One time, there started an annual festival at Sri Gaudiya Math. Many preachers of exclusive genuine religion, exemplary sannyasis and brahmacharis came to the temple from all over India. Many invited respectable gentlemen and ladies also came to the festival, yearning to hear about the nectarean devotion to the Lord. Endlessly jubilant and endowed with sincere service mood, all selfless, pious servitors were ready to enrich everyone – the invited, the uninvited, devotees, non-devotees, materialists and strict renunciates who are averse to service – through Hari-kirtan (glorification of the Lord). There was Krishna-katha heard everywhere, and everyone’s hearts rejoiced and soared to hear narratives about Krishna, to hear songs extolling Krishna’s qualities resounding all around them. Even surprised passers-by, drawn by the festival, became stunned and forgot where they were going.

At this time, somebody had the guts to come to me and ask, ‘Hey, listen, when are they going to feed the poor here?’ What must I reply! Alas, hearing this question, I felt completely at a loss. I looked within my own heart and started to reason with it:

Listen, foolish mind! Let us face the truth: What kind of beggar are you? What do you lack? What do you want? Alas! You seem to only wish to gratify your material senses; you feel that you lack the capricious pleasures and happiness that your senses have a wayward, mischievous hunger for, and not being able to attain that sufficiently, you consider yourself a beggar! Is that not the truth? ‘When will they feed the poor? When can I enjoy various auspicious paraphernalia and first-class ingredients?’ This is all you are looking for! You have come to a tree with very ripe and beautiful juicy fruit, but you are searching for ripe amla [Indian gooseberry, which is very sour]! You know it. Your tongue is drawn to amla’s taste. You think that your hankering will be satisfied by that – you think the appetite you have lost because of sickness will come back, and as you eat amla, you will slowly recover, but you are wrong! You are making a great mistake! Do you not think that this unhealthy bitter juice of amla will only erode your teeth and you will become even sicker? You will not be able to get the taste of any other food – you will die! If, overcome by the desire to enjoy, you see maha-prasad as just some food meant to bring you enjoyment or happiness, then you will only get the result of eating! Foolish mind, your search for the end of your poverty is futile here! What you beg for is available even on the street – even animals enjoy that. Why do you need to come to the temple for that? O dear! Do the great servitors surrendered to Krishna call you to this temple, a great place of pilgrimage, invite you to this temple, to satisfy your material senses with material flavours? To feed her child the medicine that will cure the disease, a clever, loving mother will entice the child with a laddu (sweet ball), but is laddu the point? It is not, it really is not! The main substance is hidden within it! Here, too, at this holy abode of the Supreme Lord, at this greatest place of pilgrimage, the very gist of maha-prasad ‘food’ (bhojan) – the nectar from the holy mouth of Sri Gaura – is actually permeated by service (bhajan) to Mahaprabhu! This is the main thing for the entire world, the main necessity! So, I am telling you: come, dear mind, come! If you want to get benefit, come – come not as a beggar for food (bhojan), but come as a beggar for spiritual life in service to the Lord (bhajan) and roll at the holy feet of the supremely merciful devotees of the Lord, placing on your head their feet dust, the water that has washed their feet and the remnants of their food:

ভক্তপাদধূলি আর ভক্তপাদ-জল ।
ভক্তভুক্ত-শেষ তিন সাধনের বল ॥

bhakta-pada-dhuli ara bhakta-pada-jala
bhakta-bhukta-sesa—ei tina sadhanera bala

‘The dust from devotees’ feet, the water that has washed devotees’ feet and the remnants of devotees’ food – these three are the sole strength of one’s spiritual life.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.16.60)