The Best Welfare Work
December 7, 2011 by Madhudvisa dasa
Filed under Chanting, Philosophy
“One who is beyond duality and doubt, whose mind is engaged within, who is always busy working for the welfare of all sentient beings, and who is free from all sins, achieves liberation in the Supreme.” (Bhagavad Gita 5.25)
All over the world we see that religious organizations are busy with so many different programs of welfare work for the benefit of the poor, the sick, the young and the disadvantaged. In India this is also very prominent. There they have a very bogus and unauthorized concept of “daridya Narayana seva.” It means “service to the poor Narayana.” It is such a nonsense concept. They think that Narayan has become poor and if they serve the poor then they will be serving Narayana. So on the basis of this daridya narayana seva all the religious organizations in India are very much interested in serving the poor.
“In Kali-yuga there is a scarcity of food almost every year, and thus philanthropists spend lavishly to feed the poor. For this they invent the term daridra-narayana-seva. This is prohibited. One should distribute sumptuous prasada, considering everyone a part of the Supreme Lord, but one should not juggle words to make a poor man Narayana. Everyone is related to the Supreme Lord, but one should not mistakenly think that because one is related to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he has become the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Narayana. Such a Mayavada philosophy is extremely dangerous, especially for a devotee. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu has therefore strictly forbidden us to associate with Mayavadi philosophers. Mayavadi-bhasya sunile haya sarva-nasa: if one associates with the Mayavada philosophy, his devotional life is doomed.” (Srila Prabhupada from Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.15.6)
There are so many attempts all over the world by religious and philanthropic organizations to feed the poor but still there are so many poor people who are hungry. So what does this mean? For so many years so many organizations are spending billions to feed the hungry but there are still so many hungry people. The reality is that we experience things in this world according to our karma. Karma means work and every time we perform any type of work there will a reaction to that work and in the future we have to enjoy or suffer that reaction. If it is good work we will enjoy the results of it in the future and if it is bad work then that will cause us to suffer in the future.
So the hungry people are actually suffering from the hunger as a karmic result for sinful activities they have performed in the past. It is caused by their own sinful activities, and it is the arrangement of Krishna, the arrangement of the material nature — we all have to suffer and enjoy the reactions to our activities in the past. There is nothing we can do about this and it is not possible for the religious and philanthropic organizations to improve the situation either.
“Fifty years ago, when I first came to Bombay, at that time I was grhastha. I saw there were persons lying down care of footpath, and fifty years after, we are seeing the same thing is going on. No change. There is a class of men who must lie down care of footpath. There are so many institutions, daridra-narayana-seva. But why there are daridras still? That means you cannot change. It is not possible. It is not possible. Just like a man who has done something criminal and he is in prison. Can you take him out? It will be another criminal action. If you try to take him away from the prison house by some means, then you’ll be punished and he’ll be punished, both. This is the law state. Similarly, how you can surpass the stringent laws of nature and the laws of God? That is not possible.” (Bhagavad Gita 13.21 Prabhupada lecture)
So this is the fact, this material world is a place of suffering and we will suffer here. And we can not stop the suffering of others no matter what we try to do, at least not on the mundane platform by trying to feed the poor people, etc.
Therefore this mundane welfare work is useless. It does not work, the hungry and poor people remain and the people who are trying to feed and give them money are also sinful in the same way as a man who tries to free the prisoners because they are suffering becomes a criminal himself and he will not be successful. Rather, even if he is able to free a few prisoners, the police will find him and they will also find those escaped prisoners and they will all be put back in the prison with much longer sentences this time…
Only a person who is fully Krishna conscious can be said to be engaged in welfare work which is truly beneficial for all living entities. When a person knows that Krishna is the fountainhead of everything and when he acts in that spirit he acts for everyone.
The sufferings of humanity are due to forgetfulness of Krishna as the supreme enjoyer, the supreme proprietor, and the supreme friend. Therefore, to act to revive this Krishna consciousness within the entire human society is the highest welfare work. One cannot be engaged in first-class welfare work without being liberated in the Supreme. So the real beneficial welfare work is to awaken everyone’s dormant Krishna consciousness and this is the purpose of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s Sankirtan movement.
