Mother Teresa tells us
That in order to be truly happy
We must unreservedly feel our oneness-heart
With the breath of the poor.

40.

Each and every poor life
    And sick body
Receives from Mother Teresa's heart
    A consolation-prize
And from her soul
    An illumination-surprise.

41.

Mother Teresa reminds us
Of something extremely significant:
Power itself has no true power.
Power has power only when
Love-compassion-blossoms are found
    Inside it.

42.

How profusely and immensely
Mother Teresa inspires us to see
    The God-aspiring, God-inspiring
And God-serving life-tree
Inside our own heart-garden!

43.

The moment Mother Teresa
Approaches a poor, hungry heart,
God Himself spreads
A Compassion-Feast.

44.

To our greatest delight,
Although Mother has seen 87 summers,
Fatigue does not dare to sit
On her sleepless enthusiasm.

45.

Mother Teresa is not blind to
    The world's shortcomings,
But her forgiveness-heart
Is larger than the largest.
Therefore, she is able to house
All the world's shortcomings.

46.

She has a special message for mankind:
Pray and pray and pray
For the fulfilment
    Of all your dreams.

She also tells us:
Life is not for complaining.
Life is for self-perfection.
Life is for God-satisfaction.

47.

It is true
That Heaven heals earth's sorrows.
    It is equally true
That a Heaven-born child
By the name of Teresa
Self-givingly heals earth's sorrows
    In boundless measure.

48.

When you are in front of Mother Teresa,
Earthbound desires leave you
And Heaven-born desires enter into you.
These Heaven-born desires are:
    To feed the poor,
    To serve the needy.
Lo, you will see that
The redeemer and the sufferer
    Are none other
    Than Christ Himself.

49.

Not only unique but unsurpassable
She will forever remain
In lighting the hope-candles of countless lives
With her heart's sun-faith-flames.

50.

When we soulfully offer Mother
    What we have:
    A gratitude-heart,
She blesses us
    With what she is:
    Her Infinity's energy-life.

51.

Every day Mother Teresa invites
True God-servers for the poor
    And the needy
To enjoy an ego-fat-free life,
    Which is the most delicious
    God-Bliss-diet.

52.

When Mother Teresa bathes
The patients fast-approaching death
With her compassion-heart,
    Compassion-eyes and
    Compassion-hands,
Her soul and her Lord Jesus
Bathe in the sea of Infinity's Ecstasy.

53.

Service, service, service!
Mother Teresa wants us to serve
God the creation
Sleeplessly and breathlessly,
And when we ask her
What will happen if we serve
God the way
She wants us to serve Him,
Mother tells us:
'Come and see me!
For you, I am the fastest escalator
To God's floor of Delight!'

54.

She tells us to fight off
The waves of constant fear
While nursing the death-bound patients.
Lo, we become the beauty
    Of the Mother Earth;
We become the Fragrance
    Of Father Heaven.

55.

The moment I imagine
    The Mother's Eternity's service-eyes,
I become the world-inspiration-starter.

The moment I feel
    Her Infinity's service-heart,
I become the world-champion-winner.

56.

Mother Teresa's blessingful message
    To us is this:
The end is freedom from living and dying.
The end is eternal life.
Until then, patience.

57.

Something more she tells us:
Forgive and forgive quickly.
Even slow forgiveness
    Is infinitely better
Than no forgiveness.

58.

Finally, the most important message
    From Mother Teresa
Echoes and re-echoes in our aspiration-heart:
    God is constantly watching
Our love-devotion-surrender-watch.
Our heart responds to His Whispering,
Our life to His Beckoning.

Sri Chinmoy's eulogy for Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa:
Calcutta's Soaring Bird
India’s Sailing Moon
The World's Weeping Sky
Earth's Tearing Loss
Heaven's Dancing Gain
The Christ's Blossoming Promise
The Mother Mary's Harvesting Pride.

Editor's note

Poetry reprinted in honour of Mother Teresa’s Birth Centenary. The author, Sri Chinmoy, was nominated many times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. The bird drawing artwork is by Sri Chinmoy.