prasada to poor people

[Guest guest]

> My own understanding of this comment of Srila Prabhupada's is that

> we should not ONLY go to poor areas for distribution of prasadam. Prasada

> distribution should be done everywhere to everyone. The danger Srila

> Prabhupada saw of prasada distribution being done only to the poor is that

> i might then be taken by the givers as well as the recipients as some kind

> of mundane altruism. This would lead to the tendency to restrict our

> understanding of its potency and effect which would be equivalent to the

> offence of thinking of the glories of the holy name to be an exaggeration

> or an imagination.

 

What makes a common sense too. The danger of our "slipping"

away from the right consciousness is potentially lurking

in all our activities.

 

But frankly, every one of us eats not because of our

understanding of the spiritual potency of the food offered

to Krsna, but because we want to satisfy the fire of our

stomach's hunger and to give the nourishment to our bodies.

We eat to live. "Food for life" is one of the most universal

truths in this world, equally applicable to everybody. If we

aren't really in fear about all those lurking dangers such as

considering prasada as "food" when supplying it to our own

mouths/stomachs out of the mentioned reason, then why do we

get worry over someone else giving the same to someone else

out of exactly the same reason?

 

 

> Some

> distribution is better than no distribution. To go the to poor areas is

> better than not going anywhere.

 

A clear common sense. Yes, better to distribute prasada to the

needy and hungry people than to distribute it to nobody.

 

Though I wish there be more of wise men and spiritual leaders

capable of envisioning the existence of such a godly society

where there would be place in for some god-conscious persons

willing to endeavor for the sake of helping others in distress.

Altruism is not wrong. That what makes it "mundane" is the type

of consciousness, wether it is performed out of some mundane

motivation for some kind of a personal mundane gain or out

the selfless sense of compassion. But so is with everything

else we do, be it prasada distribution or candles distribution

or book distribution or deity worship or accepting sannyas and

disciples...

 

 

 

- mnd