In this Kali-yuga the people are very unfortunate, fallen and greatly sinful. So in this fallen age Krishna is so merciful that He, in the form of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, is giving the highest spiritual advancement to anyone at all who simply agrees to chant:
Hare Rare Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
So in one sense this age of Kali is a very difficult time for spiritual life but actually, because of the mercy of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu it is now a very good time for spiritual life, because Krishna has made everything very easy for us. All we need to do is chant Hare Krishna. It is so very simple:
kaler dosa-nidhe rajann asti hy eko mahan gunah
kirtanad eva krsnasya mukta-sangah param vrajet
“This age of Kali is an ocean of faults, but there is one great benefit. Simply by Krishna kirtan, chanting the Hare Krishna mantra, one can become purified of all material contamination and return back home, back to Godhead.”
So the greatest welfare work is to spread this Krishna kirtan all over the world on the other hand a person engaged only in trying to improve the physical welfare of human society cannot factually help anyone. Temporary relief of the external body and the mind does not solve one’s actual problems. The real cause of one’s difficulties in the hard struggle for life is one’s forgetfulness of his relationship with the Supreme Lord. So the true welfare work which is beneficial for all the living entities of this universe is to popularize the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra all over the world.
Gaura Nityananda bol …
Yes, people do not understand the all-pervasive hand of God in universal affaires.
The primal devas are Lord Brahma who is the engineer of the material realm, Lord Shiva who is the destroyer at the time of cyclic devastation of the material creation, and Lord Vishnu, Who is present within the material nature as the all-pervasive Supersoul, the Paramatma. And shastra explains that all of material nature moves under the hand of the cosmic puppeteer, the all-pervasive aspect of lord Vishnu.
Therefore, even the Christian Bible tells us that not a blade of grass moves without the sanction of the Supreme Lord. Similarly, the Bible addresses the law of karma as the process of “sewing and reaping”.
Srila Prabhupada was fond of reminding us that religion without philosophy is simply sentiment. People are so often inclined to make reference to religious context, without really understanding the down to earth nuts and bolts workings of the laws of material nature.
Before coming to Krishna Consciousness I took my birth in the Semitic gene pool. In other words, I was culturally considered as a Jew. The Jewish race is not a very elevated culture, as they openly emgage in the slaughter of cows, under the direction of their so-called priestly class, called rabbis. It is told that when Nazi Germany, under Hitler’s direction, engaged in the wholesale genocidal killing of Jews, that many Jews lost all faith in God.
But if we look at the first part of the Bible, which is referred to as the Old Testament, we see a recorded history of one haulocost after another. The Bible tells us that when the Jews kept God’s Laws, and honored Him, there was always peace, harmony, productivity and protection for the Jewish people. But whenever Jewish spiritual culture deteriorated, then, as a nation, they were open to all kinds of devastation.
Still, there is great reluctance among Jewish people to take responsability for the last haulocost that descended upon them. There are museums to commemorate the atrocities that the outraged Jews were subjected to. They do not see the laws of karma and the hand of God in any of this.
Of course, the cruel hand of genocide is not directed only at Jews, but appears all over the globe as time goes on. Genocide, wars for profit, imperialistic exploitation, slavery, plagues, flood and famine, earth quakes, volcanoes, and tidal waves, all forms of karmic dispensation, to name a few……. this is the history of planet earth in the last so many thousand years.
The rascal scientists tell us that the workings of material nature are a matter of chance, and that there is no purposeful, intelligent control of the laws of nature. But this is not a fact.
Therefore the manus have provided the Manu Samhitas, the law books with reference to the four varnas and four ashramas, which give us the understanding of every man’s individual dharmic duties, with a view to gradual progress towards material and spiritual advancement.
But this is Kali Yuga. The varnashram system of progressive society has already so much deteriorated. Even in Bhagavad-gita, spoken by Lord Krishna 5000 years ago, Krishna advised Arjuna:
SARVA DHARMAN PARITYAGYA
MAMEKAM SHARANAM BRAJA
AHAM TWAM SARVA PAPEBHYO
MAKSHAISHYAMI MA SHUCHAH
Translation: “My dear Arjuna, give up all considerations of dharma. Just give yourself to Me whole-heartedly, and I will protect you from all sinful reactions. Have no fear. Just do this.”
