[Posted November 18, 2007]

Get to the Root Cause

Hansadutta das

Food, clothing and shelter automatically taken care of...

Washington Post Nov 18, 2007 - MARK WINNE

Canned Compassion: When Handouts Keep Coming, the Food Line Never Ends

Food banks are a dominant institution in this country, and they assert their power at the local and state levels by commanding the attention of people of good will who want to address hunger. Their ability to attract volunteers and to raise money approaches that of major hospitals and universities. While none of this is inherently wrong, it does distract the public and policymakers from the task of harnessing the political will needed to end hunger in the United States.

The risk is that the multibillion-dollar system of food banking has become such a pervasive force in the anti-hunger world, and so tied to its donors and its volunteers, that it cannot step back and ask if this is the best way to end hunger, food insecurity and their root cause, poverty. go to story

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Lend a helping hand not enough

Misdirected Aid Backfires A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

The mahatmas [great souls] have shown the perfect path of charity: devotional service to the Lord. If anyone ignores this path and instead builds hospitals, his effort to help humanity is a mere pretense. Humanity can never reap any permanent advantage from such activities. Indeed, the number of patients only increases along with the number of hospitals. And as for feeding the poor, this will never eradicate poverty, but encourage it. Frankly speaking, we are not against opening hospitals or feeding the poor, or any other such humanitarian service. But what we have learned from our beloved spiritual master is that when devotional service to the Lord is neglected, every other activity is illusory and futile. more

Christ called the fishermen to become fishers of men

HANSADUTTA: Outside of Krishna consciousness, there is no program that can actually give relief to suffering humanity. People are suffering due to ignorance of their spiritual identity and their relationship with God. As soon as they are enlightened about this, immediately all their sufferings will be mitigated.

GUEST: Shouldn't we have compassion for people? Shouldn't we try to do something for them?

HANSADUTTA: We have to distinguish between mundane and spiritual compassion, or between false compassion and real compassion. We see people giving some money to a drunkard on the street. People are opening hospitals or sending care packages. Welfare activities are being supported to give relief to suffering humanity in different parts of the world. That is material compassion. It offers a temporary solution, at best. A devotee's compassion, however, is to give people the knowledge of Krishna, which includes everything else automatically. A devotee knows that a person is suffering in a particular situation due to his previous offensive attitude toward Krishna. If one is rebellious against Krishna, Krishna puts him in an awkward situation. For permanent relief from sufferings of material existence, we must strike at the root cause of the problem, which is forgetfulness of God.

Charity means to give people knowledge of Krishna. Due to our forgetfulness, or lack of knowledge of God, we are suffering in this godless world. Therefore, ultimate welfare, or ultimate charity, is to give the knowledge of Krishna. Christ called the fishermen and said, "Now you become fishers of men." He was concerned with missionary work, not with feeding and clothing people. He was concerned with enlightening people about their eternal relationship with God.

Other charities, such as giving food, clothing, medicine and shelter, are automatically included. As soon as anyone becomes a devotee of Krishna, immediately he has a place to live, something to wear and something to eat.

Primary charity is the charity of knowledge, or Krishna consciousness. Secondary charity, which pertains to the needs of the temporary material body, is automatically included in primary charity. Therefore we rarely find that Krishna conscious devotees are very much concerned with giving medicine, clothing or food. They are convinced that if someone accepts his own position as a devotee or servant of Krishna, then immediately all other necessities will be supplied automatically by God. In the absence of this, however, people are conducting so much welfare work to mitigate the sufferings of a godless world, without success.

Sri Guru and Gauranga