Handful of Rice a day,keeps Poverty Away

[london swaminathan]

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Charity begins at home is a proverb with lot of different interpretations.

Kanchi Periyavar (Sri Chandra Sekaraendra Saraswathy Swamikal)
said several years ago A Handful of Rice a Day Keeps poverty Away and
asked us to put one Pidi Arisi everyday in a pot and take it to the temple
or home for the poor at the end of every month.
I dont know how many of us follow this today.

Living in London I follow a different technique and I wanted to share
it with you for the benefit of the general public.
I put two pound coins every day in the money box
in front of god in the prayer room. One pound for the community and
one pound for strictly religious. People in India also can do it by putting
some rupees every day and donate it to any good cause or temple.
I never preach unless I practise it.I have been doing it for the past five
years with great mental satisfaction.

I got this idea while I was talking to my friend
Mrs Daya Narayanan of London who said that she did Perumal Kalyanam
at Tirupati.When I was surprised and said to her that it would have cost
her a fortune she taught me the secret of daily saving. Ancient Indian sages
did fire ceremony (Havan or Yagna) by putting the essential ingredients in to fire
by saying "Idham na Mama"-It is not mine. So please do it for the people.
Not for personal demands from the God. Avvaiyar beautifully criticized such people
as Aravilai Vanikan-Doing business with god.

If you have any better method please let me know

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

Has the money collected and saved over the past years been given to any charity or religious purpose?

I have seen the animation movie UP where the couple save for a trip to the remote Angel falls.

Every time some emrgency expenses crop up and they break open the savings to meet it.

Finally after the wife dies the man flies away to the falls along with his house - carrried by a bunch of helium baloons.

Saving is one thing. Spending it as planned is quite another!

 

[london swaminathan]

Very Good Question.
I never spend it for my travel to holy places or boarding or lodging.
If it is the money allocated for religious purposes it goes to temple priests, temple money boxes or Veda Patasalas.

If it is from the other money box for secular purposes I give it to orphanages,hospices or some public causes. It is never spent for entertainment.

You are absolutely right in asking the question. Here in the western countries Charity Executives earn a big fat salary. They always travel in first class or business class. There are 6000 charities in UK alone.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

Living for charity, on charity and by charity??? :dizzy:

 

[B.Krishnamurthy]

I was in Rajahmundry,Andhra from 1970 to 1973.I observed that a prosperous business man living near my house was doing 'poor feeding' on a particular day every year.He used to erect a pandal in front of his house,employ cooks.Hundreds of poor people used to come.The serving of meals,taking used plaintain leaves,cleaning the area for the next batch used to be done by him and other family members.Poor feeding may start by 10am and will continue till 5pm.
In the year 2000,I happened to visit "Veda Bhavan" on the outskirts of Secunderabad on a 'Sankara Jayanthi" day.They give very good meals after the function by engaging reputed cooks.Most of the persons who attended the function seemed to be well to do people.I was wondering
how nice it would have been if they had offered some prasadams to the participants(as they do in Hanuman temple in Nanganallur,Chennai) and offer food to the
really needy poor people.
In USA,every temple has also attached kitchen,where food is available to the participants.I do not know whether they offer food to poor people.I saw lots of local poor people standing in ' Q' for food in front of 'Salvation Army' office.I was told that only the first hundred will get food and the others(including small kids) go without food.Cannot Indians managing the temples,Gurudwaras in different cities in USA assist the Salvation Army to feed all the poor people.
On 10 th November Annabhisekham was performed in all Shiva temples in Tamilnadu.In one temple in Tanjore district,75 bags of rice is cooked every year to cover the big Shivalinga.
I am curious to know when actually the cooked rice is taken out from the Temple premises and how utilised.

 

[Subhalakshmi]

Charity begins at home is a proverb with lot of different interpretations.

Kanchi Periyavar (Sri Chandra Sekaraendra Saraswathy Swamikal)
said several years ago A Handful of Rice a Day Keeps poverty Away and
asked us to put one Pidi Arisi everyday in a pot and take it to the temple
or home for the poor at the end of every month.
I dont know how many of us follow this today.

Living in London I follow a different technique and I wanted to share
it with you for the benefit of the general public.
I put two pound coins every day in the money box
in front of god in the prayer room. One pound for the community and
one pound for strictly religious. People in India also can do it by putting
some rupees every day and donate it to any good cause or temple.
I never preach unless I practise it.I have been doing it for the past five
years with great mental satisfaction.

I got this idea while I was talking to my friend
Mrs Daya Narayanan of London who said that she did Perumal Kalyanam
at Tirupati.When I was surprised and said to her that it would have cost
her a fortune she taught me the secret of daily saving. Ancient Indian sages
did fire ceremony (Havan or Yagna) by putting the essential ingredients in to fire
by saying "Idham na Mama"-It is not mine. So please do it for the people.
Not for personal demands from the God. Avvaiyar beautifully criticized such people
as Aravilai Vanikan-Doing business with god.

If you have any better method please let me know

that is great practice no doubt, I too put away some money and give it to the local temple, also take it to India and place it in the hundi, When someone very close to me passed away, I made sure that two days poor people in an orphanage were fed..