So the question arises as to how we give ourselves to Krishna whole-heartedly. And therefore Lord Chaitanya Mahprabhu has come to deliver to us the Yuga dharma, as substantiated in the Naradiya Brihan Purana, as well as in many other places in the Vedic literatures:
HARER NAMA HARER NAMA HARER NAMA EVA KEVALAM
KALAU NASTEVA NASTEVA NASTEVA GATIR ANYATHA
Translation: “Chanting the holy name of Hari, chanting the holy name of Hari, chanting the holy name of Hari. In this age of Kali Yuga, there is no other way, no other way, no other way, to reach the goal of spiritual realization.”
This Krishna Nama Sankirtan, as is ushered in all over the world today, by the Hare Krishna Movement, is therefore the highest welfare work. This form of surrender to Krishna establishes love for Krishna in our hearts, thereby freeing us from all karmic reactions. Having developed love for Krishna, all material hankering and lamentation will no longer afflict us, as our hearts begin to overflow with joyful love for God. And when we leave this material body behind, we will no more be fored to return to this miserable world of birth and death.
Therefore let us take up this congregational chanting of Hare Krishna, and return back home to the spiritual world to sing and dance with Krishna.
For putting an authoritative understanding of these statements before us, His divine Grace, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, has given us Bhagavad-gita As It Is, with translation and commentary, coming in the parampara line of disciplic succession of the Brahma-gaudiya sampradaya. Let this one book decorate our personal altars, and let its words decorate our hearts. This highest welfare is freely available to us. Those who are most intelligent will take it.
Hare Krishna, Ishan das
Hare Krsna Prabhu
Thank you reminding us on the best welfare work. By this I just remembered Srila Prabhupada’s Bg purport, “trying to save the dress of a drowning man”
You are right Prabhu, this is the exact perfect example. And that is what all these mundane philanthropic works are, simply trying to save the dress of the drowning man without any concern for the actual man himself. That you very much…
Hare krishna!
does this article suggest that a philanthropist is a sinner?
If so, can you please elaborate on what ways should a bussinessman spend his profits for getting virtues?
Hare Krishna Vijaya
A philanthropist is not exactly a sinner. He is attached to the mode of goodness and generally he knows and understands karma [what you so so shall you reap] so he knows if he helps other people, if he does good for other people, then he will get good karma. In this life and in the future he will reap the benefits in the form of money and sense gratification.
So people are generally attached to these pious works because they know for example that whatever money they give in charity will be returned to them in the future with interest. So generally people are doing this philanthropic work with ultimately a personal selfish motive. They want to perform pious activities to get get good karma so their future life will be auspicious.
And one does get good karma and does create a relatively comfortable future for himself in the material world if he performs this type of welfare work.
But this is not spiritual activity. It is material. Because when you help people in this way you create a debt. The people you help become indebted to you are by the law of karma are forced to pay you back for that debt. So they have to take birth in the material world again and so do you. Because you have to come back to receive the benefits that are owing to you.
So a devotee is absolutely not interested in creating any kind of karma. Good or bad. Because good karma is also bad in the sense that it also forces us to take birth again in the material world, of course we may be able to live in relative comfort for maybe 60 or 80 years but then we have to get old, sick and die again and take birth again. The whole thing is suffering and it will never end unless we can break this cycle of creating karma, good or bad, that we will be forced to keep on taking births in the material world to enjoy or suffer forever. There is no real enjoyment in the material world. It is all suffering ultimately.
A businessman should spend his profits in serving and glorifying the Supreme Lord Krishna. He should serve Krishna with the fruits of his business. That is exactly what Krishna instructs us to do in the Bhagavad Gita. Krishna tells us to work and perform our duties without any attraction or attachment for the fruits of our work. So that means we should keep working, keep doing our duty, but not be attached to the results, or the profit that may result from our work. And that profit should be used in the service of the Lord. It should be used for pushing on the Sankirtan movement of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
A businessman can finance big sankirtan festivals where the chanting of the holy name of Krishna is going on and distribution of Krishna prasadam is going on in a grand scale and of course this is accompanied with the distribution of Srila Prabhupada’s books. A businessman can also help with the printing of Srila Prabhupada’s original books. At the moment many of Prabhupada’s original books are out of print. We need to reprint Prabhupada’s original Caitanya-caritamrta for example and that is 17 big volumes. It is going to cost $200,000 at least to print this. And where will we find the money for this unless some businessman wants to invest in the printing of Prabhupada’s books and that will give him the most virtues for sure.
