Rich India, Poor America

Once, Mother Teresa was invited to the United States. She participated in a large gathering where the President of the United States was also present. On that occasion, Mother Teresa was asked to say a few words. Beginning her speech, the first sentence she said was: “I have come from rich India to poor America.”

What she meant was that, although America is rich in material terms, it is spiritually poor—whereas India, despite being materially behind, is ahead of America in spiritual terms.

Mother Teresa was born in Albania. In her youth, she acquired Indian citizenship. After that, she truly considered India her homeland. The above sentence was spoken out of a sense of patriotism. There are many people who were born in India, yet even so, they are deprived of this kind of patriotic feeling. (Diary, 2 October 1997)