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Albert Schweitzer

A Life Saver Hero

O“Man must cease attributing his problems to his environment, and learn again to exercise his will—his personal responsibility.”

- A Naga Ratna

Albert Schweitzer was born on January 14, 1875 in Kaysersberg, a town near Strasbourg in Alsace Lorraine, Germany (now part of France). Immediately after his birth, Albert’s family moved to Gunsbach, which is about 10 km to the south of Kaysersberg. He was son of a Lutheran pastor. Albert’s father and his maternal grandfather were in ministerial positions. His grandfather was a highly talented organist and most of his relatives were scholars. Many of their family members were culturally accomplished and devoted their life to music, religion and education/scholarship for generations together.

Albert completed his primary education at the village school. On the academic front, Albert was a mediocre student until his secondary schooling at Mulhouse (where in one term he rose from the bottom of the class to near the top). Although initially he was a mediocre student he gradually excelled in music. He was nine years old when he first performed in his father’s church. In the meantime, he continued with a well-defined career and went on to graduate in medicine. Initiated at an early age into piano and organ lessons, he later became recognized internationally as a stupendous concert organist and gained authority on the music (and worked on Johann Sebastian Bach).

Albert was a German Alsatian theologian, musician/organist, an authority on Bach, physician, philosopher and a great humanitarian (missionary). He served people as a doctor in equatorial Africa. He was a very strong-minded, short-tempered and a workaholic autocrat, who simply used to have a short sleep for four hours in the nights. He was not a soft-headed do-gooder and people hesitated to pass across. Sometimes, he was accused of being paternalistic or colonialist in his attitude towards Africans. He was called the greatest Christian of his time and had a deep commitment to serving humanity through his thought and action (deeds). He strongly believed that his work as a medical missionary in Africa was in response to Jesus’ call to become “fishers of men”. At the age of 21, Albert decided tocomplete his studies in science, music and theology (for nine years) and thought of serving the people for the rest of the life.

© "The Rig Veda - An Anthology" translated by Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty, published by Penguin Books India (P) Limited, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi 110 017. Reprinted with permission.

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