There is no recommendation anywhere in the Bhagavad Gita that one should use his money to feed the poor. That is not the process. The process is to serve Krishna and because everyone is part and parcel of Krishna if you can please Krishna then naturally all the parts and parcels of Krishna, all the living entities will be happy. It is like watering a tree. If you want to nourish the whole tree then you have to supply the water to the root of the tree and then automatically the energy will be transfered to all the leaves, twigs, branches, fruits and flowers on the tree. You can not try and water all the leaves independently. That is not possible and it will not work. The water has to be supplied at the root of the tree. So Krishna is the root of all existence so if as a businessman you use the profits of your business to worship and serve Krishna, and to help push on the sankirtan movement that is like watering the root of the tree and automatically because you are pleasing Krishna everything will be auspicious for you and the preaching that is facilitated by your money will make all the living entities happy in Krishna consciousness.
This is the process, not mundane feeding the poor and service to the poor. It is service to Krishna that we need to engage not service to the poor. Of course the poor will become happy because of the sankirtan festivals and the mass prasadam distribution programs. But we are not trying to serve the poor actually we are trying to serve Krishna, trying to please Krishna, and as a result of this everyone will become happy.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Mad
HARE KRISHNA to you and all. thank you, Madhudvisa, for explaning the simplicities of Krishnas de sire as to how He wants us to give to Him. Krishna seems a lot like Jesus maybe except for ones interpretation of how to give. HARE KRISHNA is kind of hard to say to, i might say, a lot of people. Please, consider me in your prayers.
Whilst popularising the chanting of Maha Mantra, can’t you also feed the poor.
We don’t have any particular interest in feeding the poor. Our interest is to distribute Krishna consciousness to everyone. From the angle of vision of devotees everyone is poor spiritually and our mission is to uplift the human society spiritually so the distribution of Krishna consciousness has nothing to do with if the person is rich or poor. Krishna consciousness should be distributed to everyone without any consideration as to whether he is rich or poor.
One very powerful way of distributing Krishna consciousness is to distribute Krishna prasadam but that is needed by everyone, rich and poor alike. So there is no point only targeting the poor for prasadam distribution. It is needed by the rich just as much.
Hare Krishna Prabhu ji
Very nice lecture, got some answers also
Dandvat
Hare Krishna
Hare Krishna Dear Sir,
Very rightly stated by you.I am again rejuvenated again by your mail.
Keep sending me such wonderful thought-provoking mails which will keep me firm in Krishna consciousness.
Your Servant
Yogesh Dewang
I think it is more compassionate not to say that people who are hungry and poor are so because of their karma or sins in the past. It is much better to express it is our karma to help the poor and hungry. Karma is a complex thing. It is not black and white. I know many people who have suffered and yet up to that point (and afterwards) were the kindest and dearest people you could meet. I sometimes think perhaps they bring there suffering so that we can burn off our karma by helping. By making a difference.
People are hungry because of their karma and sins in the past. It would be ignorant and foolish not to accept this. It is not complex. We are suffering now because of our sinful activities in the past and we are enjoying now because of our pious activities in the past. There is nothing complex or difficult to understand about this. Just because someone is a kind and dear person now does not mean they have not done anything sinful in the past that they have to suffer the bad karma for. So many ‘kind and dear’ people are eating meat and gambling and taking intoxication and having illicit sex. The karmic reactions for these things that we just take as an ordinary part of life and horrible suffering.
So you must know it that we only get what we deserve. If we are suffering we deserve it. And that suffering or enjoyment can not be changed by you or by any other person in any mundane way like trying to feed the poor. You can not help the poor actually by simply feeding them with mundane food. That will not change their karma and they will still get the suffering that is due to them in some way or another. But if you can give them Krishna consciousness then that has the power to change their karma. So the real welfare work is to give people Krishna consciousness…
Further. in the previous letter it was expressed how a devotee wanted to spit at the thought of sex since he was so transcended on that level. I feel if one has transcended sex, they do not feel repulsed. They feel indifferent towards sex and not at all interested in sex, they have transcended it. To feel repulsed is the same as feeling attraction as it is still about the body.