I like the idea of yours to put away two pounds, I will do it here in dollars.. Thanks for posting this

 

[sangom]

I was in Rajahmundry,Andhra from 1970 to 1973.I observed that a prosperous business man living near my house was doing 'poor feeding' on a particular day every year.He used to erect a pandal in front of his house,employ cooks.Hundreds of poor people used to come.The serving of meals,taking used plaintain leaves,cleaning the area for the next batch used to be done by him and other family members.Poor feeding may start by 10am and will continue till 5pm.
In the year 2000,I happened to visit "Veda Bhavan" on the outskirts of Secunderabad on a 'Sankara Jayanthi" day.They give very good meals after the function by engaging reputed cooks.Most of the persons who attended the function seemed to be well to do people.I was wondering
how nice it would have been if they had offered some prasadams to the participants(as they do in Hanuman temple in Nanganallur,Chennai) and offer food to the
really needy poor people.
In USA,every temple has also attached kitchen,where food is available to the participants.I do not know whether they offer food to poor people.I saw lots of local poor people standing in ' Q' for food in front of 'Salvation Army' office.I was told that only the first hundred will get food and the others(including small kids) go without food.Cannot Indians managing the temples,Gurudwaras in different cities in USA assist the Salvation Army to feed all the poor people.
On 10 th November Annabhisekham was performed in all Shiva temples in Tamilnadu.In one temple in Tanjore district,75 bags of rice is cooked every year to cover the big Shivalinga.
I am curious to know when actually the cooked rice is taken out from the Temple premises and how utilised.

Dear Shri Krishnamurthy,

What I write here may not be liked by some of our members but still I am convinced of the truth of my writing and so I am repeating what I referred to in a post some time ago.

You may also be knowing perhaps, that in the Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple (SPT) here in Trivandrum, brahmin feeding was practised right from the time the present regime was installed by Anizhzam Thirunal Marthandavarma around 1750 A.D. It went on for more than 200 years, till about 1950-51. The feast used to start by about 9 or 10 AM and go on uninterrupted till about sunset when the four praakaarams would be swept clean and lamps (oil lamps in the olden days) will be lighted as prelude to evening/night poojas. When I took meals on a few occasions during the last phase, the feast was confined to the east and north praakaarams only but even those two sides will easily accommodate about 800 to 1000 people in one panthi; and a new panthi every half an hour or 45 minutes will be there. The brahmin feeding was on really gigantic scale. My parents have told me that this used to be on all four praakaarams in the still olden days, so you may imagine the scale. And, the best part was that there was no restriction on reentry, so one could theoretically eat as many times as ir pleased him/her. The only restriction was that only brahmins were allowed, if anyone known to be from other caste/s, that person will be summarily and physically removed even mid-course and taken out of the temple by the special watch & ward staff of the temple. Namboodiris did not, as a matter of custom, come and eat in this annadaanam and so the field was open entirely to the tabras who lived in the four agrahaarams on four sides of the temple, and outlying agrahaarams like Puthen streets, the streets of Karamana (2 kms by walk), Chalai (1 km), etc.

The kitchen for preparing the items the very large vessels used, the design of the ovens (aDuppus) to carry so large vessels, etc., have to be seen to be believed!

But the net result was that the tabra population of Trivandrum became a lazy lot without any initiative or enterprise of their own. Lord Curzon, the then Viceroy, on his visit to Trivandrum reportedly talked about this feeding of lazy brahmin hordes, to the then king of Travancore Moolam Thirunal, who naturally got offended. Sir C.P. also is generally spoken of here as having had a very poor opinion of this unwanted feeding and consequently, of the Trivandrum tabras.

What I am trying to say is that free meals attracts சோம்பேறிs and nurtures them. Hence, everyone doing annadaanam should also have a minimum vetting programme to see that only the genuinely eligible -i.e., disabled, old and weak, unfit to do physical work etc., people are so fed on a continuous basis.

 

[london swaminathan]

REASON FOR ANNADHANAM

Dear Kunjippu and Krishnamurthy,

Both of you are right. Free meals attract "Somberis"/ lazy people is true. Here in London one of the temples in East London gave a full course meal in the afternoon after Deeparadhana. All thee doctor students from India who came here to write PLAB exam stood in long queue just for the meals.Many of them from other religions did not even enter the temple. Then the authorities changed the system. But all the Sikh Gurudwaras in London have a Langar system and anyone can walk in and eat.Now the doctors from India are going there for mid day meals.(I must not all the doctors are doing it)

Mr Krishnamurthy is also right in supporting the ANNADHANA system.Kanchi Mahaswamikal gave an excellent speech about seven philanthropists. The article appeared in Kalki Deepavali Malar 25 years or 30 years ago. If I remember correct he was talking about Annadhana Sivan. Swamikal also raised this issue of Somberis eating in such events. Knowing this very well our forefathers did this because among the thousand unwanted guests even if one pure soul is there and blesses everyone after eating that will bring Koti punyam for everyone. This moving story about seven great men appeared in later parts of Deivathin Kural (there are seven parts in Tamil).

Ultimately the more we spread the true principles of Hinduism more good things will happen. Take anything .There is good and bad.If it is a knife it can be used for chopping vegetables or stabbing people. So no one can blame the knife.Annadahanam in temples is good.Hindus/people's approach is wrong.