Bhakti: The Root of All Goodness

This is a true incident from the life of Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa used to identify financially well-to-do individuals and asked them for donations to help those in need. One day she knocked on the door of a rich businessman, who was not a believer in sharing his wealth with others. He was an egoistic man, full of pride. Upon hearing the knock, he answered the door, only to slam it on Mother Teresa’s face. Unaffected by the insult and driven by her desire to help the poor and underprivileged, Mother Teresa knocked the door again. This time he opened the door and spat on her face. Mother Teresa wiped off the spit from her face and knocked yet again. When he answered the door the third time, she said to him in a very calm voice, “You gave me what I deserved, now what will you do for the kids?”.

The rich man was stunned by her response. He could not believe that someone could be so kind and humble as Mother Teresa was. He was immediately consumed by a strong sense of shame and remorse and was a changed man from that point on. He decided to donate all his wealth for the care and well-being of the poor, destitute and needy children.

​Moral
Humility, serving others, selflessness, patience etc. are divine qualities. Material beings can practice to imbibe these qualities and can even be partially successful. However, it is only after God-realization that all these qualities come naturally and are here to stay. So, we must first work towards attaining God-realization and then all these virtues will follow naturally.