Hare Krishna Robyn
That is not correct. For a materialist he longs for sex and dreams about it, thinking that it would be so wonderful. But if the thoughts of sex come into the mind of a devotee he is disgusted by it because he is experiencing pleasure so much superior to the so-called pleasure of sex. He is not indifferent to sex, he is disgusted by it. It is like if you had become accustomed to eating meat and drinking alcohol and then someone introduced you to delicious spiritual Krishna prasadam and you were relishing that higher taste and you become a devotee, the idea of eating meat and drinking wine becomes horrible to you, disgusting, you are repulsed by it. You are not at all indifferent.
These things, illicit sex, intoxication, meat eating and gambling are actually horrible, sinful things and a devotee is not at all indifferent to them. If these things come into his mind he is disgusted by them, not attracted to them.
Of course sex has its purpose in marriage to have nice children and Krishna says in the Bhagavad gita that He is that sex according to the regulative principles. But apart from this one who has “transcended sex” sees the real disgusting nature of illicit sex and is repulsed by it.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy.
Madhudvisa dasa
I am a surgeon and i refrained from working in a private hospital as i thought that by working in a govt. hospital i would be serving the poor. So i want to know how should we be making day to day decision in life? Will serving the poor not yield good karma?????
Hare Krishna Abhinav
This idea of ‘serving the poor is serving god’ is not correct. We have to serve Krishna, not the poor. There is no benefit in serving the poor. The best service we can give the poor is for us to become pure devotees of Krishna and give them [and everyone else, not specifically the poor] Krishna consciousness. Our business is serving Krishna, not serving the poor.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
dear prabhu
i m agree with u, pls can you comment on akshay patra running by iskcon its doing good work, i m talking about mid day meals for poor children,
ur servent
sanjay kumar
Hare Krishna Sanjay
There is no spiritual benefit actually in giving free meals to poor people. This is mundane welfare work and we have no business as devotees of Krishna engaging in mundane welfare work. We are interested in distributing Krishna prasadam. So if we can arrange to have actual devotees cook very nice foodstuffs and offer them to Krishna with real love and devotion and after Krishna accepts that offering then we, as devotees, are very anxious to distribute that Krishna prasadam to all living entities. Not specifically poor people. And we want to distribute the prasadam in conjunction with the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra and the distribution of Srila Prabhupada’s books. In this way we want to prepare and distribute Krishna prasadam in huge quantities to everyone. But not specifically poor people. Krishna prasadam is to awaken the dormant Krishna consciousness in the hearts of every living entity. Everyone nowadays is poor spiritually. So everyone needs to be able to respect Krishna prasadam, hear the Hare Krishna maha mantra chanted from the lips of pure devotees, and read Prabhupada’s books. So devotees are interested in this type of prasadam distribution program.
As devotees we have no interest in doing “good work”. We do not accept that this “good work” like feeding hungry people has any real value in itself. The point is not feeding the people. There is no real value in feeding people in the ultimate issue. We are interested in distributing Krishna prasadam, getting them to accept the mercy of the Lord.
As far as I am aware Aksaya Patra is a strictly non-religious organization who have to guarantee to the government that what they are distributing is not prasadam. They are clearly presenting themselves as a mundane charitable institution, and the food is not cooked by devotees, the whole thing is done by paid staff, and there is strictly no kirtan or preaching or book distribution associated with this program.
As devotees of Krishna and followers of Srila Prabhupada we see no value in just feeding hungry people. We want to feed the spirit souls of the hungry people. We do want to feed everyone with Krishna prasadam but we do not see that a hungry person is any more a candidate for Krishna’s mercy in the form of prasadam than a rich person. As I tried to explain in the article everyone is in a particular position in the material world according to their karma. This is the arrangement of the modes of material nature which are working under the direction of Krishna. So if we think we can change this and stop the suffering of the people then we are trying to go against the arrangement of Krishna. It will not be successful. As I said so many of these organizations have been feeding hungry people for so long but the hungry people still remain.
