It is said that married life is not just a walk in the park. One needs some training and advise from superiors is very helpful in making married life a better experience. Here is a short story which can help us in our journey of living life with a devotee match.
Srila Prabhupada’s guru was Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Prabhupada. Once he was journeying through Orissa with his many disciples and was actively spreading Krishna consciousness in every town and village.
It is customary to see many people asking for alms outside religious places in India. As they were coming out of the Saksi Gopal temple, some people asked for alms from the entourage that accompanied Srila Prabhupada and he noticed that none of them gave anything in charity.
Srila Prabhupada stopped and sat down and spoke in detail about the duties of married men. He explained that if married men think: ‘I must not give any of my money, which I consider reserved for Krishna, to the poor and deprived”, then they are really showing symptoms of wretchedness, cruelty and lack of compassion for others.
He emphasised that they should not consider that giving charity to the poor is a fruitive karmic activity.
This kind of mentality shall make our hearts hard and we will suffer from greed, and finally we may not want to spend our money even for the devotional service to the Supreme Lord, which is the ultimate goal of life.
This could invite obstacles and offences to our service. To save ourselves from this kind of deceitful and sinful behaviour, Sri Gaurasundara used to give money and things to the poor people during His pastimes as a married man.
All the money we have, we have received only by the Lord’s grace, and if we give some of it to the mendicant poor people, then it is not a waste of money, rather it is its correct use.
Serving prasadam to others is the necessary duty of every married Vaishnava.
Even if these people have turned poor by bad karma or their destiny, even so, they are still a part of the Lord’s family. Therefore it is definitively the solemn duty of every honest married man to help them.
This conversation of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur with Major Rana N J. Bahadur at Armadale, Darjeeling on 19 June, 1935, was reproduced from The Harmonist (Vol. XXXI, No 21.) published on 27 June, 1935. We humbly offer our obeisances at his lotus feet.
hare krishna ,
koi garib ya fir sadharan jivan ki vegiteriyan bangali 30-40 sal ki ho to sampark kijiye .