CATHOLIC DIED A HERO TO NATION OF HINDUS.

Byline: Jim Remsen Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire

Mother Teresa went into the heartland of Hinduism, witnessed for Christianity, gained converts - and was seen by Hindu priest and commoner alike not as a threat but as an exemplar.

The tears and wails of the crowds in Calcutta upon learning of her death on Sept. 5 showed the depth of their adulation, and India's decision to give her a state funeral underscored it.

How could Hindu believers respond so magnanimously to her Catholic mission in their midst? That they did says as much about the nature of Hinduism as it does about the gentle example of Mother Teresa.

For, if she was a witness for Christian agape, or selfless love, Hinduism was bearing witness that it is henotheistic, meaning that while it has its own belief system, it does not deny the truth of others. As a result, Hinduism affirms that gurus and religious masters can arise in many ways and from many backgrounds.

``There is a very wide, ecumenical part of Hinduism. That is its basic philosophy,'' said Ranan B. Banerji, a Brahmin and the unofficial priest for the Philadelphia area's Bengali Hindu community. Banerji cited paramatma, a central concept in the Upanishadic texts. Paramatma, he said, is the vastness of existence, which contains all things and their opposites, meaning the ``phenomenon of creation'' eludes precise comprehension and words.

``The difference between religions is not a matter of great importance,'' he said. ``Because the totality is beyond comprehension, it is only natural that everyone thinks about it differently.''

To illustrate, Banerji recalled the popular story of the blind men and the elephant. These men examined an elephant, and each reported back different things based on the part of the elephant they touched: It is like a pillar, it is like a pipe, it wriggles like a snake. All views were correct but confining, just as Hinduism ``looks at all forms of worship as basically limited and imperfect.''

This broad-minded stance comes much easier to Hindus if the respect seems reciprocated - and Mother Teresa, schooled in Indian ways, understood. Naveen Chawla, her biographer, said he asked her once if she converted people: ``She said, `Of course, I convert. I convert you to be a better Hindu or a better Muslim or a better Protestant. Once you've found God, it's up to you to decide how to worship him.' ''

Had she openly proselytized, Banerji said, she would have encountered the hostility that some aggressive Christian missionaries have experienced. In the early days, in fact, she did. Indian nationalists accused her of converting Hindus on their deathbeds, but that was never proven and the skepticism subsided.

In the end, most Hindus came to admire her as a figure of steadfast compassion embodying the best of her religion, and saw her as prodding them to do better for the lowliest among them. It helped that she was a maternal figure in a land that reveres the maternal.

Mother Teresa was a naturalized Indian citizen, and last month she had issued a message for that country's jubilee saying, ``Let us be a holy nation (and) together make our country something beautiful for God.''

Banerji is a retired professor of mathematics at St. Joseph's University. A colleague there, the Rev. Donald Clifford, S.J., a professor of theology, recalled the experience of Jesuit missionaries in India: ``They found it best to simply give witness, but to respect the faiths of Hindus and Muslims and leave the results in the hands of God. They felt that was the best approach to getting people to respect you.''

That was Mother Teresa's way and Hinduism's way. It may explain why Prime Minister I.K. Gujral compared her to Mohandas Gandhi, one of India's most revered figures, and why he bowed, palms together, before her bier. This was the anjali gesture, meaning ``I bow to the divinity within you.''

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Photo: Indians stand in a queue that wraps around several blocks to view the body of Mother Teresa the week before her funeral in Calcutta.

Knight-Ridder Tribune Photo Service