We want to feed all people with Krishna prasadam. We do not differentiate if he is hungry or not hungry. And we have no interest in programs specifically targeted to simply feed hungry people or to build schools to give them mundane education or to build hospitals to satisfy the needs of their material bodies. We want to have kirtan, distribute Srila Prabhupada’s books and feed everyone sumptuously with Krishna prasadam, we don’t want to be involved in mundane programs distributing ordinary mundane food to poor people for the pious benefits that come from feeding hungry people.
It is maybe difficult to understand but we are only interested in distributing Krishna prasadam and we are not distributing Krishna prasadam to fill hungry bellies. We are doing that to awaken the person’s dormant Krishna consciousness and this is best done when accompanied by kirtan and the distribution of Srila Prabhupada’s books and it is for everyone, not just hungry people…
Another big problem for devotees being involved in these government funded programs is the government pays huge amounts of money but for that money the devotees have to follow very strict conditions that means the the devotees simply become servants of the government and are working for them, forwarding the government’s agenda. Which is economic development, not Krishna consciousness…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
hare krishna prabhu,
thanku very much for ur reply, it will help me a lot . in progress of lord krishna consciousness,,
hare krishna hare krishna krishna krishna hare hare
hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare
HARE KRISHNA Madhudvisa dasa, I want to thank you for all the ancient vedic wisdom you are being sharing with me i love it all may KRISNA continue to give you strength to continue HIS work once again thank you. LIGHT AND LOVE FROM MY HEART OF ALL HEARTS. ABIODUN.
Hare krishna Madhudvisa Dasa,
Its for the first time in my life that I got clarity in my thoughts. Am totally satisfied with your comments. I now believe that “serving god is serving mankind”. Thank you very much for all your articles, I must confess that by the chanting of Hare krishna maha-mantra I have got a lot of purity and bliss.
dear prabhu ji,hare krishna
read your meaningful writeup,only a bhakt can understand the carmic law but to make others understand i think you should elaborate the point more.you are doing a marvellous service to sri krishna,keep,it up.
with best regards
pradeep vaish
Anybody can understand karma. It is quite simple. You do something sinful, something bad, then something bad will happen to you in the future and if you do something pious, good, then something good will happen to you in the future. That’s all. Very simple. You don’t have to be a devotee to understand that. But the only way you can get yourself out of the clutches of the three modes of material nature, the only way you can free yourself from these karmic reactions is by becoming a devotee and chanting Hare Krishna….
Hk
I concur with Prabhuji,we should only distribute MahaPrasadji and not mundane food,even if it’s vegetarian.Only because what benefit can such food give to materialists?I have been sending parts of the Bhagavatam to all my Atheist friends in the hopes that they will wake up from the dream of samsara and come to KC
Hare Krishna,
As the article suggests, to every action that we’ve performed in the past, we have to face a reaction in future.
According to Science, if we perform an action on an object, we see reaction with respect to that object only. For ex. If we suppress a spring downwards, It’ll push itself upwards in reaction when released.
Similarly, If people are hungry, as per the article, it’s the reaction of something they did in past. I would like to know what kind of action would precisely describe this kind of reaction ?
Thanks.
Hare Krishna,
i am a little confused, about the extent of social work one should be involved in , as every other sect of society we would like to modify,is in that condition because of Lord’s wish.. could i get help?
Hare Krishna Ria
As devotees of Krishna we have no interest at all in the mundane social work. All this social work and philanthropic work is based on the misconception that we can improve other people’s situation in life by our efforts. But actually here in the material world we are all suffering and enjoying the results of our past activities in this life and in previous lives. This is called karma, so the amount of suffering I am going to endure is already fixed up and the amount of pleasure I am going to ‘enjoy’ is also fixed up. Nothing on the mundane platform can change this.
The devotee is interested in distributing Krishna consciousness to the people, that’s all. So that means distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books, chanting the Hare Krishna mantra so they can hear the holy names of Krishna and distributing Krishna prasadam, the remnants of the food offered to Krishna. This is the real social work…
Hare Krishna,
To ignore someone’s suffering will not benefit anyone. Why not give the starving people food AND the Hare Krishna mantra? We are told we must take care of our bodies, not by starving them or overfeeding them, so if we give these people some food perhaps they will be in a healthier and happier condition and therefore be more inspired to work for Krishna. Simply giving them Krishna or ignoring them will continue the suffering, and they won’t be able to improve their karma or get rid of it entirely, because they are so focused on their basic needs. So, fill their basic needs, and they will be less worried about starving and dying, and have more time to pursue their Dharma. We shouldn’t be feeding them because we want the benefits, no, we should be feeding them selflessly because it will help inspire them to pursue a Krishna consciousness lifestyle.
