Food for Charity

Once upon a time during Krishna’s childhood days, Krishna and Balarama went to a nearby forest place. They sat under a tree and rested for sometime. There were some kids already there who were playing around for a long time. The kids started to feel hungry and went to Krishna and told that they are starving badly for food now. Even Krishna and His brother were hungry and wanted some food. There were a few brahmanas performing yagnas. Krishna told the kids “Go unto them. Tell them that I have sent you. They are doing a yagnam. So they will be giving a lot of prasaadam. Get food from then and we can all eat”. The kids went happily running to the group of brahmanas.

Time was only 11’o clock in the morning. The brahmanas told the kids in a strict voice “No. There is no prasaadam now. It will be distributed only in the evening at around 4:00 ‘o clock. You guys go, play and do not disturb us”. The kids came back in disappointment and reciprocated the message to Krishna. Krishna told them “Oh! Is that what it is? Okay. That is fine. We are yaachakaas (one who begs) now. We should not be ashamed to go to the next source. So we need to find a different source to get some food immediately”.

Krishna tells a story to kids: To illustrate the point that the yaachakaas should not be ashamed and should keep moving, there is a funny story that Krishna shared with the kids. Krishna went ahead and told, “In a village, there was a yaachaka who kept begging for food. Daily, he used to go to various houses and beg for food. In some houses he got food and in some others he did not. One fine day, he reached a particular house. He did not get much food that day. A lady came from that house and asked him “What do you want”. He replied “I want food”. The lady lied to him by saying “No. We don’t have any food in our house”. The yaachaka, in a menacing tone, said “Well. If you do not give me food, I will do what I did in the previous house’s lady. This lady got really afraid and went inside immediately and got him lots of delicious food. He ate away without leaving a trace of it. He became a regular customer at her place. The lady was not happy but did not have the guts to tell him not to come from now on. However, at the end of the month, the lady gathered all her courage and told “You have been regular to my house. I cannot give you any more food”. The yaachaka told her “If you do not give me food, then I will do what I did to the previous house’ lady. The lady was now bold enough to say “Okay. What will you do?” Let us see”. The yaachaka replied “I asked for food in the previous house. She did not give me anything. So I moved to your house. So if you do not offer me food, I will go to the next house” and proceeded to the next house quietly.

Kids continue yaachakam: Krishna remarked at the kids, “Oh my dear kids!!! So the moral of the story was that a yaachaka should never be ashamed and keep moving. Do not get bogged down because the brahmanas did not offer you any food. Go to their wives. They might give us some food. The kids went and told their wives that Krishna sent them and they need food. The kids also told them that the brahmanas did not give any food to them. The wives were quick to realize that everything starting from yagnam, the havis and the agni is Krishna. But their husbands did not give any food to Him. They immediately came up with lots of food from their respective houses. Krishna saw the wives coming with food for Him and the kids. Krishna is habituated to eating at regular intervals. He had very little breakfast in the morning that Yasodha had given Him and Balarama. Because He did not eat for a long time, He began to sweat a lot. When a person is in hunger, the thought that they are going to be fed soon exacerbates the wait. Krishna felt the same here. Soon, the wives arrived with the kids and Krishna distributed the food to all the kids. All rishipathnis attained moksha as a result of them giving food to Him.

Moral: When God Himself comes unto you, there is no need for rules. Azhwar says “Unnum soru, parugum neer, thinnum vetrilai, ellam kannan”. The food that he eats, the water that he drinks and betel leves that he enjoys, everything is Krishna with respect to azhwar. For gopika girls, everything was Krishna as well. They are so innocent that they don’t even know the difference between right hand and left hand. They don’t take bath daily; they don’t know shastram at all. But they don’t have the need to do because the motive of all these shahstrams is to reach GOD. If God himself makes HIM accessible, then there is no need for the rules. In other words, if we regard Krishna as everything, then HE comes to us, if HE comes to us on His will, there is nothing more that we need.