About Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Skopje, Macedonia, on August 26, 1910. Her family was of Albanian descent. At the age of twelve, she felt strongly the call of God. She knew she had to be a missionary to spread the love of Christ. At the age of eighteen she left her parental home in Skopje and joined the Sisters of Loreto, an Irish community of nuns with missions in India. After a few months' training in Dublin she was sent to India, where on May 24, 1931, she took her initial vows as a nun. From 1931 to 1948 Mother Teresa taught at St. Mary's High School in Calcutta, but the suffering and poverty she glimpsed outside the convent walls made such a deep impression on her that in 1948 she received permission from her superiors to leave the convent school and devote herself to working among the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta. Although she had no funds, she depended on Divine Providence, and started an open-air school for slum children. Soon she was joined by voluntary helpers, and financial support was also forthcoming. This made it possible for her to extend the scope of her work.
The Society of Missionaries has spread all over the world, including the former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries. They provide effective help to the poorest of the poor in a number of countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and they undertake relief work in the wake of natural catastrophes such as floods, epidemics, and famine, and for refugees. The order also has houses in North America, Europe and Australia, where they take care of the shut-ins, alcoholics, homeless, and AIDS sufferers.
Mother Teresa's work has been recognised and acclaimed throughout the world and she has received a number of awards and distinctions, including the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize (1971) and the Nehru Prize for her promotion of international peace and understanding (1972). She also received the Balzan Prize (1979) and the Templeton and Magsaysay awards.
About Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in Transkei, South Africa on July 18, 1918. His father was Chief Henry Mandela of the Tembu Tribe. Mandela himself was educated at University College of Fort Hare and the University of Witwatersrand and qualified in law in 1942. He joined the African National Congress in 1944 and was engaged in resistance against the ruling National Party's apartheid policies after 1948. He went on trial for treason in 1956-1961 and was acquitted in 1961.
During his years in prison, Nelson Mandela's reputation grew steadily. He was widely accepted as the most significant black leader in South Africa and became a potent symbol of resistance as the anti-apartheid movement gathered strength. He consistently refused to compromise his political position to obtain his freedom
Nelson Mandela was released on February 11, 1990. After his release, he plunged himself wholeheartedly into his life's work, striving to attain the goals he and others had set out almost four decades earlier. In 1991, at the first national conference of the ANC held inside South Africa after the organization had been banned in 1960, Mandela was elected President of the ANC while his lifelong friend and colleague, Oliver Tambo, became the organisation's National Chairperson.
National Personalities
About Prithvi Narayan Shah
Prithvi Narayan Shah, King of Nepal (1723–1775; Nepali: पृथ्वीनारायण शाह) was the first king of the unified Nepal. He is credited for starting the campaign for a unified Nepal, which had been divided and weakened under Malla confederacy.He was the ninth generation descendant of Dravya Shah (1559–1570), the founder of the ruling house of Gorkha. Prithvi Narayan Shah succeeded his father King Nara Bhupal Shah to the throne of Gorkha in 1743.
His mother was Kaushalyawati Shah but he was cared for by his first mother, Chandra Pravhawati. He started taking a general interest in the affairs of the state because his father spent most of his time in the prayer room. He had a great dream to win over Nuwakot, partially because his father had lost a war with Nuwakot. His first mother was his perfection against his loyalty towards the unification of modern Nepal. Walking around Gorkha and talking to people about the general concerns of the palace was his passion and this helped him to understand the needs of the citizens of Gorkha.He was a Sisodia Rajput from Chittor but his ancestors settled in Gorkha district which later on became the name of a warrior clan Gurkha who are of mixed Rajput-Mongol race.
King Prithvi Narayan Shah's successful entry began with the union of Nuwakot, which lies between Kathmandu and Gorkha District, in 1744. After Nuwakot, he took possession of strategic points in the hills surrounding the Kathmandu Valley. The valley's communications with the outside world were thus cut off. The occupation of the Kuti Pass in about 1756 stopped the valley's trade with Tibet. To stop the trade between the Newar people living in the Kathmandu Valley and the Muslim Mogul empire in India.
After two humiliating defeats,
King Prithvi Narayan Shah conquered Kirtipur on his third attempt. Finally, King Prithvi Narayan Shah entered the valley, after conquering Kirtipur. Consequently Jaya Prakash Malla of Kathmandu managed to escape with his wife and took asylum in Patan, Lalitpur Patan. When the conquest was extended to Patan a few weeks later both Jaya Prakash Malla and the King of Patan, Tej Narsingh Malla, took refuge in Bhaktapur, which was also conquered after some time. Thus King Prithvi Narayan Shah conquered the Kathmandu Valley and made Kathmandu the capital of the Nepal in 1769.Once the foundation of the Kingdom of Nepal was thus laid, King Prithvi Narayan Shah turned his attention towards the east. The Sen Kingdom of Choudandi was conquered by 1773 and Vijaypur, another Sen Kingdom was annexed shortly after.
About Gautama Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama was a spiritual teacher and the founder of Buddhism. The time of his birth and death are uncertain: most early 20th-century historians date his lifetime from circa 563 BC to 483 BCE.
Siddhartha, destined to a luxurious life as a prince. His father, King Suddhodana. wishing for Siddhartha to be a great king, shielded his son from religious teachings or knowledge of human “suffering. As the boy reached the age of 16, his father arranged his marriage to Yasodhara. In time, shé gave birth to a son, Rahula. Siddhartha spent 29 years as a Prince in Kapilavastu. Although his father ensured that Siddhartha was provided with everything he could want or need, Siddhartha felt that material wealth was not the ultimate goal of life.
At the age of 29, Siddhartha left his palace in order to meet his subjects. Despite his father’s effort to remove the sick, aged and suffering from the public view, Siddhartha was said to have seen an old man. Disturbed by this, when told that all people would eventually grow old by his charioteer Channa, the prince went on further trips where he encountered, variously, a diseased man, a decaying corpse, and an ascetic. Deeply depressed by these sights, he sought to overcome old age, illness, and death by living the life of an ascetic.
Siddhartha escaped his palace, accompanied by Channa aboard his horse Kanthaka, to become a mendicant. He then became a student of Udaka Ramaputta, but although he achieved high levels of meditative consciousness and was asked to succeed Ramaputta, he was still not satisfied with his path-, and moved on.
Siddhartha and a group of five companions then set out to take their austerities even further. They tried to find enlightenment through near total deprivation of worldly goods, including food‘, practicing self-mortification.
After nearly starving himself to death by restricting his food intake to around a leaf or nut per day, he collapsed in a river while bathing and almost drowned. Siddhartha began to reconsider his path. Then, he remembered a moment in childhood in which he had been watching his father start the season’s plowing, and he had fallen into a naturally concentrated and focused state that was blissful and refreshing, the Zen.