To hold back and not help them is like seeing people burning in a house and saying “it doesn’t matter if I help them, they were going to die one day eventually.” If you help them they will be more appreciative of life, grateful, and inspired. That is what we should want.
Hare Krishna Rachel
You are putting yourself in the position of God. You are thinking that the people are suffering and you can save them, you can stop the suffering. This is your basic misconception. Everyone is put in a position of suffering or enjoyment according to their past activities, their karma. If they are meant to suffer they will suffer and you can not stop this suffering. You do not have the power to do that. That is why after so many hundreds of years of philanthropists feeding hungry people there are still so many hungry people. If people are meant to be hungry because of there kama they will be hungry and there is nothing you can do about it.
Giving them Krishna consciousness of course means giving them Krishna prasadam, spiritual food. So devotees of Krishna of course do feed hungry people, but the distribution of prasadam by the devotees is a completely different thing to the distribution of food by some mundane philanthropist. Because Krishna and Krishna prasadam are non-different when one accepts Krishna prasadam he is directly associating with Krishna and this association with Krishna through the prasadam is purifying and actually has the power to change his karma.
So when the devotees distribute Krishna prasadam to the people it is not with the misconception that by feeding people they can stop them from being hungry. No. Devotees distribute Krishna prasadam to help the people awaken the Krishna consciousness which is dormant within everyone’s heart. And if the Krishna consciousness is awakened then the other problems like hunger and any other type of suffering that is actually caused by the person’s bad karma can be solved, because Krishna consciousness has the power to change a person’s karma.
If you just give someone food that does nothing to change their karma. So they are still going to enjoy the same amount as they are destined to enjoy and they are still going to suffer the same amount as they are destined to suffer. There is no mundane way to change this. So you are not achieving anything by this distribution of mundane food. If you are feeding people like this then the people you are feeding are meant to get fed according to their karma and you are meant to feed them according to your karma. And by this mundane food distribution program you are becoming entangled in more an more karma because everyone you feed has a debt to you that they have to pay back to you. So you will be forced to take birth in the material world again and again to receive the payment of these debts that are owing to you. So in this sense good karma is also bad. By feeding the people like this in a mundane way then you are performing pious activities and you are generating good karma. But that means you have to take birth in the material world again and again to ‘enjoy’ the ‘good karma’ but it is not good to have to take birth again, to get old again, to get sick and die over and over and over again.
The devotee’s only interest is to give people Krishna. Because he knows well that that is the only thing that can help the people, that is the only thing that can actually solve the problems that the people are facing. So he distributes Krishna prasadam, not actually to feed hungry people, but to give all the people the opportunity to associate with Krishna in the form of prasadam and to give them the chance to awaken their dormant Krishna consciousness.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna Madhudvisa dasa!
When I first came upon this I have to admit I was deeply troubled and saw not doing welfare work such as giving to the poor as a selfish act.
But the more I read and re-read the more I came to the realisation that it’s the exact opposite, by it being a responsible and ultimately caring act,because the giving of a worldly aid is just like papering over a crack, everything looks great on the surface but underneath the problem is still there and will continue to be there.
As Srila Prabhupada says in the Purport to Bg 11.55:
“A devotee situated in Kṛṣṇa consciousness knows that only devotional service to Kṛṣṇa can relieve a person from all the problems of life. He has personal experience of this, and therefore he wants to introduce this system, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, into human society.”
And as Srila Prabhupada says in the purport to Bg 5.14:
“The living entity, as will be explained in the Seventh Chapter, is one in nature with the Supreme Lord, distinguished from matter, which is another nature-called inferior-of the Lord. Somehow, the superior nature, the living entity, has been in contact with material nature since time immemorial. The temporary body or material dwelling place which he obtains is the cause of varieties of activities and their resultant reactions. Living in such a conditional atmosphere, one suffers the results of the activities of the body by identifying himself (in ignorance) with the body. It is ignorance acquired from time immemorial that is the cause of bodily suffering and distress. As soon as the living entity becomes aloof from the activities of the body, he becomes free from the reactions as well. As long as he is in the city of body, he appears to be the master of it, but actually he is neither its proprietor nor controller of its actions and reactions. He is simply in the midst of the material ocean, struggling for existence. The waves of the ocean are tossing him, and he has no control over them. His best solution is to get out of the water by transcendental Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That alone will save him from all turmoil.”
I hope this question isn’t getting off-topic,but what is the view on giving blood at a blood bank or donating a organ such as a kidney to a family member or close friend?
Thank you for the continuing newsletters.
Hare Krishna Andrew
Thank you very much for sharing your realizations. Yes. The real humanitarian work is to distribute Krishna consciousness to the people. That is what we should do.
As far as giving blood your energy is stored up in your blood so if you give blood you are giving your energy and actually we want to give our energy to serve Krishna and Krishna’s pure devotee. So it is much, much better to use your blood by preaching with great energy and enthusiasm the pure message of Krishna consciousness rather than wasting it in the blood bank.
As devotees we have no interest in family and friends except if they can become interested in Krishna consciousness and we can talk about Krishna with them. That is our only desire. To associate with devotees and to talk about Krishna. So if the family and friends can not be made interested in this then we are not interested in them.
As far as the idea that you can ‘save’ someone else by cutting up your body and giving them a part of it that is a bogus idea. We are all suffering and enjoying in the material world according to our karma. So if your friend or relative is suffering because some organ has failed or is weak in his body then that is a result of his karma and you can not change this. You are not the supreme lord and you can not adjust the workings of the material energy. The material energy will go on and work in her own way dishing out the required suffering and enjoyment to every living entity depending on what that living entity deserves and desires. You can not change this by donating an organ to your friend or family member. Of course it may appear that your organ helps them, or the transplant may also be a total failure and kill them of course, but even if it appears to be successful then you will suffer obviously because that organ is necessary for the healthy operation of your body and they will still suffer whatever they were destined to suffer. It will just come in a different way.
The example to explain this is that if you are carrying a very heavy weight with one of your hands then that may become quite distressful and painful after some time and you may be able to get a little temporary relief by moving the weight from one hand to the other hand. So you then feel relief. But you have not changed anything actually. You have just moved the burden from one place to another. So the same thing with your friend or family member. It may appear that they get some benefit from your organ transplant but actually nothing has changed. Their karma is still the same and they still have to suffer and enjoy the same reactions. It may be that because of your organ that those reactions will come in a little different way. But they will still get the same amount of suffering and the same amount of enjoyment they are destined to get.
So my advice is don’t chop up your body to ‘help’ friends and family members, rather surrender to Srila Prabhupada and Krishna and use your body and all of your energy in the service of Krishna…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna Madhudvisa dasa!
Thank you for your explanation.
I thought I’d ask the question as this topic seemed to me that the donating of blood and organs can also relate to the idea of donating too and feeding the poor,where you think you are doing the right and good thing by donating in whatever form but in reality you are in fact prolonging that persons pain and suffering by not helping them in working through their Karma but just delaying it.
It’s an interesting topic and I thank you again for explaining it to me.
Why even doing a lot of hard work and chanting hare Krishna i am not getting success in studies does God doesnot help in studies
Hare Krishna Amit
We do not chant Hare Krishna to get Krishna to help us in any way at all. Chanting Hare Krishna is a prayer to Krishna, “Please Krishna engage me in Your service.” So a devotee just wants to be engaged in the service of Krishna, that’s all. He does not expect anything, any benefit at all from Krishna. Just being engaged in Krishna’s service is the only benefit the devotee wants.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna prabhu…
In india there was a man.. Vivekanand..he also told about the same poor narayan philospy… Now in india a big union is following him and its name is RSS.. So…. Is it right.. Wht is ur view
Hare Krishna,
Thank you for clearing up this topic about weather to give the money to the poor? For the longest time I would be debating in my mind about this and I just want to thank Krishna for shedding some light on this matter. I know now that we just need to introduce people to Krishan Conciousness. The most important thing one can do to help the fallen souls.